We purchased the Melissa and Doug Weaving Loom as a gift for the girls for Christmas. They love doing crafts and keeping their hands busy. Melissa and Doug make quality toys and crafts so this was a no-brainer purchase. It was also affordable at just around $25 or less with free shipping on Amazon.com. Make sure you read the instructions carefully so you don’t miss anything or your weaving project may not come out as planned.
The first thing you want to do is take everything out of the box and put the legs on the frame. A small hex wrench is included in the box and it takes just a minute or two to fasten the legs onto the weaving frame.
The first project we made was one of the paper pictures. The Melissa and Doug Weaving Loom comes complete with everything you need to make 3 paper pictures and up to two yarn projects. The paper pictures are super neat. Melissa and Doug has taken a high quality, color image and cut it into long strips. The kids then take the strips and weave them into a new creation they can hang on the wall.
The first step is to take the white string that comes in the box and create the base on the loom. Start by tying one end of the string to the top right. We put our through the hole and secured it there. That hole is where the dowel rod would go but for this paper project we didn’t find it necessary. It is definitely necessary to use the dowel when you work on the yarn weaving projects.
Pull the string tight and wind it up and down and around until the whole width of the loom is covered with the white string. Make sure to pull the string tight for the best result. This is something an adult might need to do.
The photo strips are numbered to make it easy. For an additional lesson, have younger children line up the strips in order by number
You can start from left to right or right to left, it doesn’t matter. Slide the first strip through the string guides on the loom, making sure to go back and forth. It may take some practice and an adult will want to watch to make sure the pattern doesn’t get off. The strips are easy to remove if it does and just start over.
Use your fingers to press each row down after it has been woven through or use the large wooden needle that is provided.
It’s fun to watch as the pattern takes shape.
When all paper strips have been woven onto the loom it will look something like this.
The back should look like this.
Make sure you adjust the paper pieces so the design comes out even. We used masking tape on the back before we took it off of the weaving loom to keep it all in place.
Once you are ready to remove the picture, untie the beginning and end of the string and then carefully remove the loops. It should look like this. Once we untied the strings we didn’t knot them. We ended up taping them to the back with masking tape.
The last step is to do something with all of those loops. Turn the picture face down and use regular tape, packing tape, or masking tape to cover the loops. Just lay the loops down on the back and put the tape over top. We used several rows of tape to finish off our woven photo picture. Now the kids have a colorful piece of art to hang on their wall. You could even frame it if you like.
CLICK HERE to see how to use the Melissa and Doug weaving loom to create a yarn project.
.gif)
