Unstable weather may more often occur during early spring by alternating summer-like warm days and stormy chilly days. Spring makes you feel like going out even if you preferred not to do it during cold winter. With the coming of spring, items for outing such as bags and pouches have been more popular to create among sewing lovers.
Do you remember a clutch bag, which was recently featured in our Craft & Sewing column? Since the sewing tutorial was by Yuki Inomata who is a popular craft blogger in Japan, that article has logged many hits. For each front and back of the bag, Inomata chose two prints from “Alice in Wonderland” fabric collection that was also covered in our Textile Story column; a grown-up taste print titled “Alice”, which the novel’s tale’s supporting characters are depicted in silhouette, was used for one side. The other side was with “Rabbit” print of the white rabbit on dots. You might think, “Having such an elaborate clutch bag with two different prints must be so cool. Sewing the zipper is not easy though…. I still want the bag. All right, I’d better go for it!”
Besides the double-sided clutch bag, Inomata made another bag in B5*) size with “Trump” print from the collection. In the above picture is the one. Look closely and you will find it is shiny! Inomata picked the one from laminate-processed “Alice in Wonderland” fabric collection. Laminate fabric is regular woven cotton on the wrong side and is coated with a plastic finish on the right side.
Since laminate coating keeps the fabric from fraying, there is no need to trim the edge and no need to prewash.
Inomata gives specific suggestions on how to sew with laminated fabric, “Use a longer stitch length (3mm or larger). Size 14 sharp sawing machine needle may work better. Binder clips can be used to hold the edge of your fabric pieces together in lieu of using pins.” Regular pins leave permanent holes in the material.
She adds, “Using a Teflon coated presser foot on your sewing machine is very helpful. If you don’t have it, apply a masking tape or painter’s tape to the wrong side of the fabric to slide through your machine easily. This also helps you for top stitch on right side of the fabric to finish zipper installation.”
It makes some sense that the presser foot on your sewing machine should be changed, depending on the fabric type or sewing task required. Laminated fabric is deemed challenging so far. But it is still worth the challenge, considering how convenient the items made from laminated fabrics are. Inomata continues, “The great advantages of laminated fabric are durable and waterproof. While raining, the bag with laminated fabric will keep your items from water damage.”
Water-resistant fabric! It sounds so fantastic! The fabric is perfect for a variety of projects such as bags, tablecloths and placemats. If you have never used the laminated fabric for your sewing projects, it’s time to do it!
*) B5 is one of International ISO standard paper sizes, which is a 250×176 mm or 9.84×6.93 inch.
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