[pct-l] Sympathy

[Eric Lee]

Dave wrote:
>
I am in the middle of sewing my Ray-Way Tarp using silicone coated nylon and
would appreciate some sympathy from anyone out there who has tried to tame
that slipper son of a gun material! No matter how I pin it, tack it, clip
it, staple it those seams keep come out looking like they have been sewn in
the dark by a drunken man!
>

What (mostly) worked for me was a combination of using steel binder clips to
hold the stuff where I wanted it, and then ironing the seam with an iron on
moderate heat to make the material (kind of) want to stay where I put it.
Once that was done, I was usually able to (slowly and carefully) feed it
through the sewing machine with one hand in front to guide the seam and one
hand behind to hold it together before it was sewn.

This worked best with straight seams.  I've done a couple of circular and
catenary-cut seams this way but the best I could hope for there was
something that was structurally sound, not something that looked nice.

Eric