So I was reading the thread posted by a member where she had gotten a surprise package and it was texture magic. I have seen the stuff before and new that it cost more than what I was willing to pay for a little fabric shrinkage! So... Suddenly the light bulb came on, it kinda scared me cause it doesn't shine very often but when it does watch out!
Anyways I have been making tubetop style swimsuit cover ups for a couple weeks now. I use elastic thread in my bobbin to shir the top of a beach towel. then I hit the shirred part with steam and it shrinks right up. My kids think I am amazing and can do....wait for it....MAGIC! lol

Anyways I took a square of fabric grew a grid on the back side of the fabric (wrong side oops) and then started sewing from the backside. only to realize duh, the elastic is going to show on the front of the fabric. ok. impravize, flip the fabric over and just start sewing a grid on the front so the elastic (in the bobbin) is now on the BACK of the fabric. I then shot it with steam and THIS is what happened!

My lines were sewn about 3/8 -1/2 inch apart. I think if I were going to do a large project this way I would space my lines out more. and definitely use a bigger piece of fabric. The only draw back to doing it THIS way is that the fabric begins to shrink as yoru sewing it. but with a little effort it all works out!

WOW! It sort of shrivels right up there, doesn't it.

Be sure to show us the finished project. Very interesting:)

You are amazing! How great is that?! Now I can do it, too. Thank-you so much and can you post a pic of those cover-ups you are talking about?

You are so smart. Great job

Thanks everyone! I don't really have a project in mind just wanted to know if it would work or not! Although it would be really cute to use this on the "center" piece on these frogs.
http://butterick.mccall.com/you-must...hp?page_id=898
Here is the first cover-up of the season!
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-118140-1.htm
Good luck!

Wow, that's really cool! I've never used elastic thread before, but lately I've been seeing a lot of projects online that use it. You use it for bobbing thread? Do you just wind it on by hand? Oh QB wise ones, tell me please!

Aren't you a clever one! Looks cool and would probably feel better than using the texture magic product.

What a cool discovery. I'm going to have to try this. Thanks for sharing.

What a neat idea.

I love that stuff

I'd like to see a pic of the swim suit cover-ups you made.

Good thinking! I agree that the frog centers would be nice done this way.

so cool! and very cute cover-ups!

This works great; I acutally posted this about 1 month ago when someone else was talking about the texture magic. I did it with a quilt a few months ago. I think the only down side was having to hand wind the elastic thread on the bobbin but it was easy to sew with. I love learning new things. This sounds like a great way for the swimming suit idea and I can see kids eyes as it begins to shrink. One thing I did was after seeing that it would shrink more I put it in a hot drier to make sure it had shrunk as far as it would go. My first quilt square was a little wobbly.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-118140-1.htm

I didn't see your post but as soon as I am done writing this I am going to go look for it. :) question though, why do you hand wind the elastic? I wind it on my machine. I just don't put it through the little tension disks on the top, I hold it in my hand and keep and even tension on it while I SLOWLY wind it. I guess if I ever had to hand wind it I would have never used it because I really don't have that kind of patience!

Thank you! :)

I don't know; our teacher said that it would stretch it too much to wind it with the machine. Now that I think of it I could probably use it with my bobbin winder and it would work out great. Thanks for the suggestion. I had to hand wind 3 of them for the block we were doing and it was only for the center of it. It's alot cheaper than the texture magic.