Making an Easy Fabric Weaving Activity for Small Children

Weaving is a process of creating fabric using two different threads. In simple terms, there's the warp threads that run up and down, and the weft threads which run side to side. When you weave, the weft threads are fed through the alternating warp threads, over and under as the weaver moves from one side to the other.

Weaving is a fun activity for all ages of children. You can make your own weaving activity center for preschoolers using a door, some yarn, and a nice assortment of fabric.

How to set up

Most woven textiles are made on a loom which holds the warp threads in place. For our loom, we will use a door. A kitchen or closet door works very nicely. For a smaller activity center, a cabinet door will also work.

Taking the yarn, tape one end at the top corner of the door. Pull the string forward and down the front of the door, underneath the door and up the back. Continuing wrapping the door until you have completely wrapped the door with thread that has been spaced about one inch apart (picture #2). Tape the end of the yarn length to the top of the door as well.

Using your fingers, spread the warp threads until they are evenly spaced. Once you are happy with the spacing, place a strip of tape at the top and bottom edges of the door to prevent the yarn from moving. For older children, this step isn't necessary. Smaller children seem to be a little more aggressive in threading the fabric, and this help keeps the weaving even.

Once you have set up the loom, you can cut your fabric pieces. I cut my fabric strips from 10 different fabric pieces to make the project more interesting and colorful. These strips should be about 1 1/2 inches wide and 4-6 inches longer than the width of your loom. For something a little different, you might wish to add some cut lengths of colorful rug yarn or chunky craft yarns.

Let's begin

The child begins weaving at either the left or right side of the loom. Working from the end, she pushes the fabric strip up and over the first thread, and continues to feed the fabric through the warp threads, moving from one direction to the other. You may have to help your child with the first strip of fabric so she gets the general idea of how weaving works.

From there, she should be able to do it on her own. My children experiment with different weaving patterns, skipping two or thread warp threads at a time. Sometimes they even work chunky beads into the pattern. Don't worry about knotting the ends. This allows your child to remove all the fabric strips when she is tired of her pattern, and wants to try something different. The weaving activity is pretty enough that you may want to leave it up all the time (picture #3).

The fabric pieces, yarn, and beads can be stored in a small Sterlite or Rubbermaid container until the next time your child is ready to weave.