Kids Weaving for Nursery Room

This tutorial is covering some basic steps for making a cute handwoven wall hanging

Hello, my friend!

First of all, I can’t be more happy to see how weaving community is growing day-by-day, thanks for your interest and willingness to learn something new in this amazing craft. This tutorial will cover steps of making cute animal, which can be a beautiful nursery decoration or a perfect babyshower gift for your friends and relatives. We will be using the following techniques: plain (basic) weave and tassels.

You can choose ANY colors, yarns and accessories, this is a very creative project! I will show examples of my works in this tutorial so you could get some ideas and inspiration. You can think of a bear, fox, cat, dog, squirrel, racoon, panda and many other cute animals… But for now, let’s start to weave!

- Try to choose the warp color similar to animal’s body color. I am using white cotton thread for the white belly. I haven’t decided who is my future animal, maybe a small greyish mouse with light beige/white belly

- Before making tassels* it is better to weave few rows in plain weave technique** (it will be easier later to finish off your weave).

*Tassels or Rya knot - this is the process of placing yarn strands over the warp threads. Bring both sides behind your warp threads so the ends meet in the middle.

**Plain weave technique - this is the process when you pull weft thread over the first warp thread, then under the second warp thread, over the third, under the fourth and so on till the last warp thread. On the next pass back you need to make everything opposite.

- Yay! Making tassels! I'd recommend choosing matching color with the animal body, but you can choose any others as well (I am making grey tassels although the body is white. I will use grey yarns later on for the ‘head’).

- After tassels are done, we continue weaving with plain weave technique for another +-20 rows. The number of rows depends on how thick is your yarn. You can always sketch your weave on the paper before you start making it to see how big body and tassel part do you want.

- At this point you need to find the very middle of your weave. Choose the color which you'll need for your animal's head.

- Weave around two middle warps two rows using tassel technique, and then add 2 extra warps from each side every second row. You should increase number of weaved warps until you get to the middle of each side (see pic.to have clear vision on what I am talking about. The technique is pretty similar to triangles).

- When you got to the middles, just continue to plain weave to the both sides of your tapestry. When you reached the sides, make few more rows. Remember, there should be enough space to place little cute ears after all is done.

- We still have unfinished parts of the main body. Take the same yarn (in my case it was white) and continue plain weave from both sides. Not the easiest part, but try to make both sides identical.

- It is time to take this cutie pie off the loom. Cut off every second warp thread in the bottom, making knots of them. Don’t put your strength into the knot. Work gently. It is better to be a little bit looser than tighter.

- Repeat on the upper side

- Repeat bottom side tying all the rest threads

- Repeat upper side tying all the rest threads

Super! You have taken off your work (which looks like a total mess) now it is time to clean the back side:) just weave in all loose ends using crochet hook and cut it

Now adding last touches, - nose, ears, eyes etc

- I usually crochet black nose - but you can embroider that as well (or add a little piece of black/pink merino wool, see picture above). I think that pink nose looks soooo cute

- For the eyes you can use any materials you have, f.ex. fake pearls, beads, google eyes or just a little pieces of merino wool. This time I will use black merino wool. Using crochet hook put those merino pieces symmetrical to the nose, you can leave the ends on the back of your work as they are, or you can hide them. Up to you.

- Ears! I love the effect of merino wool for the ears. Take your crochet hook, find the perfect place for the ears and put it through your weave. Don't forget to hide the ends on the backside, - it will help those ears be more stable.

- You can also add some small whiskers with a simple needle and black thread. But I will skip this step this time

- Hope you have already chosen appropriate wooden dowel or metal pipe for your weaving. Just needle or crochet yarn and any kind of yarns, make loops through the upper side of weaving and hanging. Actually, this is up to your imagination how to hang in.

Here are some photos for inspiration.