Sagum Mania!

[tlclark]

We, poor 21st century reenactors are compelled to reconstruct military cloaks and togas in two pieces because the only fabric availables (even if hand-woven like mine, furnished by Cacaius) don't exceed a width of 150 cm!
An additional problem for the chlamys is that the tabliones should be embroidered, painted, stitched across the seam... :evil:

Double-cloth can produce very large widths with a relatively small loom.

You have two layers of warp threads that are controlled by the same heddle to produce the shed in both layers. You simply pass the shuttle through the top layer, then go through the bottom layer than on the next pass follow the same path backward. You can make virtually any width even with a small loom by just adding more layers.



You can also use two shuttle to make very complicated patterns where two different sets of weft can exchange/swap top to bottom.



This creates really intricate patterns and we can see how a single pattern can change colors to produce the tabliae as in the wonderful icon of Mary with SS George and Theodore from St. Catherine's in Sinai

http://www.ibiblio.org/religion/images/cat21.jpg

Notice how the colors change, but the patterns don't. That's exactly what you get from double-cloth textiles.

Still working on getting my sister-in-law to tackle this for me on her 28 inch loom!

Travis