This week I made 6 heatproof place mats for Mum, they are heat proof because mum and dad like to heat their plates to keep the food warm - which is a great idea, if you don't use vinyl placemats, or have a laminated table, which they do. These took an awfully long time to make. But they are done now after a few sleepless nights, all they need is a good iron. I think they turned out pretty good! Making these frustrated the heck out of me though. Theres probably heaps of things I have learnt from this frustration, here's a few.
- Don't buy rotary cutters whose brand you don't know - and don't believe the sales people when they don't have the one you want, but they say "this ones just as good!!" They aren't just as good - 6 cuts til the rotten thing went blunt in one part of the circular blade and then on made weird perforations and tore instead of cut. I wasted a whole heap of material thinking I was doing something wrong (I'd not used a rotary cutter before now) - Sorry I wont say which brand in case I get sued.
- Do buy Olfa Rotary cutters, they are awesome. Thankgod, after getting a refund for the first rotary cutter, that the other store had Olfa rotary cutters, which is a brand I knew from the snap-off blade cutters I'd used for paper Arts and crafts over the years.
- Pins are sharp and they hurt. And the bigger they are the worse they hurt, thanks quilters pins! Have bandaids for the bad ones and the ones that get up under your finger nail, but nothing can prepare you for a big-arse scratch to the boob, through your clothes.
- I hate unpicking. - That's it..theres no advice..theres nothing that makes unpicking better.
- Probably should have thought about the mitred corners requiring a seam allowance when i measured and cut stuff..oh well they are all a bit smaller now...next time.
- It's time to go to bed when: You can't cut straight, you scratch your boob, need to unpick and need to account for your own miss-measurements and theres no one else awake in the house to blame.
Goodnight.
