Laminates Session 2: Tips for Sewing Laminates

Sewing with laminates can be a little bit tricky. So, I have tons of tips and tricks for you to sew with them. The first thing that we notice about laminate is when we have a chalk pencil or an iron off pen or some kind of marking tool, you can't really use it on a laminate. The surface is just too slick and it doesn't stick. So, we found a great solution and that is blue painter's tape. Lemme demonstrate. This wallet is made out of oilcloth and there's a part in this pattern where you have to sew a line right down the middle of these pieces of oilcloth in order to separate the two pockets. Normally, what we would do is we'd get out our measuring tool, we would find the middle and we would draw a line with either a chalk pencil or with an iron off pen. But in this case, we couldn't do it because it doesn't stick. So, we simply use a piece of this tape and where we want the line to go, we're going to just put the tape right on there and then we're gonna watch our needle very closely when we're sewing and sew right along the edge of the tape and then we'll get a perfectly straight line. And of course, it peels right off, just like that. So, the painter's tape is fantastic not only to be a sewing guide but also. This project here is an oilcloth beach bag. Now, this handle is extremely thick and I wanna show you what happens when you attempt to pin the handle. Especially down here, we've got a layer of oil, cloth here, we've got one there and then we have this real thick handle. So, this area is difficult to sew through. So I have a pin here. Let's use a different color so you can see it. I have a pin here and I'm going to attempt to pin this right through here. So I'm gonna pin through. Now, look at what's happening to my pin. Can you see that? It's just bending and there. Look, I just ripped the head right off of it. So, you can tell that using pins with oilcloth can be extremely difficult. So, in this project, what we do instead is we use this painter's tape, which is extremely sticky, so you would lay your handle across this bag and you would just tape it on, just like this. So, when you're creating these projects, if you can't use paperclips, which is another thing I like to use on the edges of oilcloth, then you can just use painter's tape, just like this. Now, the joy of this stuff is that as you sew the seam right along the edge of the handle, you can just sew right through the painter's tape. Then what happens is it perforates along the seam line and you'll peel the first part off, you'll peel the middle off and then you'll peel the next part off. And of course, it just comes off extremely easily and it doesn't leave any goo or anything like that. So, painters tape is wonderful. Now, when you're sewing with oilcloth a lot of people think, "Well it's very thick or my vinyl is really thick. I need to change a think needle." Now, typically, home machines don't do very well with heavy duty thread. The key to sewing laminates that are thicker is to have a sharp needle. Use a regular size needle, you don't need a jean needle. You don't need a leather needle. You don't need anything special, you just need a perfectly brand new right out of the box, sharp needle. Now, if you think about it, home machines don't have a whole lot of motor in them, right? They're not like the industrial machine. So, the sharper the needle, the easier the motor has time piercing the fabric. So, just make sure and use regular thread and a regular sharp needle. Now, as far as your foot goes, there are several different options. The first thing you can do is get a Teflon foot, okay? It is not made of metal. This is a metal foot. The bummer about the metal feet with laminates, and I'm gonna turn this over so you get the idea, is that the metal is so shiny and so slick and so is the oilcloth or the vinyl or the laminate that they just stick right together and they don't move very well. So, a Teflon foot is not made of metal. And so it'll slide across the laminates a lot better. So, that is one option. If you can't get a hold of a Teflon foot, the other thing you can do is get some painter's tape put it on the bottom. Now mind you, when you put the tape over this, you're going to have to kind of cut out a little hole here and cut this to fit the bottom of your foot. But this tape is nice and rough and so it'll slide right across the laminates very nicely. My favorite way to sew laminates, which is what I do a hundred percent of the time when I'm doing laminates, is to use a walking foot. So, this is a walking foot, here. I am going to put this on my machine. Now, this part goes over the needle bar, okay? So when the needle goes up and down, this goes up and down. Now, when that goes up and down, you have these little feet on the bottom, see these little white guys right there? Those begin to walk. So, then what happens is you have feed dogs on the bottom of your machine that take the fabric away from you while you're sewing. This one puts feed dogs on the top. So, then you grab all of the layers together and pull them. So, technically your foot is not sliding across anything at all. It's just gripping with teeth and moving the fabric. That has been the most successful way for me to sew with oilcloth. We'll put that guy over there. Now, the last thing that we need to talk about is how to store and how to care for your laminates. They have to be stored just a little bit differently than we're used to. So we'll talk about that, next.