It was hard to get pictures because of the vinyl and my lights, plus the problems are hard to see. I used a teflon foot so I shouldn't have had so many problems - I'm not sure what happened. I basted the 2 pieces of vinyl together with only a few stitches going awry. Then I stitched the fabric bands together (no vinyl involved) and that worked out well too. However, from there on in it was a sinking ship :( I used double sided tape to "baste" the fabric band to one end of the vinyl, but when I started to stitch, the fabric shifted and the vinyl and fabric went off kilter. I didn't notice that, though - I noticed that the stitches were AWFUL. I think there were only about 10 stitches across the 8" width ... and my machine is set at 14 stitches per inch! I tried at least 3 seams across each piece of vinyl+fabric - no go. I tried from the right (fabric) side - and I tried from the wrong (vinyl) side - no success. Then I noticed that one of the bands had shifted. At that point I screeched (yes, I actually did, lol) >:)
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| In this picture, you may be able to see the multiple seams where the fabric meets the vinyl - none of them are a good seam. Also - the right edge of the fabric should be aligned with the line on my cutting table - at the bottom it's about 1/8" past the cutting line, and at the top - it's about 3/8" - it shifted by about 1/4" from bottom to top! |
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| The 3rd and final problem is that somehow a bunch of the glitter landed in the seam area, and I stitched right over it - enclosing the dumb glitter in the seam. That wouldn't have been the end of the world, but it was a lot of glitter so there wasn't much left in the bag itself, lol. #nailinthecoffin ! |
I've sewn vinyl before and haven't had this many problems. I think I'll just put my vinyl away for a while and try something else - between this bag and the horrid HORRID search capabilities @ Craftsy (has anyone else noticed that?) I don't even want to think about vinyl or glitter right now :D
I'm going to post this to Fiona's New to Me linky party for March - hopefully my next new to me project goes better than this one did :D At least I didn't waste a zipper - silver lining? :)
I'm going to post this to Fiona's New to Me linky party for March - hopefully my next new to me project goes better than this one did :D At least I didn't waste a zipper - silver lining? :)
Oh dear Sandra sounds like your machine didn't go along with your plan to stitch vinyl today. How strange that you haven't had any problems before though. It sounds like a great idea to add glitter between the layers of vinyl but clearly it is not so great in practice.
ReplyDeleteKnow what you mean about Craftsy' s search capabilities but then their options for tagging projects or patterns are so limited it is no surprise sadly.
Thanks for linking up to New to Me too.
1. NEW Needle
ReplyDelete2. Tissue paper on seam line to sew thru.
3. Teflon foot - Good
4. Type of vinyl
At least you didn't try to iron it afterwards just to make holes in the vinyl....
My friend who sews for Michael Curry Designs (Think Giant Disney parade characters) says they use K-Y jelly when sewing vinyl.
Odd that you had problems with the vinyl. I wonder if the glitter mucked up the sewing. Good idea to chuck it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it was just one of those days :(
ReplyDeleteAnything that involves glitter has the potential to be disastrous :) I really have trouble sewing vinyl's with my machine, even when I use a teflon foot. Sometimes I put washi tape on the bottom of my regular foot and that seems to help. And yes, I agree that the search function on Craftsy is less than stellar.
ReplyDeleteIt is so frustrating when patterns don't work out!!! Also a waste of resources and that is the worst!!! Take a deep breath! If you, the zipper bag queen can't make it work, the pattern is flawed. That's all I'm saying about that. Hugs, Mickie
ReplyDelete