Today we conquered our fears and tackled the dreaded oilcloth again and made some mini tote bags! You may remember that last time we sewed oilcloth, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong! (sewing-with-oilcloth) The new sewing machine (named Reggie!) however, made sewing the oilcloth this time around, an absolute delight. It didn't struggle once! All it required was an increase in stitch length, masking tape on the bottom of the foot and our cunning little sleeve slipped on the free-arm to prevent the oilcloth sticking - job done! (preparation-for-oilcloth-lift-off)When we cut the pieces out, we use a Stanley knife and a metal ruler. We've just changed the blade to a new one, after I wrecked the last blade cutting some roofing felt to fit the roof of my rabbit Humphrey's hutch! So with new blade onboard, off we chopped! Then suddenly I saw blood on my knuckle and thought, where's that come from? Turns out I'd caught it with the knife and I didn't even know it! Not quite our first industrial injury but it's definitely the first one that I didn't know how it happened! Once we'd assessed that we didn't need to go to A&E to get the wound stitched and that we'd checked we had all our fingers and thumbs still, off we went again!
When we made the handles, we used an army of paperclips and small bulldog clips to secure the two pieces together - it was a bit like Blue Peter revisited! It was fiddly at first but as the oilcloth sticks to itself you can utilise that fact. The other trick is to not reverse stitch at the beginning and the end. If you did that you would end up perforating the oilcloth too much and this would then mean that the seam would likely pull apart if any pressure was applied - not good for a bag! This was the first time that we've sewn things without having to unpick a single stitch! Yes really! Eureka!
We're now all out of oilcloth so we'll have to keep our eyes peeled for some more.
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