
Medieval Weaves
I'm a novice weaver. My interest lies primarily in reproducing medieval textile weaves using card weaving, rigid heddle, and a four-shaft floor loom.
The purpose of this post is to give people interested in learning about medieval fabrics a visual example for comparing to commercially available fabrics.
A lot of books and papers about medieval textile finds describe the weave, or shows images of highly deteriorated finds. This is meant as a gallery of what those textiles look like in real life! It not exhaustive, and is taking time to compile.
Not all of these weaves are hand dyed. Where they are, it's in the description

one over, one under

Z-twill Blue warp

S-twill Blue warp



Plain weave. Wool dyed with madder Single ply

2/2 S-twill

Chevron Cotton 2/8 24 epi

2/8 cotton 24 epi

36epi; 2/20 blue wool

Yellow blue 2/20 wool 36 epi

Broken diamond 2/2 twill Wool. 48 epi/sett

Houndstooth. 2/2 twill with colour patterning. Houndstooth is not found in the medieval period, but it was found in an iron age bog find in Sweden. Dyed with woad and fustic

2/2 twill horizontal herringbone in 2/16 wool. 36 epi/sett