My FOE...

Calm before the screech. 

My fold-over elastic arrived ! Both packages, a day early. I want to celebrate that, because actually sewing the stuff was a huge pain and a real letdown. With so many colors and designs, I figured FOE (ha-ha) had to be something spectacular, awesome, great… it may just re-shape my sewing ! I had pictures in my imagination of effortless skirts, magically gathered with but a few inches of this magical stuff becoming a gorgeous waistband in one easy step.

Turns out, there’s really not a lot of uses for it. Even the folks who love it can’t come up with a lot of ways to use it. Headbands and ponytail loops, mostly, and people enamored of diapers (ran into these folk when Dearest Son was still within) adore this stuff, but otherwise, it may as well be regular ole bias tape. Remember the first time you tried to use that ? Now imagine it’s stretchy, and so’s what you’re sewing it to. PITA of the first magnitude. I barely got it to sew straight, and if I wanted to ‘gently stretch’ it, I more or less had to pull it through the sewing machine. So much for even, uniform stitches.

Truth be told, aside from some lingerie, about the only other use for it is what I bought mine for, swimwear. I’m glad I bought the big 21+ yard pack, because I used three yards tonight just putzing around. And once it was sewn, that was it. Even when I sewed on maximum stitch length with minimal tension, picking the stitches out of it left the FOE in a snarled, tufted mess. And if the fabric shifted and some of it escaped the fold, I have no idea how you’d fix that. All the videos and websites I watched, of people easily stitching lovely things, hailing the FOE miracle, somehow don’t mention that.

So, in short, I don’t think I’ll buy much more of it. I certainly won’t be getting the printed grab bag of the stuff I was eyeing. I may get another 21+ yard pack, so I can get used to sewing it without worry I’ll run out, but I think that’s my limit with this frustrating mess.