How to Melt Your Fabric

A wise woman (Zede Donohue) once said, “There are those who test and those who wish they had.”

I ran up another pleated raglan top yesterday afternoon. It took about two hours to pull some Walmart remnant rack fabric out of the stash, cut the pieces, put it together on the serger, and hem it on the coverstitch machine. Everything was going swimmingly until I decided that the hem could use a quick pressing.

The thing about Walmart remnant rack fabric is that it doesn’t come with any fiber content information. The most the label might say is, “Fibers of Undetermined Content” or some such thing. I am reasonably good at identifying most fabrics. This one felt like a rayon/spandex or polyester/spandex.

I have a cheap Rowenta iron purchased for about $29 after my hideously expensive Oliso iron stopped working. I like the Rowenta iron very much except for the fact that it tends to be very hot on the hottest setting. I rarely use that setting unless I am ironing linen. I know this about my iron and am very careful to set it below the highest setting.

I also have a silk press cloth sitting on my ironing board. Did I use it? Of course not. I put that top down on the ironing board and put the tip of the iron down on the hem without using the press cloth and smelled the sickening smell of melting fabric. I had melted a dime-sized hole right in the hem. Fortunately, I was pressing from the inside so the hole was inside the hem.

I guess that fabric had some nylon in it. Nylon is just about the only thing that would melt like that on that heat setting.

Sigh.

I undid the coverstitch hem and took the top back to the cutting table where I proceeded to cut off an inch all the way around, thus removing the damaged fabric. I then re-hemmed the top. In the end, it turned out fine, although a bit shorter than planned.

Lesson learned. I will not press any Walmart fabric without testing a scrap, first, preferably using my press cloth. I also cleaned my iron.

I think I should stay out of my sewing room today. 😮

I do like this pattern. I have so many nice fabrics in the stash that I could use with it. And I’ve developed quite a fondness for raglan sleeves.

*****

It’s raining today. I love these cool, rainy days because they are a good excuse to make a big pot of soup or stew. I think tonight’s dinner is going to be beef stew. Anna made me some curry with the Blue Kuri squash the other day and it was delicious. Sarah also gave a big thumbs up to the Blue Kuri squash so I will keep that one in the rotation next year.