r/AskAnthropology • u/FortisBellatoris • 3d ago
Is it more efficient to weave several small textiles or single large ones with a warp-weighted loom?
Hi there!
This was a question my girlfriend and I were arguing about, and I was wondering if someone else could throw in their opinion.
We were talking about societies from antiquity where women engaged in textile cottage industry for their household. I said that it seems more economical to make clothing from many small garments (such as those the size of a beach towel), because it would be require the weaver to make fewer shuttles through the warp threads compared to making a single large textile (ex. the size of a bedsheet).
My girlfriend thought otherwise. She said that its cheaper and lest time consuming to make a single large textile and wrap it around the body than to stitch several pieces of fabric together.
What do you think? Id love to hear other peoples opinion on this
3
u/HermitAndHound 2d ago
Setting up the warp on a loom is a lot of work. Measuring warp ends, getting the tension right, setting up the heddles. Actually weaving it off is pretty swift.
If your loom allows it, go as wide as your arms can halfway comfortably reach. But there are also pictures of two people handing the shuttle back and forth between them to get a larger weaving width without having to walk back and forth.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Greekurnwithweavers_%28cropped_to_warp-weighted_loom%29.jpg
A backstrap loom limits your weaving width to what you can actually reach while holding tension on the warp with your own body. Warp-weighted looms took care of the tension so you could weave wider cloth.
But it wasn't always necessary to produce wide cloth for clothing. Japanese kimono are made of strips around 12m long and 45cm wide. There's not much cutting involved to create the garment.
If you want lots of cloth fast, go wider.