This project is not as easy as it would appear, though I will admit that when it comes to anything sewing related, I'm not even a novice.
Problem 1: Weaving the elastic. It's a pain. A serious pain. Even when you've pinned down the edges and had them sewn it's not easy.
Problem 2: Sewing the elastic. It goes all over and even the person who helped me get the edges down had some trouble. I solved this by using double stick tape cut in half. I put down the tape, then applied the pieces so they stayed in relative order. There's still a couple trouble spots, but I'm not nit picking.
Problem 3: Stretching the elastic tight. I resolved to use a clip board to do this. What's the problem? Well the backing that you're attaching the elastic to isn't exactly firm so when you pull it has a tendency to want to come with the pull. I solved this by using a clip board and clipping down the edge I'm pulling against, then pinning the opposite edge, then sewing it up - by hand because the board gets in the way of the machine. The results were pretty good.
Problem 4: This was my problem, but one that you should avoid. Use black as your backing. I went with gray and the foam I used is showing stress mark where the foam got mangled or scratched. Issue? Only cosmetically. If you care about that, use black.
This project I figured you could knock out in two days, a day if you're really good with the machine and you don't have interruptions. I tend to take longer on projects because I break them up, or walk away when I run into an issue rather than sit there and get frustrated. So I'm still working, but I can see this coming together.
Will I do this project again? Hard to say. I think it's going to look nice, and I can tell you that the money spent is less than it would cost me to get a similar professionally made item. I might do it again, but I think that there needs to be some modifications done. The weaving isn't as fun as it sounds, and being the first, there's a lot of trial and error. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment