Ikat

This is a piece of ikat, that I bought decades ago. I kept the selvage edges and fringed the two cut edges to follow the diamond design. I wish I had continuted the zig-zag line into the red border.

Creating ikat is not for the faint of heart. The yarn is dyed before the cloth is woven. This one is a single ikat -- only the weft yarns are dyed in a pattern; the warp yarns either solid red or solid green. The striped arrangement of the warp creates red and green checks as it weaves through the ikat weft. This link will take you to more photos of ikat fabrics. Some of them are really quite fantastic.

The next two photos are of double ikats -- the pattern was dyed into both the warp and the weft. This dotted fabric was also shown in my previous post. The dots on this Kaffe Fassett ikat are orchid. It will also be used as a small tablecloth, and I'm trying to decide how to finish the edges. Fringe would be nice as it would reveal the dye work in the warp.

While just now searching for a link for this posting, I realized that I own another Kaffe Fassett double ikat, which I used for one of my Dear Jane blocks, K5 - Passing Through, allbeit as a solid.