Making Time to Play

Over the past several weeks & months, I have been visiting different sites and looking at techniques and ways of making things to try to expand my repertoire of skills. I remember vividly how I stayed away from doing zippers at all (I have horror stories in my garment construction past) until Lisa over at U-handblog showed me how to do it. And now I can't seem to make a handbag without one.

So today, in spite of looming deadlines and an upcoming trip back across our northern border, I made time to play.

I had been mulling over for a few days this new (well new to me) technique of fusing plastic bags with an iron. Seems like a cool idea, I have tons of those, and they are nearly taking over the house. Further, I thought I would expand on the idea and sprinkle the inside of the bag with the tiniest of fabric scraps to give it color and some interest.

Well, during this play, I discovered one of the challenges of trying a new technique - the frustration of not being able to master it right away. I watched a video! It looks easy! So I should be able to do it!

Not.

I definitely have learned when the iron is too hot. You get a really, really small piece of plastic at the end, that is if you don't burn holes in it first. I also learned that when someone is teaching a technique or writing a tutorial, it doesn't mean they are necessarily the expert or have tried all the things they are recommending. For example, the site where I got my information, in one of the Storque articles on Etsy, suggests that you can use freezer paper, waxed paper, parchment, or plain paper. Not so. (Both freezer paper & waxed paper have coatings that will soon turn your project into a fused mess & a half. Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I only tried freezer paper & made an assumption about getting similar results with waxed.)

What I haven't quite figured out is what exactly the "right" iron temperature is. It seems that every other temperature I tried failed to produce an actual fused plastic. It's either "not fused" or "burnt". Oh - and by the way - sticking fabric scraps in between just muddies the water, and ends up in the "not fused" category.

But I think the most important lesson I learned today is the importance of play... of trying a new technique... of maybe succeeding or failing miserably, but to learn something from it regardless.

So I am glad that I took the time to play today... but I don't think I am on my way to becoming a connesieur of plastic fusing, and I'm a little bummed about how much freezer paper was sacrificed in the process! :)

Happy quilting!