the store that has everything I want

A long time ago the online fabric shop Modes4U contacted me to write a sponsored post about their products. They kindly offered me an item of my choice in return of a blog post (am I lucky or what? I do that all the time sponsored or not!). First thing I did was to go shopping on their website and OMG... they stock all kind of cute things!! Not only fabrics-to-die-for, but also sewing patterns, craft supplies, bento boxes, stationary, DIY sets... you name it.

After lots of hesitation on what to pick, and after wise advice from Modes4u staff, I picked some fabric for a project I had been wanting to do for a while: Laminates for a Raincoat.

I chose this Dino Dudes laminate by Michael Miller

It arrived in less than two weeks and my package included two little rolls of washi tape! cute cute cute. So I started preparing myself for a completely different project that was going to require a whole lot of new thinking from my part. 

I began by reading all the posts I could find about sewing with laminates. Very helpful indeed, but now that I´ve finished, I have also learnt a bunch of other things that you may find useful if you want to sew with laminates too. Do it! It´s so much fun!

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT ABOUT LAMINATE FABRICS

TIHLALF #1

It blows up like a ballon

Laminate won´t let the air come out so if you´re lining it it inflates in a funny way. Here´s a fully lined pocket all pouffy.

 TIHLALF #2

Beware of the curves

You can see at the top that I didn´t clip into the seam allowance as often as I did to the bottom seam. The laminate doesn´t give so I failed to stretch the fabric as I sewed, resulting in a hideous bunching that I can´t unpick because of TIHLALF #3

TIHLALF #3

You don´t have second opportunities with laminates. 

If you unpick a seam, the stitches will leave permanent holes on the fabric. So...

TIHLALF #4

Forget about pinning your fabric

Use hair clips, paper clips, sticky tape... whatever you have at home. If you must pin do it within the seam allowance ONLY.

TIHLALF #5

Figure out a way to mark on the laminate side

Tacking or chalk or fabric pen won´t do. I chose to stick tape and paint over it. 

TIHLALF 06

Turning a small tube inside out sucks

Two laminates right side together atract each other and cannot be separated easily. It took me two days to turn these tabs (six) right side out. I had to wet them to do it!. They still look pretty bad because I can´t topstitch them but I´ll leave that for another post.

There are more TIHLALF plus the finished raincoat next week. How about browsing Modes4u laminates range HERE and start planning your back to school raincoat? 

Hurry up because they´re now on sale HERE