How to Weave a Belt Loom Belt

The belt loom is a simple tool that is capable of creating sophisticated textiles.

The belt loom of the American Southwest, used by the Hopi and other Native American groups, is a simple loom that you can make yourself. It was traditionally used to weave 8-foot long belts that were about 4 to 5 inches wide. Some of these belts are elaborately patterned using pick-up techniques, but a simple striped belt is a good first project for this loom. It can be warped and woven on the same frame.

Things You'll Need

• Two 6-foot long logs or 2-by-4-inch pieces of wood
• Four nails at least 2 inches long
• Nylon cord
• Two smooth round sticks or dowels, 3/4 inch in diameter and 18 inches long
• Three sticks or dowels about 1/4 inch in diameter and 10 inches long
• Batten
• Yarn
• Stick or belt shuttle

Instructions

1. Lay the two 6-foot pieces on the floor. Lash the two 18-inch dowels perpendicular to the larger pieces to form a large rectangle. The dowel pieces should be as far apart as half the length of the belt; for example, if the belt will be 6 feet long, the dowel pieces should be 3 feet apart. Hammer the nails through the lashings and the dowels into the large 6-foot pieces to stabilize the joint. This is your warping and weaving frame.

2. Lean your frame up against the wall. Take the end of the ball of yarn and tie it to the bottom dowel. (This is a temporary knot.) Take the yarn up to the top bar and then back down. This is one "end." Keep going around and around in this manner until you have approximately 80 to 90 ends. You can tie on new colors as you go at the bottom. Cut the yarn. Untie the temporary knot and tie the first end to the last end, so that you have a continuous warp that can rotate around the bars as you weave.

3. Take one of the 10-inch small dowels and thread it under every other top warp thread. This is the shed stick. Tie a string around one end of the shed stick, take it across to the other end of the stick, and tie the string around that end. This is to keep the shed stick from falling out of the shed.

4. Insert another 10-inch dowel under all the alternate threads that you didn't pick up for the shed stick. (This is a temporary, holding stick.) Put a ball of string on your right. Pull some yarn off this ball through the shed you made with the second dowel. Tie the end of the string to another dowel in your left hand. (This will become the heddle stick.) Pull a loop of this string up between the first and second warp threads on top of the dowel. Place this loop on the heddle stick. Pull up another loop between the second and third warps on top of the dowel. Put it on the heddle stick also. Continue across the warp until you have attached all the top warp threads to the heddle stick. Tie the end of the string to the heddle stick. Bring the string back across all the heddles and around the heddles a couple of times to secure them in a bundle, and tie the end to the heddle stick. Remove the temporary stick. Now you have both a stick shed and a heddle shed.

5. Wind the weft onto a stick shuttle. Bring the shed stick down to meet the heddle stick about 12 inches from the bottom of the loom. Insert the batten into the shed and turn it on its side. This forms the stick shed. Insert the weft in this shed, leaving a 10-inch tail on the right.

6. Remove the batten and push the shed stick up. Pull the heddle stick forward and insert the batten into the shed under the heddles. Turn the batten on its side and bring the shuttle back across the warp. This is the pull shed. Change to the stick shed again, and beat the last pick of weft in before inserting the new pick. Change to the pull shed, beat, and insert the weft. Continue in this manner until you need to rotate the warp.

7. Pull on the warp to rotate it down and around the dowels. Continue weaving until about 12 inches are left before the knots. The extra yarn at each end is for the fringe. Cut the weaving off below and above the knots. Braid the fringe to keep it neat and knot the ends.

Tips & Warnings

• Hold the weft thread at the selvedge as you pull it across in the shed, to keep it from pulling the edges in too much. Try to keep the edges even in this manner. Experiment with stripes in the warp and creating pick-up patterns.

References

• "The Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing Book"; Rachel Brown; 1983