Rachael Ray and Kevin Christiana: Saving Stained Clothes

Okay, I'm sharing these techniques Rachael Ray covered on her show "Fifteen-Minute Meal" but I'm not sure I'd ever use them simply because these aren't the kind of materials I have laying around.

The first viewer was a teacher who threw out half her wardrobe because of errant pen marks and marker streaks on her shirts. I've been there. I have a pair of pants that has a bright blue sharpie mark down the right leg I refuse to give up.

Kevin Christiana to the rescue! He says to take a design- a rose, a vine, something you like and get it xeroxed. Lay the paper ink down on the shirt, over the pen stain and then paint over the back with turpentine. As you paint the back, the design will show through the wet paper. Let the turpentine dry- Kevin says 10 seconds is all it takes- then peel back the paper. Insta-stain camouflage. If only I had turpentine hanging around, then I'd feel okay about trying this out.


The second viewer was a young girl who spilled grape drink on her dress. Kevin recommends tie-dying it with the same thing that stained it, in this case grape drink. He made up a packet of grape drink mix in a pan and then rubber banded the dress into a tube shape at random points. He says to leave the dress to saturate for thirty minutes, let it dry, rinse it, and then do it again. He also showed the audience that you could do it once with grape, let it dry, rubber band it a different way, and then use tropical punch.

It's an interesting practice and something younger peoples will enjoy, but again I don't have grape drink mix hanging around.


There was also a viewer who had a cigarette burn hole in her trench coat. He used Mighty Mend it to create pleats and such to cover and convert the hole. No mighty mend-it, no try.



Back to fusing plastics, I guess. :)

Fusing Plastics 101

Caitlin's Comprehensive Craft lesson

Fusing Plastic: The Basics

We’re going to start easy. These directions can be modified to suit more difficult projects later.

You will need:

• Two plastic shopping bags- Wal-Mart, Target, etc

• Two pieces of paper at least as big as the bags flattened out

• A pair of scissors

• An iron

• A flat iron-safe surface

• A well-ventilated working area (Just in case )

1. Lay one of the shopping bags flat on your ironing surface.

2. Cut off the two handles as well as the bottom seem

a. NOTE: If the shopping bag has print on it (and most do!) flip it inside out! The dye will melt and do funky things to your project otherwise.

3. Repeat step 1 & 2 for the second bag

4. Lay bag one on top of bag two, fold in half.

a. NOTE: The decided thickness is eight layers of plastic. Each bag is two, the both folded in half- it all equals eight layers. Eight seems to be strong enough without being too thick.

5. Place one of the pieces of paper on the ironing surface. Place the folded plastic on top and cover with the remaining paper.

a. NOTE: Make sure the plastic is covered completely by the paper! Plastic directly on your iron is NOT.GOOD.

6. Heat your iron. You want it above polyester but below rayon. For my iron, this falls right before the “steam” level.

7. Run the iron over the paper that’s over the plastic for TEN SECONDS. Keep the iron moving and make sure to hit all parts of the plastic.

8. Flip the paper, keeping the plastic in place. An alternate method is to lift the top paper, peel the (hot) plastic off and just flip the plastic over before replacing the top paper.

9. Repeat step 7 after flipping the plastic

You’ll need to flip it-iron it multiple times. For me it takes about seventeen-bazillion flips for a good finish.

You’ll know it’s too early to flip if the plastic is bubbly, or wrinkly; if it crinkles when you touch it, or if the ends separate.

The final product should be smooth and relatively tough. It may still be wrinkly, but they will be flat and sturdy.

This information was gathered by reading/watching:

http://www.tubbybundle.com/blog/plastic-bag-craft/

and

http://etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-overdue-fusing-plastic-bag.html

and by a boat load of trial and error!

It's a great day to craft!

Originally posted at caitlincrafts.wordpress.com on Sept 6, 2009:

Well, world, today I found out I’ve lost one of three of my jobs.

The cut of my income could possibly have come at a worse time but right now it seems really bad.

As a way of coping, I’m going to share my experiences with crafting. Mostly I’ll be sticking to the trash-to-treasure crafts as my funds will be few and far between in the future.

Stay tuned for tutorials and tips for popular crafting projects!

Thanks for reading,

Caitlin