designing a saori hand woven jacket

Today I was brave and cut into my saori 6 meter by 18" wide woven piece. I wove it in Salt Spring Island  this spring when i was taking a saori teacher training with Terri Bibby. I took advantage of the twisted fringe edges to be on the center front edge. This is a mostly cotton yarn piece. The jacket then may be tied with the long fringes at the center front, or not, either way it looks equally well. I decided on raglan 3/4 sleeves, and a lower in the back curved hemline. I also put some wide pockets on each side, I need my pockets, and these i bagged to give another design element. I used every inch of the woven cloth, just leaving "snippets for mice" as Beatrice Potter wrote in Tailor of Glouster. Using a serger or over lock machine will not work with most saori woven cloth because it is very thick in some areas and loose in others and it cuts off the fabric but the sewn threads just fall off the edges. so regular zig zag on a regular sewing machine works best to keep the yardage together. When I teach weaving classes I also help and provide sewing machines and construction of garments from your hand woven cloth as well.

more photos here