This weeks fabulous sewing tip comes straight from my brilliant Gramma!
After digging through a box of inherited craft supplies one day, I came across a particularly well loved pattern. As I began to remove the pieces from the envelope to make sure they were all accounted for I made a rather surprising discovery. . . The tissue paper pieces were all stiff! And not stiff in an "eww gross! Where has this been?" kinda way, but sturdy, flexible, and not falling apart mangled the way many of my other 30+ year old commercial tissue paper patterns are.
Of course after bringing it to my Gramma's attention she had no memory anymore of who, where, or when the pattern had come from. But she did recall having used fusible interfacing to stiffen special patterns that she planned to work with repeatedly or pass on to friends. I was astounded! Why have I never heard (or thought ) about doing this? What a perfect way to preserve those lovely vintage patterns that we all scour the yard sales and thrift stores for! I really hope I'm not secretly just the last person to figure this out...
Use fusible interfacing to stabilize delicate tissue paper patterns.
Please keep in mind that it is still possible to stretch these out of shape or accidently poke holes through them
if you aren't careful. But they are definitely much more sturdy than your average piece of tissue paper.
Is that not the most brilliant thing you've seem all week?
Bonus points for all the amazingly crafty Grandmas!
P.S. - Don't forget to check out the Weekly Tips page,
or join the Tip of the Week pin board for even more fun sewing tips!
That IS the most brilliant thing I've seen all week! I find I'm scared to use my commercial patterns for fear of not being able to use them again. Which is daft because then I never use them!
ReplyDeleteWait, you mean we're actually supposed to use, the stuff in our stash? All this time I thought we were just supposed to hoard it and drool on it sometimes. :P
Deleteo yes, me toooo, always buy two of everything, one to use one to look at, did not realise we were
Deleteall the same :-))
Great tip! I have some vintage kids' patterns that deserve this special treatment. (It reminds me, somehow, of the fancying up process the characters go through in the Wizard of Oz.)
ReplyDeleteYay for vintage kids patterns! It's been quite awhile since I've seen the Wizard of Oz, but I think I know what you mean.
DeleteI never in a million years would have thought of that. What an awesome idea! I don't use patterns often, but I swear I ALWAYS end up tearing the pieces and trying to Frankenstein them back together with tape and staples. It isn't pretty.
ReplyDeleteO my gosh, Corbin just got a hold of one of my patterns the other day and Frankenstein-ing is the perfect description of what I was doing in my attempt to salvage the leftovers!
DeleteOh, jeez! I have blown through so many patterns I can't begin to count. And all I needed to do was to was this to same them. Thanks for the greatest tip ever.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tip! I've been sewing for many years and now I wonder; "why didn't I think of that?"
ReplyDeleteYou and me both! Why didn't Gramma tell me 20 years ago?
DeleteThank you to your Grandma! What a fabulous idea! I will be doing this for sure, thank you for sharing with us!
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome tip! Where were you when I was sewing so many dresses for my girls when they were younger?! Thanks for sharing with us this week at Monday Funday!
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Trish
This is such a great idea! I'm not a big sewer, but I hate working with the flimsy pattern pieces. Thanks for the wonderful tip!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! My trick is to copy them onto regular paper and then I can make new copies every time I want to use them again.
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant! Why have I never though of this before! I definitely need to do this to my tissue paper patterns! Thanks for the tip and thanks for linking up!
ReplyDeleteOK. This idea is genius! I have so many patterns that are almost unusable and this is the perfect fix! Thanks for linking up!
ReplyDelete-Missy @ So You Think You're Crafty
Fantastic tip. Thank you. Will end up spending the weekend preserving rather than using my patterns!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you've all found this idea so useful! I thought for sure someone was going to say "Well duh. Everyone knows that!" and I'd just be a big loser. ;)
ReplyDelete