Miniature Overshot Pouch
After weaving the project samples for my book, I had a bit of an 8/4 cotton warp remaining on the loom. I perused my stack of Handwoven magazines and saved project files for some inspiration and decided upon weaving a little overshot on this remnant.
For the Weavers - Overshot is a block weave that alternates pattern picks with tabby (plainweave) picks creating curved and circular motifs.
For the Non-Weavers - Overshot is a weaving technique. If you are familiar with Colonial coverlets, they were traditionally woven in overshot patterns. Here is a link with great photos Woven American Coverlets.
Unlike Krokbragd, a wealth of information exists on how to weave overshot. Just about any weaving book will contain at least a chapter on the topic, as well as there are videos, articles and countless published drafts.
Here is a link to a Pinterest Board that has many examples of both overshot drafts and woven projects . . . . and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve created a PDF with lots of great resources for exploring overshot. Click on the button below to view and/or download it.
Back to my little overshot project, I found my inspiration in the November/December 2017 issue of Handwoven in an article by Inga Marie Carmel entitled ‘Exploring Overshot’. The author chose a draft called Blossom, a Bertha Gray Hayes miniature overshot pattern.
Bertha Gray Hayes was an early 20th century weaver known for her miniature overshot and name draft designs. Miniature overshot pares down an established overshot pattern to its bare minimum while still maintaining the integrity of the pattern’s character. For more on the subject, check out Weaving Designs By Bertha Gray Hayes: Miniature Overshot Patterns by Norma Smayda, Gretchen White, Jody Brown, and Katharine Schelleng.
In Ms. Carmel’s sampler, she explored six different treadlings of the Blossom pattern. Since I had a much smaller warp, I had to do a bit of reworking in Weaveit (the weaving software program I use). I was only able to weave three of the six variations; the star and rose which are two of the basic overshot treadlings, and a variation referred to as “in the Scandinavian manner”.
Typical of overshot samplers and coverlets, the motifs are framed by a complementary border. If you compare my left selvedge with the right, you will notice that I did not quite work out the correct border. Although I’m not keen to sample, this certainly is a good example where sampling would be beneficial before committing to weaving the edited draft on a much larger project.
An interesting feature of overshot is that the reverse side is generally also equally attractive. I actually chose this reverse side as the “front” of my project.
As I said at the beginning of the post, the warp is 8/4 cotton, as is the tabby weft. The pattern weft is Borg’s 6/2 Tuna wool in the color Denim. I had to add a couple of ends to my warp for a total of 107 ends at 15 EPI (sleyed 2-1 in 10-dent reed). I used my typical method of throwing a few picks of fusible thread (see this post) as I planned to do a hemmed finish. In the end, I hemmed just one end and left the other to fringe. I wet finished the little piece of fabric and when it was almost dry, gave it a hard press.
To make my mini pouch, I folded the fabric and whipstitched the sides (no turned seam). I didn’t like the fringe, so I trimmed close to the fused thread and the cotton fuzzed into a cute edge. The finished size is 6 1/4” x 4 1/2” (folded); the perfect size for my reading glasses or phone. See that little button . . .
. . . it’s actually a fabric covered brad I found in my scrapbooking stash! You could add a snap or a magnetic closure if you wanted something more secure.
