Interactive Activity: Tape loom

Tool Demonstration: Weaving a Tape

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Transcript of movie: Here I'm using a tape loom. Tape is a thin strip of woven cloth that could be made of wool or linen. What I'm using here is linen. Tape is used for hat bands, garters for holding up stockings, shoulder straps for bags, apron strings, things like that. The "warp" are the threads that run the length of the piece. They're attached in front of me here onto a stick and there's a band that goes around my back that holds the stick in place. Then the threads are passed through alternating slots and holes in the loom that are then gathered together and tied to something such as a door handle. So that when I lean back a bit I can get the tension I need to weave. I hold the loom in a rest position between my knees. When I raise it, half of the threads go up creating a "shed" and I can pass the "shuttle" which has the "weft" threads wrapped around it, through that shed. When I lower the loom, the threads switch places, that locks in the row just done, and I can pass the shuttle back the other way. I can also use the shuttle for beating in the row close to the rows I just did.