When I made my first wrap scrap creation in 2017, I knew very little about working with woven material. Actually, I knew very little about working with any type of fabric, being more of an embroiderer, and then the type that does not embroider on fabric but on Aida cloth. But when it comes to new crafts that I feel reasonably comfortable with I just like to start working and see where that takes me. So I unearthed my fabric (Shui Long, the Tibetan water dragon, of course) and started drawing out the pattern pieces needed for a cute hedgie.
The cute hedgie turned out to be a giant hedgehog and I also found out that drawing pattern pieces on wrap fabric isn’t very easy to do. But it had been fun to do so I moved on to make the giraffe. That one taught me that interfacing is a must – otherwise the threads shift easily (wrap fabric is usually woven in a relatively loose weave) and you get very unsightly spots where the ‘warp’ threads have moved and all you see are the (usually very contrasting) weft threads (or vice versa). In short, it’s not something you want to see in any creation.
Finding the best type of interfacing was interesting because I found the best type to be used – if I’d lived in the USA. But ‘Pellon’ isn’t exactly something I could easily acquire here so I had to find an alternative. Google rarely disappoints though and I found a nice table with a good comparison of different brands of interfacing which told me that ‘Vlieseline H180’ was what I was looking for. Yay!
H180 is a type of interfacing that you have to iron on. That meant that my iron finally got to see some daylight (or any light really) because I’m many things, but not exactly what you’d call a good housewife. Ironing on interfacing isn’t the most interesting part of creating a wrap scrap animal, but it combines quite well with watching your current favorite series on TV!
Do take care you get the white type. It doesn’t have to be interfacing of the brand Vlieseline (although I have found that it does work best) but you can get it in black too. Don’t. It’s impossible to draw on, unless you favor white tailor’s chalk, which I find is not precise enough to my tastes. In some cases though, black can be useful, I just prefer to use white. I’ve yet to find a scrap with a loose enough weave that it allows for the interfacing to shine through, so using white shouldn’t be an issue.
Now you can start drawing your pattern pieces… on your interfaced piece of pre-washed wrap scrap… go on, you can do it! Or you can have me do it for you, of course ;).