Most of you have probably heard about oilcloth recently. Anna Maria Horner has some as does Michael Miller and many other designers. While on my week away, I bought some dotted oilcloth designed/produced by Michael Miller from the Quilting Loft.
I don’t have a very strong garment sewing background and part of my tote bag adventure is learning to construct 3D objects. As a result, I have never used anything like oilcloth before, except for the tablecloth vinyl. Some issues I ran into were:
- What scissors to use: if used my good sewing scissors, would the oilcloth dull the blades?
- What foot do I use? Will I need the roller foot?
- The directions I found said press on low heat. What is low heat? Testing required, I suppose.
- What thread should I use?
- Will the oilcloth play nicely with the regular cotton?
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As I may have mentioned I have wanted to try the oilcloth after carrying the Julie Bag around in the rain and trying to keep my stuff from getting soaked. The bag is complete, as you can see and here is what I found.
I used my medium scissors – not my good Ginghers, but not paper scissors either. They still seem sharp.
Using a regular foot was fine. The machine had no problems feeding the oilcloth.
Pressing the oilcloth was not an option. I used the very lowest setting on my iron and the oilcloth just curled up. After I found that out, I just finger pressed. Not as good as a nice crisp seam, but it worked. When I put the floor into the bag, I pressed from the lining side.
I used regular Aurifil thread and had no issues
The cotton and the oilcloth were nice to each other. The oilcloth was not too slippery. I think I sewed mostly with the flannel-ish side against the bed of the machine, which probably helped.