My new vest is finished! In the photo I am wearing my new homegrown, handspun, handwoven, naturally-colored cotton vest. It has been a long time in coming. Growing the cotton and sewing the vest are skills and knowledge I already had. The spinning and weaving were things I needed to learn.
In February 2013 I wrote of my cotton spinning journey in my blog post Grow and Spin Cotton. I’ll repeat the photo here of my Nankeen Brown cotton, Erlene’s Green cotton, and takli spindle. All the fiber for the vest was spun on that spindle. Since cotton has such a short fiber length, it is helpful to use a support spindle, which is what a takli is. A small bowl supports the bottom of the spindle while it spins. Once the cotton was spun into singles I plied two singles into 2-ply yarn, which is what I used to weave with. The plying was done on a drop spindle that I made from a dowel and a small wooden wheel.
Joining Clothos Handspinners has been an important part of this fiber adventure. I learn so much from attending the meetings and interacting with the members. Every two years the group holds a swap meet which is an opportunity for members to sell extra equipment, fiber, and books and for others (like me) to acquire it. Some of that trading also goes on informally at the regular meetings. The swap meet was where I bought my loom. Then I had to learn to use it. This vest has not been an easy project. The loom is 12” wide, but my resulting fabric was only 9½” wide. I made a pattern from the quilted vest I wear, and from that, designed a pattern that used 9½” wide fabric. Since 9½” is not wide enough for a full front or back panel, there are side panels that make up the difference.
I used brown for the warp and green for the weft. As you can see, the weft is dominant in the weaving. I grew both colors in the garden and, although they were a good distance apart, there was some crossing. I didn’t notice green in with the brown, but there would be some brown in with the green. Maybe brown is the dominant color when it comes to genetics. When I was spinning I didn’t separate the off-color fibers, so there was some brown spun with the green, just as it was harvested. The fiber from the green cotton plants also had bits of white. It made for a pleasant variation in color in the finished fabric. Although I did do some carding, mostly I spun the fiber right off the seed.
As noted in my 2013 blog post, my 2012 yield (fiber only, no seeds) was .75 lb (green) to 1 lb. (brown) fiber per 100 sq. ft. The weight of my vest is 11.5 oz. (.72 lb.) including lining and buttons. Frequently people assume I would have had to grow cotton on a larger scale to produce an item of clothing, but this can be done in a garden. I used cotton osnaburg fabric for the lining—a piece I had left from a previous project. Osnaburg has an earthy appearance and seemed right for the vest. Besides, I already had it.
Although I usually don’t button my vests closed, I wanted to have buttons and I wanted them to be special. My first thought was to make wooden buttons, but then I remembered the jar of shells our children picked up at the beach many years ago. I used small vice grips to nip the edges of a shell off—going round and round until it was the size I wanted for a button. Then I drilled two ⅟₁₆” holes in each button. I didn’t want to put buttonholes in my new fabric so I made loops by braiding my brown cotton yarn to close the vest, if I should want to. This was my first time making buttons from shells and I am pleased with the results. In the photo you can see a bit of the osnaburg lining.
Now that I know how to spin and weave, the possibilities for unique yarns and fabrics are endless. I will be learning about natural dyes and eventually learn to spin wool and to use a wheel. When I was at the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville, NC in April I bought a book charka from Eileen Hallman at New World Textiles, but I haven’t used it yet so as not to distract me from finishing the vest. Once I learn how to use it, the charka will speed up my cotton spinning. For this vest I wanted to use the least technology that I could, not only because it was the least expensive way to go (which was a consideration), but because I wanted to relate to how people down through the ages worked with fiber to clothe themselves. I’m sure in some places people still depend on these methods and, you can be sure, I kept them in my heart while I worked.
When I first grew cotton I had no idea what to do with it and put it away in a box for at least ten years. It has taken some effort to learn to spin and to get to the point of making a vest with my homegrown cotton. I might have finished the vest earlier if I wasn’t sidetracked writing two books during that time. You might not be into growing and spinning your own cotton, but there is probably some other adventure that has been rolling around in your head for awhile—maybe even ten years or more. I want to encourage you to go for it. If I can learn to do this, you can learn new tricks, too.
I’ll be wearing my new vest at upcoming events this year, which are listed here. First up is the Slow Living Summit in Brattleboro, Vermont on June 3-5. See you there!
Really handsome! Gives you new respect for those people that have to produce all their own clothes, doesn’t it? I enjoyed your book that I won at the Mother Earth News Fair and enjoy reading in your blog about all your efforts to be self sustaining in a way that I’d like be but is not realistic in my circumstances. I use what I can though, and am grateful for your example.
Dorothy, Yes, it does give you a new appreciation for things when you complete a project like this. It was good meeting you in Asheville. I’m happy I can share my work with you and that you find it helpful.
Congratulations, Cindy! I look forward to seeing your vest. September at the Heritage Harvest Festival?
Thanks Pam! I’ll be at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello and will be wearing the vest.
Cindy – You are such an inspiration!! I learned to spin after being gifted with 8# of raw Alpaca fiber. It was great fun. Now after being gifted with a floor loam, I guess I better learned more than table top weaving (placemats). Whoever thought of growing your own cotton for fiber? Guess what my garden will have next year?! 😊
Blessings and Joy Cindy!
Thank you!
Sue Geier
Sue, make your own homegrown, handspun vest and maybe we can get a fashion show going.
Pam, The vest looks great! You should feel great pride when wearing it. Not many people have those type of skills today. I look forward to each of your post. Keep up the good work!
It turned out great but I can’t believe that you didn’t incorporate the fringe!
Yeah, the idea of leaving the warp ends on the bottom as fringe, since Joel Salatin told me I was part of the Lunatic Fringe for doing this, sounded interesting. I thought about it,but I’m not really a fan of fringe.
Beautiful. Great skills to have. I hope to see more in the future.
Jo, I don’t know what the future holds, but there is always something interesting to do.
Love the vest, and the buttons! I will never look at sea shells the same again, some of the throwbacks will become keepers, with buttons in mind.
Marian, I feel the same about the shells. It just came to me the day I had to do the buttons
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