4.3 Weaving cloth

TECHNOLOGY

Grade 5

PROCESSING MATERIALS

Module 15

WEAVING CLOTH

HOW DO WE WEAVE CLOTH?

This is done on a weaving frame. A set of threads (the warp) is stretched lengthwise on the frame and alternate threads are raised or depressed while a crossways thread (the weft) is passed between the raised or depressed threads and those that are kept in position.

Early inhabitants of our country wove mats of which they used as sleeping mats or as matting to cover their dwellings.

Assignment 1

Research

To the Educator:

Invite someone who is skilled in weaving reed mats to demonstrate the process to the learners. Ask each learner to make a donation towards remunerating your guest for the trouble he / she has taken.

[LO 3.1]

Assignment 2

Context

Imagine that you are part of a needy family. As both of your parents work hard to keep you at school, you feel that you would like to help them by making something for them.

Problem

Your mother complains about the mud that is brought into the house by your father and the children in the family because there is no doormat. You decide to weave a mat.

Limitations

You have a limited length of thread to use for the warp (lengthways threads), a grape box to use as a weaving frame and no yarn to use as weft (the treads that are passed from side to side through the warp threads). Plastic bags, however, are plentiful and easily obtainable.

[LO 1.4]

Assignment 3

Design

Plastic bags as option:

Collect as many plastic shopping bags as possible and sort them according to size. Prepare them for use by cutting off the handles and then cutting them in the round into 3cm-wide strips. Roll up the strips in the shape of a round ball.

What other material could be used as weft? List all the possibilities (remember that you do not have any money to buy expensive material).

[LO 1.5]

Choose any of the above-mentioned possibilities and explain your choice.

[LO 1.6]

Manufacturing

Prepare the grape box by cutting notches 1 cm apart along the broad sides of the box. Stretch the warp threads by winding the thread around the grape box, fitting it into the notches. Secure the beginning and the end of the thread firmly.

Plastic bags as option

Cut a “shuttle” from a firm piece of cardboard and wind the plastic strip from one shopping bag around it. This will make passing the weft through the warp much easier.

Begin weaving by passing the shuttle through the warp threads from the one side of the box to the other, but be sure to attach the loose end of the weft to the warp at the corner where you start and weave it in. When you weave, the shuttle must pass over and under consecutive warp threads until you reach the opposite side of the warp. When you weave the second row you must alternate the threads; where you have passed over a warp thread in the previous row, you must pass under it in the present row.

Be careful to avoid pulling hard on the plastic strip – it might break, or your weaving will not be straight-edged.

Continue weaving the shuttle through the warp threads until you come to the end of the strip of plastic, then wind the next strip of plastic around the shuttle and continue weaving from where you stopped.