This coat will appear in Handwoven Magazine Jan/Feb 2023 edition as a Stepping Up feature.

SoCal Fibershed Slow and Local team:
Spinners: Patricia, Joyce, Liz and Margeret
Weaver: Stacy
Designer and Sewist: Mary Saxton

Our team created this coat for our SoCal Slow and Local 2021 Fibershed Challenge and for the San Diego Creative Weaver’s Guild’s 75th Anniversary gallery exhibit and silent auction. We began this project in February 2021, and finished the coat in August 2021. We spun local Romney, llama and merino wool into a 2-ply yarn averaging 18 wraps per inch. The yarn was woven into a plain weave fabric, and sewn into the coat.

Designed and sewn by Mary Saxton, the knee-length coat has striping details, full length sleeves, Hong Kong finish with cotton fabric, woven cotton interfacing around the front, neck and shoulders, and a rolled collar. Button is a piece of moose antler.

Project Notes
Total White 2-ply Romney 1427g, 2727 yds, 872ypp
Total Black 2-ply llama 562g, 1196 yds, 450ypp

I washed the Romney yarn in warm water, 1tsp Orvis paste to 3 gal water. Rinse, then soak in StaFlo starch (half the light recipe - 1.5cups to 3 gal warm water.)

Romney sample:
192 ends on table loom
12 epi
Sample measures 9 3/8” wide, 13 1/4” long off loom
After wet finishing, 12 7/8” long x 8.5” wide.
11% shrinkage in width, barely 1% shrinkage in length.

Fabric:
plain weave, straight draw threading across 8 shafts

Warp - 2525 yards of 2-ply Romney (white) and 1107 yards of 2-ply llama (black) in Fibonnanci stripes (2 1/2” wide stripe in center). 551 ends at 12 epi, 45.9” wide (plus selvedges) in 12-dent reed. 24 ends white between each stripe. 5.75 yards on the loom. Threaded 5 ends of 5/2 cotton on selvedges.

Weft - 2-ply white Merino, 3185 yards (2706 yards used)

Finished size: 5.5 yards, 41” wide. 15% shrinkage. Knotted fringe.
Loom waste: 27”

Notes from the weaver: this was a sticky warp. The sizing soak was not strong enough, so I sprayed it with Faultless Magic Size while on the loom. The Romney was much more stretchy than the llama, which caused tension problems. It was difficult to get a good shed. After the first yard, I placed a wide stick through the looser threads at the back beam to help keep more tension on the Romney. While this did work, I had many skips to repair when finishing!
Finishing the fabric was a challenge. We debated whether to wash and size the handspun warp yarn before weaving or not. We had different advice from different weavers experienced with handspun. I did lightly wash and size the Romney yarn before weaving. Upon reflection, I could have just soaked the yarn in a heavier sizing.
I soaked the woven yardage in a bathtub of hot tap water and Dawn dish soap. I gently agitated the yardage to slightly full the fabric. One yard at the end of the fabric had merino weft that had been spun slightly thinner than the rest, so I specifically agitated that yard to full it a bit more than the rest. This worked pretty well. Rinsed in same temperature hot water. I tied both fringe ends together to make one continuous circle of fabric and hung the fabric on a closet rod on my back patio. It took a hot summer day to dry. I repaired the skips while the fabric was hanging; it was easy to see the skips with the sun shining through the fabric.
I pressed the fabric with a hot steam iron three times on each side. I laid a sheet on my dining room table for this purpose. (It did raise the grain of my wooden table…whoops! Nothing a little sandpaper and polyurethane won’t fix.) The sewist also pressed the fabric while sewing.

We tried to keep to the Fibershed guidelines, but had to use commercially woven cotton for facings on the garment.