Adventures with Velcro

Kennet Valley Guild has been working hard on a major project and all the entries rae in. So on Monday four of us gathered to assemble everything. I am not showing photos or indeed relating what it is about. It is enough to say that my job was to put strips of black Velcro loops onto a black felt background, about 45 inches square. But first fusible black interlining was ironed on to the back of the felt and a sleeve made at the top. So we attached the Velcro stripes and I took the two pieces home to finish off the lower hem. The next day, the Velcro stripes were no longer attached to the felt. I should have realised that the felt would be too hairy. So nothing for it but to machine stitch the Velcro to the felt. This caused havoc. I tried using a hefty (denim) needle. The machine still stopped after creating an appalling tangle on the back of the felt. So I investigated more carefully and found that the glue which stuck the Velcro down was being picked up by the needle which picked up bits of fluff which stuck into a lump on the needle which - - -. You can guess the rest. Chris Fletcher (thank you Chris) pointed out that I might do just as well to sew several lines of stitching across all the Velcro strips. My excuse for not seeing that solution was that I was panicking. Anyway that worked, although after each row of stitching, I had to clean the needle. This morning was spent sawing up bamboo into the right lengths and everything is fine and dandy. I do have another four to do but they are very much smaller. One problem with the two I have done is that a piece of reinforced felt 45 inches square is very unwieldy on a sewing machine.

While I was fighting with black felt, the others were dealing with the pieces of weaving, spinning, knitting, crocheting, dyeing (well we are talented bunch) and they had trouble with the Velcro glue as well.

The weather is glorious and the garden is full of flowers. I even did a bit of gardening this morning. I have finished tying on the handspun blanket but I am off tomorrow to West Dean College to do a weekend on Pop-Up Engineering. I am looking forward to it.