Canvas and Crepe

Marcy Petrini

September, 2018

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, in some workshop, I picked up the mistaken notion that canvas weave and crepe weave are related, or maybe even similar. Surprisingly and embarrassingly, I never checked that fact and I kept on weaving crepe weave, calling it canvas and even teaching it.

Recently, when I found a crepe twill, I started wondering what made it a crepe twill. That’s when I finally figure it all out, including why my mistaken notion probably started.

A crepe weave is a treadling method that aims to produce a crepe fabric, which is generally obtained from highly twisted crepe yarns. What makes the cloth from this structure behave similarly to a crepe fabric is the alternating plain weave shots with picks of floats.

The drawdown below shows the “on opposite” tie-up: the pick of 1 & 2 is followed by its opposite 3 & 4, forming two-thread floats; those are followed by the plain weave shots, 2 & 4 vs. 1 & 3, which are also “on opposite: the second pick uses the shafts not used by the first.

Click here for the full-sized draft (a PDF will open a new window)

The fabric shows the characteristic ridges formed by alternating the two on-opposite combinations of treadling.

Below is the drawdown for a crepe twill from Davison’s book. It doesn’t seem to have much in common with the crepe weave, except that it does form 2- and 3-thread floats that may cause the fabric to behave like a crepe cloth.

Click here for the full-sized draft (a PDF will open a new window)

The threading is unusual and the tie-up and treadling are that of a straight draw. The fabric is below.

Compared to the crepe weave fabric, that of the crepe twill seemed to be turned on its side: what if I turned the draft?

Below is the crepe twill turned draft: a straight draw threading, just like the crepe weave; the same “on opposite” tie-up; and a treadling of pointed and reverse pointed twills, which makes it a more obvious twill than the original drawdown.

Click here for the full-sized draft (a PDF will open a new window)

Below is the drawdown of a canvas weave, with the fabric following.

Click here for the full-sized draft (a PDF will open a new window)

The threading and treadling are very distinctive, forming blocks and placing canvas weave in the grouped weave category. But the tie-up is on opposite!

So, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, someone must have told me that the on opposite tie-up is shared by canvas weave and crepe weave (and other structures as well) and that’s where my mistaken notion started!

If you have a printed Pictionary, please replace the canvas weave page and add the crepe weave one. A few more pages have also been added to the listing.

Happy weaving!

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