DIY Woven Clutch

The subtitle to this post is “My Cutest Fail”.  I’ve been wanting for a long time to try weaving.  I finally bit the bullet and bought a loom.

DIY Woven Clutch (1)

I found the pattern for this adorable clutch in Joann’s project listing, here,  and I thought it would be fun to make.

Loom Woven Simple Clutch

 

It was fun, in an extremely frustrating way.  I’ve never woven anything before.  Okay, maybe a place mat out of construction paper at some point, but nothing since kindergarten.  This was probably not the best project to start with.  I ripped it out more than once and started over.  There are countless strands of thread to fight with.  I forgot the basic concept of “over under, then under over on the next row” several times.  SEVERAL!  I wish I had started with something simpler for practice and then given this a go because in the end, while it’s sort of cute, it’s obviously not as perfect as the finished product from Joann’s website.  I used a lot of very pretty thread that got so tangled it is basically destroyed.  I plan to give this to my precious daughter who will never know the difference. (Just kidding, she would totally know the difference, plus she reads this, so I’m not fooling anyone).

I do have some tips for you that you might find helpful.

1.  Never weave in the dark.  You need really good light to manage all of that up and under.

2.  Over under for one row, under over for the next!  I should have paid someone to taser me every time I messed that up.

3.  Don’t ever let the thread fall off the hook!

4.  Watch a youtube video on weaving.  Seriously.  I worked from the instructions from Joann’s and the instructions from my loom kit and they were lacking (full review of the loom kit to come! I need to work with it more).

5.  Be prepared that a project like this will take several hours over several days. Or maybe that’s just me.  A crafty person could probably whip this out in 45 minutes.

I did enjoy the meditative quality of the repetitive work.  At least until I made a mistake and then I wasn’t feeling so zen.  And I really do love the overall look of the bag.  The colors are great. I like pattern and the texture.  I’m not really sure how practical a woven bag is, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for more weaving projects and I will share them, success or fail.

PS – It just dawned on me, if you are a weaver, please pass on tips or a great tutorial!  I’m mostly wondering how on earth you get the ends neat.  Mine are a mess, obviously.

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