Congratulations on completing your weave! Now it’s time to finish it. Depending on which frame loom (a simple frame or a notched frame) you used to create your weave on will affect how you finish your weave.
**As an update, I have made a post on finishing your weave with a hem stitch, which gives it a cleaner finish (in my opinion). So check out both finishing techniques and choose which one works best for you.**
Start by taking a tapestry needle and weave in all your loose threads in the back of your weave. If you have different colored threads in your weave make sure that your weaving the loose colors in with the same colored woven area, this is to ensure that colors don’t show through the front of your weave. I also make sure to flip my weave over as I go to make sure that I haven’t caused issues in the front of my weave. For example, if you pull the thread ends too tight in the back, you may cause an unwanted bump in the front.
To finish on a simple frame loom, cut the warp threads off the top of the frame, tie the two warp threads together, then weave the ends in through the back of your weave. If you don’t want to finish your weave by tying off your warp ends, see my post on finishing with the hem stitch.
Once finished with the top warp, do the same with the bottom warp threads.
Next trim the long tails of the warp threads you wove through the back of your weave.
Now take some warp thread or yarn, and tie it securely to the warp thread in your weave, loop it around your rod or stick that you will mount your weave from. (If you need help deciding what to hang your weave from, check out my post with some different options here)
Bring the warp thread back through the top of your weave at the warp thread, about three spaces over. Continue with this process until you reach the end of the weave and tie off the warp thread in a secure double knot.
Now that your weave is attached to a hanging rod or stick, take another piece of warp thread making sure it is long enough to hang your weave. A good estimate of the length would be about twice the width of your weave. Tie this piece of warp thread securely at both ends of your rod or stick.
To finish on a peg loom, take the top warp loops off the pegs/front notches and put the dowel or metal rod that you will hang the weave through the loops. You could also use a natural branch to hang your weave from if you prefer, as long as what you use is a few inches wider then your weave. For the bottom warp loops, follow the same steps you would for the simple frame loom (above).
You have now completed your wall hanging!
What do you think of your completed weave? Was it easier or harder then you thought it would be? I would love to see your completed projects, if you’re on Instagram, please tag me @theweavingloom.
Happy Weaving!
Kate
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Maria
November 26, 2015 at 9:41 amHi.. it’s me again. I am really, really stuck on how I would finish off my weave. Im about 1/3 of the way through but dreading the end. I have a few threads sticking out of the sides (where I started off, then another one further up where I started off again) how am I to merge those in? And I’m so confused how I would take it ‘off’ the loom, I’m using one of those wooden simple looms, like this one
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/51/06/06/51060600186d7ec1be5af709cb37845f.jpg
I’m sorry for going on, I am terrified that when I take it off at the top, it’ll unravel or something. And how do I take it off at the bottom? I made tassels at the bottom, will it be ok? I wish I could explain it better 🙁
Kate
November 26, 2015 at 8:11 pmHi Maria, I totally understand it can be very intimidating in the beginning. For the yarn tails that you have sticking out along your weave, all you need to do is ‘weave’ them into the back of your piece. The second picture that I posted here is showing what I’m talking about. I have a yarn tail on the side of my weave and I’m using my tapestry needle to pull the yarn tail through two “stitches” on the back of the weave. Once I pull the yarn tail through these two then I trim it and just leave it like that.
To finish your piece, I’ll start with the top. If you do something similar to what I did in this post then you would lay the loom on a flat surface and cut the warp threads at the top so that you have 2-3 inches of warp thread coming out of your piece. You would then tie it off, like I show in the post, and weave it through the back side just like you did with the yarn tails. You would then sew the weave to a rod to hang it as I did in this post.
But if you weave all the way to the top of the loom and leave about 1 inch of warp threads, you could simply slip the ward threads off the loom notches and then use the warp loops to hang your wall hanging from a rod. All you would do is simply pass the rod through the loops.
To finish the bottom. I have seen many weavers put rya knots at the bottom of their weave and then when they take it off the notched loom, they just let the rya knots fall into those bottom warp loops. I haven’t done this myself, but I’ve seen it work for many weavers. My only warning would be that if your notches are really long, then it might be too loose once the rya knots fall down into the loops at the bottom. I can’t really tell from the picture you sent if this would be a problem for you or not, so unfortunately you would have to test it out. If it does work, then this is a great time saving when it comes to finishing your weave.
If you didn’t want to just let your rya knots fall down then you could move your weave up 2-3 inches on the warp threads and later cut the weave off the loom and finish the weave off in the same way that I described for the top. If you were thinking of doing this, I do recommend putting 2-3 rows of plain weave under your rya knots to lock them in and give you an easier way to weave in your warp threads to the back of the weave.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.
Maria
November 27, 2015 at 9:15 amKate, you’re the best! Thank you so much for your help, I’m now totally confident that I can do this!
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 🙂
Penny
August 20, 2016 at 9:52 amwhat about when you are weaving several items together? I am currently finishing 4 placemats and am uncertain how to go about separating them.
Kate
August 23, 2016 at 2:01 pmThat is a great question! I haven’t tried this myself yet, but plan to in the future. I would start by looking up ways of joining knits and crocheted pieces, because I assume the joining of woven pieces would be similar, but again I haven’t personally tried yet. I hope that helps!