Another Project...Or Two

This one is neither stitching nor sewing, but sort of applies to both.
I have been sewing a little lately and needed a table for things like tracing out patterns since I'm learning to adjust them and such.

Now this table has been around the house for literally years.

We have used if for everything imaginable and actually have another one in use somewhere else.
It is really very sturdy and seemed like it would work well.   Ignore the stain on my ironing board cover please, it will not come out with washing and I am not ready to make a new one yet.
So it has two problems. The laminate is peeling, and it is too dark. I had to throw a white sheet on it when I used it because the table is brown, the pattern pieces were tan, and the paper I was tracing onto was white. I couldn't see the lines well at all and the white sheet underneath everything fixed that.
Determined to have a better solution for next time I bought some white contact paper to cover the table, first taping down all the icky laminate pieces. A word of advice, contact paper doesn't stick to this hardboard, or mdf or whatever it is called. The first piece went on really well I should have known this would mean trouble!

The first long piece:

Obviously the paper isn't as wide as the table. No problem right? Just overlap them and there you go.
Um, no. The second piece fought, argued, wrinkled, stuck to itself and me and just wouldn't smooth out. Pull it up and try again, same result, only this time it pulled at the piece I had it overlapping and got it all stretched and lumpy and wrinkled. Forgot to take a pic of that, sorry. Then I spent some time re-smoothing the first piece. After that I decided to to it in sections.

Small, manageable sections.
Which seems to have worked.
It isn't very pretty, but it was effective.
Here are a couple of pics with some sewing accessories to give you an idea of scale.

So over all, I'm not too disappointed. I did what I set out to do. I've just noticed you can see where I tossed the waded up paper in one of these pics. Oh well. I did put it properly in the trash shortly after.
I've already used it to take pics for my last blog post so it was well worth the time since I will get a lot of use out of it.







Project # 2:
Bias Tape. I've made it for quilts and bought it in stores for sewing projects, but I've never made it for sewing other than quilting. I've had this handy 1/2" bias tape maker for a year or two. I'd only ever used the 1" kind for quilt binding, but it worked so why wouldn't the 1/2" one? I was so confident it would that I decided to try this continuous bias binding. Before I've always made the strips and sewn them together so this looks good to me. I'd tried it once years ago from  seeing instructions on you tube or somewhere, but without the instructions in front of me I messed it up and forgot about it.



This time I opened up Colette's sewing handbook and followed those directions.

There is that stain again. I should have taken more pictures, but anyway it worked like a charm.
Until I went to use the bias tape maker.

I was really not pleased with the result. The fabric was great or I have doubts it would have worked at all. I think I might rather just press this myself, the old fashioned way, as this was pretty annoying and stressful. Perhaps I need another brand of bias maker, will have to research that. Meanwhile, the continuous bias was definitely a success. I may give the tool another chance with a different fabric, though this one was very nice. I must say, I now know why store bought bias binding is so starched. I think it would make it much easier, though really, I never recall having any trouble or needing that before.


I know I'm wandering a little from my usual stitching posts, but this is what I've been doing, as well as a little stitching. I hope you enjoy all of it just the same.

Oh, and there is quite a lot of that Contact Paper left. I'm think the shelves in the bathroom closet, but who knows where it will end up?


Happy Stitching Everyone!