Celtic history co-op. Week 7: Clothing (Card Weaving)

Week 7: We wove belts using the card weaving technique.

Charlie Needs a Cloak by Tommie de Paola is a picture book which entertains children and teaches about the cloth making process. It is one of my personal favorite children's books. The text makes the process sound so simple as it clearly breaks down the steps.

Celts often wore long shirts or robes tied at the waist with a belt. The edges of much of their clothing contained decorative woven strips. Both the belts and the decorative trims were made using the card weaving technique.

Card weaving is done using bone, bark, or rock as a tool for creating patterns. Typically the cards were square with four holes, but occasionally they contained a different number of sides.

We used old playing cards to create our cards and constructed a simple backstrap loom by tying (orange) yarn around the waist. Shuttles were constructed from scrap styrofoam.

The projects were set-up following patterns (see links below) which required a lot of assistance from parents.

Written Instructions

Youtube tutorial

Patterns

Then the belts were woven. I was extremely impressed with the boys. They were all completely engaged in the entire process and did a wonderful job. The goal during the three hour session was to get the project explained and underway so that the belts could be finished  during the week at home.

The belts turned out beautiful.

To read more about our history activities please visit our History Page or click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China 

This post is linked to:
Around the Kamp Fire