How to Weave a Doll

You can weave a Chancay doll on a floor loom or a backstrap loom.

The ancient culture of the Chancay on the coast of Peru had a tradition of making handwoven dolls, which were placed in tombs of the nobility. These dolls were preserved for a thousand years because of the desert climate north of present-day Lima. Tourists sometimes buy replicas of these dolls, dressed in remnants of ancient fabric. You can make a replica of a Chancay doll on a loom, even if you don't have a floor loom; just use a backstrap loom or even an inkle belt loom.

Things You'll Need

• Loom
• Cotton yarn
• Belt shuttle
• Cotton or wool fiber for stuffing
• Sewing machine or needle and thread
• Embroidery thread

Instructions

1. Wind a warp 3 yards long and 8 inches wide, using the appropriate sett for your cotton yarn. Make a cross at one end and tie off the warp at intervals. Remove the warp from the warping board and bring it to the loom.

2. Pre-sley the warp in the reed. Place the reed in the beater and wind it onto the back beam, using sticks or paper to space the layers of warp. Cut the front of the warp and remove the beater and reed. Thread the loom to a straight draft.

3. Put the reed back in the beater and sley the warp again to the correct sett. Tie the front of the warp to the apron rod. Beat in a few picks of rag weft. Begin weaving with the same yarn you used as warp. Weave 12 inches, put more rag wefts in between dolls and then weave another rectangle 12 inches long. You can put in tapestry-woven features in the faces of the dolls if you like, or embroider them later.The face is the left half of the upper 4 inches of the rectangle.

4. Cut the fabric off the loom and cut the rectangles apart. Zig-zag the fells of each rectangle to stabilize the weft. Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise so that the doll is a tube with the face at the top. Mark the "legs" of the doll with a washable marker by making a line from the center bottom of the body, up toward the head about 5 inches. Make this line on the front and back of the body. Zig-zag around these lines, then cut the line.

5. Sew the doll together, right sides together. First sew around the legs. Then sew the top of the head and down the side of the head. Leave the body open for now. Turn the doll right side out. Stuff the doll with cotton or wool fiber. Sew the opening on the side of the body closed. Embroider the face if you did not weave the features on the doll. Wrap a string around the "neck" of the doll and tighten it to form the neck. Tie the string in the back of the neck.

Tips & Warnings

• Chancay dolls had arms made out of sticks wrapped with yarn. You can use small twigs and insert them into the doll's body on its sides; then wrap the sticks with yarn.

• Chancay dolls also had finely woven clothes. You can use scraps of handwoven samples to make clothes for the dolls.

References

• Backstrap Weaving; Balanced Weave, Double Weave and Balanced Double Weave; Waddington; 2010
• Science Buzz: Chancay Dolls
• Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection; Peruvian Dolls, a Bridge Between the Past and Present; Ordon; 2011