Make Your Own Weaving Loom and Get Started for $5 or Less

I love to start new projects on a whim but this can be very hard to do with art and crafting supplies costing so much. My tastes and inspirations are fleeting and as a stay at home/homeschooling mother of three my budget is very limited. This instructable will take you through how to make your own weaving loom and start weaving or creating fiber arts for mere dollars or free if you already have old yarn lying around in a craft bin.

Piece of thick cardboard
Scissors
Elmer’s glue
Yarn
Ruler
An extra thick needle if you have one.

To begin you need to find your basic supplies. I didn’t have any yarn on hand so my first stop was to my base thrift store. I was able to find grab bags of yarn for 50 cents to 1 dollar each. I chose to use a heavy Pringles box for my cardboard. You want to be sure an get something sturdy and corrugated so it will not bend with the tension of your yarn.

First take your cardboard and cut a rectangle for your base. I trimmed the tops and sides of my Pringle’s box at the crease. Reserve the extra card board then cut four strips about 1 inch high and the same length as your main piece.

Stack two of the long strips of cardboard and glue them together to secure. Repeat with the last two strips.

Next you are going to glue the long strips of cardboard onto your main piece about 3/4 to one inch from the edge. Try to be as straight horizontally as you can. My ends of cardboard were a little crooked so I came down further. The top and bottom will become your beams to wrap your warp thread.

Set aside and let the glue dry.

Take your ruler and pencils and starting 1/2 inch from the left top edge draw 1/2 inch lines every 1/4 inch across the top beam. Repeat on the bottom.

If your edges are not straight, now is a good time to trim them straight.

Finally take your scissors and cut each line to the stacked strip all across the top and bottom of your loom.

Now you have made your own loom from just cardboard and are ready to begin warping your string or yarn around.

Tie a knot about 5 inches from the end of a very long yarn. Slide it through the bottom left notch with the knot in the back. Pull your yarn up and behind the first top notch, bringing it back forward and down to the second bottom left notch. Continue wrapping the yarn behind each notch going up and down until you reach the bottom right side. Tie another knot on the bottom right string and trim.

You are ready to begin weaving! If you have a pattern or design in mind you can slip a paper guide underneath your warp threads to see as you go. You could also stick with one color the whole way. I decided to doodle weave and used my random yarn colors as inspiration. I was thinking of the great Mr. Bob Ross and his serene landscapes with my yarn colors. I am attempting to doodle weave some nice rolling hills, a lake, some mystic mountains and of course a few happy trees.

Take a yarn of your desired color and thread your needle (if you don’t have a needle you can use just weave without one.) pick a starting point and go above an below each warp string. You could also try going over two warps and under one. Once you weave across the whole side or whichever desired portion, weave around back towards the left. Don’t worry if you miss count, you can easily pull the string back out and restart.

You now have your very own weaving loom for zero or just a couple dollars! Let your imagination run free and see what beautiful fiber arts you can create.