Things You'll Need:
- Wooden boards
- Saw
- Hammer
- Nails
- Yarn, string or rags (for weaving)
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Step 1
Decide on the size of your loom. Your weaving pieces will be smaller than the loom (unless you decide to sew multiple pieces together). So, for example, if you want to make place mats, the loom should be several inches larger than a place mat in both directions.
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Step 2
Cut your boards. Cut two boards to the length you want, and two boards to the width.
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Step 3
Nail the boards into a rectangle shape (the thinnest dimension of the boards should form the rectangle). Using the corner of a floor as a brace can make this process easier. Place your longest board horizontally flat against one wall and abutting the other wall. Put one end of a shorter board across the exposed end of the first board, and carefully nail in at least two places.
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Step 4
Repeat the nailing process for each corner of the rectangle.
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Step 5
Hammer a lot of nails about half way in along the top and bottom edges of the rectangle. Start and end each row about an inch from the corner. Place the nails quite close together, but make sure that you can pass a string between them.
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Step 6
Prepare the loom by tying a long piece of string or yarn to the first nail on the top. Wrap the string around the first nail on the bottom, then the second nail on the top, then the second nail on the bottom, and so on, continuing across the entire loom. Tie the string off at the last nail.
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Step 7
Use the loom by having the child weave string, yarn, or strips of rags between these strings horizontally. Gently push the weaving up after each row so that it doesn't become too loose. When it's finished, tie off any loose ends in the weaving and cut the strings near the nails. Tie these strings together in pairs, near the weaving, and trim off the excess unless you want to leave it as fringe.
