Wet Finishing Woven Cotton

After making the cotton towels I listed in my last post, I machine stitched the towels and threw them in the washer then in the dryer. I was very surprised at what came out. 

I've wet finished wool before with the expected results; quite a bit of fulling and felting. In the past, when I've wet finished cotton, there has always been a bit of shrinkage, but these towels were actually transformed.

I wish I'd had the foresight to measure the towels before they were wet finished, but hopefully these pictures will show the transformation.

Here is the rib pattern towel on the loom.....

Closeup of the stripe detail

Here is the rib pattern towel off the loom and machine stitched before wet finishing.

Here it is after wet finishing.

I LOVE IT! The softness and drape of this fabric is amazing. Of all the towels I made, this pattern lost the least amount of width and length. I wish I had a loom that was capable of making this fabric in a larger size as it would make the best blanket ever. 

Now onto the twill. Here it is on the loom.....

Here it is off the loom and machine stitched...

Though I ran out of warp and this towel ended up being a square, I thought I could use it as a mat for a plant or a trivet. However, after wet finishing. I was left with this rectangle .....

Top Side

Reverse 

Closeup of both sides of twill

Finally, the plain weave cotton towel. I used a cream colored acrylic yarn for the weft, only because I had some left on a shuttle. 

Here is the plain doubleweave on the loom....

It was rather a long rectangle, so I was very surprised when it finished like this.....

An almost perfect square ;)

I learned, from this experiment in towels and wet finishing, that you must really take the length of your warp into great account when planning a woven fabric. I used a guide yarn in my next project and hopefully it will help in attaining the length I want in my finished product. 

I hope this was helpful in some way.

Happy Weaving!