What do I do with all those yards of woven tapes and woven bands?

I started weaving about 15 years ago on Nathaniel and Olive Birges' tape loom that they left in my attic in the 1800s.  I was going to re-enactments and the Storrowton Village at Eastern States Exposition in Massachusetts.  I made plain bands to use as ties for my hats.

While in Minnesota this February, I made yards of tape with the intention of making some apron ties for this years exhibits and shows.

Two waist aprons have the Scandinavian style trim on the bottom and around the waist to be tied behind my skirt.  I looked into my stash and found a large spool of linen/cotton yarn I purchased at Webs a few years ago for making socks on my sock machine.  It turned out to be a little thin and also the uneven lumpy yarn did not work well with the machines tiny needles.  This yarn takes commercial dyes well and so I have dyed some and woven these lovely simple stripe weaves.

The bleached linen apron is just a rectangle of cloth, gathered just above the bust, tape added for tie and straps and hooked in the back. These bands make a colorful and extremely strong addition to a plain apron.

The simple bands shown are set up on the tape loom as a simple stripe pattern. With only 2 sheds, the slot threads and the hole threads, many patterns can be made just by the simple placements of the colors.

And the plaid apron fabrics are cut from the back of a man's 2x large shirt!  Check out thrift stores or your husbands closet. They are great patterns, usually woven colors, not printed, and save the sleeves and fronts for a patchwork plaid quilt.  Some are light weight, some are heavy, most are permanent press.

Their is a museum in Norway that has some lovely old aprons on their web site that I have mentioned before, the Digitalt Museum.  Lovely clothing that gives us an excuse to get out the tape loom!  Below are two of the aprons on their web site.

Don't have a tape loom yet or don't know how to use one? Every day more and more folks are finding these lovely old antique looms used by our foremothers,  are still a valuable way to weave decorations or bands for today's history events or modern clothing.  Check out my other blogs with the search button above for "tape looms". Or visit my web page www.eastknollpottery.com, facebook page, tape loom weaving  or Amazon.com for my book, Tape Loom Weaving... simplified.

Think about it, do you too have a stash of yarns that would make great ties, trims or decorations?