How to Produce Your Own Handwoven Fabrics

Maria Sigma is an award-winning textile designer/weaver specialising in 'zero waste' ethical hand-woven textiles for interiors. She studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design, and since she graduated in 2014, she has developed her own weaving practice in London.

She has collaborated with brands such as Soho House, Selfridges, The New Craftsmen, London Craft Week, OXO Tower and TOAST. Here, she met with us to explain the basics of handweaving and how she incorporates a zero-waste, sustainable approach to her practice. 

This handy downloadable guide introduces you to the basics of handweaving, from demystifying weaving terms to choosing the suitable loom for your weaving project. 

All yarns are not the same - even yarns made of the same fibres!  Depending on their type, they can behave differently in a finished cloth. This downloadable explores different, sustainable fibres suitable for weaving and their properties when handwoven into finished fabrics.

Designing your own handwoven textile is such an exciting prospect, and the possibilities are endless. To help guide you to a pain-free collaboration, here's what to bear in mind when making your final decisions.

Handwoven fabrics form an integral part of Indian's rich textile culture and, in Bengal, the tradition is particularly strong with a significant cluster of handloom workers operating to produce everything from fine jacquard saris to khadi fabrics.

Founder of Anuprerna Artisan Textiles, Amit Singha, joins us to explain how handweaving clusters in East India operate, how they support family life and wellbeing, and why they are a stable form of livelihood for this area of the world.

Weaver and designer Dianoshiya Dorothy Clement joins us to introduce her work with artisans in the Chennimalai province of the Tamil Nadu region of India. With the population of weavers decreasing due to lack of demand and increase in faster textile production elsewhere, there needs to be sympathetic solutions that will provide the craftspeople with both income and creativity to restore the pride in this profession.

This is a beautiful explanation of how to work supportively with an artisan community, along with insight into the affects of declining production on poverty levels. The lesson also includes a film from Dianoshiya that gives you a real look at what handloom weavers do.