Epic Fail

Emily — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:49:06 +0000

Well, I’m not sure who I’m going to blame for keeping me up way past my bedtime on Saturday night working on this mess of a project, but I think the ladies at the Joann’s cutting table could definitely be listed as enablers. I thought “oh laptop sleeve. No big deal. Then I’ll have a laptop case. Yay!” And somewhere along the way, the excitement turned to actual threats issued to fabric. Here is a picture at the start, so much promise *sigh*.
The applique portion of this project went really well. I got the idea for my friend Barb, who has the very best appliqued hooded sweatshirt of all time. So here’s where it went wrong:
1. Sewing high density foam is the worst. I was literally sweating trying to push it through my machine. I have no idea what made me thing that would work .
2. High density foam requires a big allowance in sewing, because it takes up a lot of space. I did not think of this.
So here’s the finished product. At about 3am:

If you can’t tell from the photo, this is an example of what happens when you double up foam and try to sew it. It is chewed up and spit out by the machine. I had no idea my machine was so cruel.

I don’t think it looks so bad from the outside. BUT, no matter how good it looks, it won’t work as a laptop sleeve if you CAN’T FIT YOUR LAPTOP INTO IT!!! I thought I would have been more disappointed, but thanks for the time of night (or morning) it was actually a little amusing. Word to the wise, if you think it might not be big enough when you’re cutting the fabric, you’re probably right.
So with all the seams ripped out, the pieces of the pattern are waiting for me at home. The foam is being punished so I think I’ll try the project again next weekend with some batting and fusible fleece. Anyone else have frustrating project stories to share or laptop sleeve successes?

On a Lark » foam

Epic Fail