Why ? Why did I think *this* bias-tape-laden project would go any better ..?

The Original

So, yeah, I sewed today, wanted to hop right on my latest inspiration and use that stuff I bought for the sewing machine pad pocket, before I chickened out and it sat around for months. Like that’s never happened before. Anyway… got the fabric washed up and ironed, although I’m not sure if I ironed it or hammered it flat. I spent an hour just getting it de-wadded and down to its original dimension, noticeably smaller. Oh, well. The pattern was flexible enough, and I was planning on adding a couple inches to the length, so a smaller width wouldn’t be that big a deal.

Ironed/hammered at it for another half hour after lunch, and finally decided there was no way I’d ever get it smooth again, and wondered if, once I sewed on the plastic foam no-slip shelf paper to the back of it, if I could wash it – no way I could iron it ! 

Since I was trying to do this on the cheap, and I’d already spent $2.50 on the fabric and a buck on the shelf-grip, I’d decided to use some of that fold-over elastic as bias tape, since that’s about what it is, and I thought we had tissue paper somewhere. Well, thank Everything the tutorial starts with something simple – applying bias tape to the top pocket edge – because I knew I was sadly mistaken about that blasted fold over elastic. Again. Disaster City, and I was a downtown tourist all afternoon. I used to have tons of bias tape from second-hand venues, but when I’d dragged it through three moves and hadn’t used an inch, I decided to ditch it all at a pre-move yard sale. 

My version. Close enough.

However, for whatever reason, it seemed I kept one package of the stuff, mixed in with cards of rick-rack. And I had enough, too. Not much on the color, but it’d look fine with the unbleached fabric tones. But now, I couldn’t find the tissue paper. I didn’t wanna go back to Dollar Tree, and didn’t wanna use newspaper – ink all over my KJ-machine and hands, no thanks. I decided to use some of the lawn-and-leaf bagload of eggplant purple tulle our former neighbors gave us, leftovers from her wedding. I knew I had to stitch together two pieces of the DTree narrow shelf-grip (Oh, my cheap ways !), so I tested tulle on that. Worked OK, but not as ‘gliding under the needle’ as I wanted. I ended up using… wait for it… fast-food napkins. They actually worked quite well as a tissue paper substitute. And we had plenty of them. Used six. 

The rest of the day and into the night was a wrestling match with bias tape. I have zero skill with that stuff, have no idea why I thought this would go well, much less quickly. It took for-ev-er, then another two hours, and the backside is as ugly as a car crash, but in the end, I got some experience, didn’t eat for about six hours total, and I’m glad I ditched the bias tape. I hope I never have to use that (expletive deleted) stuff again. And the sewing machine pad, for all its errors and issues, looks OK. Holds some desk detritus out of the way, and KJ doesn’t vibrate as much when I speed-sew. If I had it to do again, I’d have embroidered something on one of the pockets, so, maybe next time I sew it. Long as I get a long vacation from bias tape, it’s a possibility !

I think I’ll embroider something tomorrow…