Hey there! Stephanie Baker here to share a few tips and tricks with laminated cotton and how you can laminate your own cotton if you just can't find what you are looking for. I'm SO excited about our new pattern Rowen's Raincoat that is available in girls, tweens and doll sizes.
By following these few tips, your raincoat will come together with ease and you'll be wondering why you never tried laminated cotton before!
Tips for Working with Laminate Cotton:
• Use a Teflon or plastic foot on your machine. The laminate will stick to any metal surface.
• If you don’t have a Teflon foot for your machine, you can use tissue paper between the metal foot and the right side of your laminated cotton. You can also use a little bit of matte scotch tape or masking on the underside of your foot. You can also use tape on any metal around your throat plate being sure not to tape over the feed dogs.
This is very important and will save you some frustration! The laminated cotton will stick to your foot and the throat plate, it will also stick to itself.
• Use wedge point (or leather) needles and increase your stitch length slightly.
This was really important as well, especially for those gathered areas. Other needles will break, and these are pretty readily available at your favorite fabric store.
• When gathering the laminated cotton, use a zig-zag stitch over upholstery thread.
Even when using two rows of gathering stitches, the laminated cottton is thicker and the threads will break easier. I found it much easier it take a piece of upholstery thread and lay it paraellel with the edge your trying to gather. Then use a zig-zag stitch over the upholstery thread, once you're done, you simply secure one end of the upholstery thread and push the fabric down holding the other end. It's a little extra work but totally worth it!
• Use wonder clips or binder clips to hold laminated cotton fabrics together as you sew rather than pins. If you use pins, pin parallel to the seam allowances as pins will leave small holes in the laminated cotton.
Laminated cotton is not water proof once you've sewn it together. The needle creates small hole when sewing, that being said, we don't want to add unnecessary hole from pinning our pieces. Wonder Clips are great, if you don't own those, binder clips can be used. They are readily available in the office supply section at most grocery stores.
There's actually a ton of laminated fabric out there, but most have to be ordered online. If you are just too excited to wait or really looking for something different, you CAN laminate your own cotton. Here's a video showing you how to do just that! I used Pellon Clear Vinyl Fuse that I found at Joann's. All you need is your favorite woven cotton, the vinyl fuse (there are other brands out there) and an iron.
Enjoy!! I can't wait to see what you create!
~ Stephanie
All Photos by Lucky One Photography
