Kraft Tex - pre-washing comparison

Looking at the various different ways to pre-wash/pre-treat/texturise the Kraft Tex paper fabric to make it look more like leather.
It's hard to see the texture in the video so come check out the photos at so-sew-easy.com...
Buy your Kraft Tex here:
Direct from CT Publishing - shrsl.com/?~aw0k
Amazon USA - amzn.to/1mJnxFa
Amazon UK - amzn.to/1MCp2d9
Check out So Sew Easy for more Kraft Tex tips and projects, and patterns for things to sew with Kraft Tex.
so-sew-easy.com

[@shaymarie7045]

I would like to share my experiment with Kraft-Tex to get that leather look. First I cut one half a yard from my roll then I cit that into four equal sections. I soaked all four sections in a bath of tap hot water for three hours, only because I had housework to do. I took each section out of the water one at a time and crumpled it into the smallest crumpled folds that I could. This stuff is still tough even when wet. After I got each section into a small ball, one at a time I tightly wrapped each ball with standard office type rubber bands, 4 each, making sure to capture all the folds. I let them stay like that over night. The next day I noticed that the outside edges of the Kraft-Tex was dry so I took the rubber bands off to let the inner part of the ball dry as well without opening the ball. To keep the ball from opening up and loosing the crumpling I wrapped each ball with cheese cloth. I let this stand till after dinner. Now each section was dry. I then took them to my ironing board, put the iron on high with steam. At first I though ironing them would take away the crumpling I had developed, not a chance. Each tiny crumple I made stayed deeply into the Kraft-Tex. I ironed it some more, the crumples would not go away. I took my experiment a step farther and bonded some fabric to one side of two of the sections, using wounder web, that worked like a charm as well, still all crumples remained. To get long lasting crumples that resemble leather using Kraft-Tex is to let it dry still crumpled up. I hope my experiment helps

[@conishkee]

Goodness gracious, Sharon, I am definitely going to try this method. The key factor here is to exercise a bit of patience in order to see the end results. I get it. Thank you so much for sharing your technique. I can't wait to get busy with it.

[@howardfrank3032]

Shay Marie s

[@headovmetal]

My favorite method is just to throw the entire roll in my domestic washing machine and dryer. That softens it and creases it.

[@vickit1173]

Great review of this item Deby. I had seen a few bloggers use that awhile back and was quite interested in how it would work when sewing with it.

[@midwestslpphoto]

Very interesting experiments. Thank you for sharing your results with us. And by the way, I love your nails!

[@sweetthreedesign8859]

Thank you for doing this, was it still a 6" square in the end?

[@naticristellavi8236]

I wonder how will work if used as a canvas for painting a picture?

[@loro9385]

If you spray it with water and press it, it flattens nicely

[@MamaBanana]

Hi, Just wondering if it shrank after washing.

[@covid-19inthistogether96]

Thank you!

[@sylviabrown6617]

That was Awesome can't wait to see what's next where do you buy that at Thanks

[@thetwipletmom]

I got mine on amazon

[@lorenameandmyprettythings3597]

Thanks so useful 😘

[@MAMOUTH1981]

Is it normal that the kraft-tek tears easily?

[@lasinmt106]

No it's not normal to tear easily. It sounds like you've had that happen the way your question is worded. So maybe you don't have the real kraft-tex paper product. If you watch this video you can tell how strongly the fibers hold even when wet. You know like a lot of paper products when they get wet including cardboard and cardstock not to mention tissue paper or just standard copy paper it'll tear very easily. But the way the Kraft-tex is formed or what makes it's fiber structure up dry or wet it's pretty solid. You however can cut it pretty easily with quality scissors, sharp roller blades and even paper cutters. Craft knife works well for intricate design cutting too. However it cuts best when dry or almost dry. A blade likes some solid resistance as in a physic's thing. Anyway it definitely does not tear easily. Which is why this material works so great as a book binders and journal makers. Now check out the embossing videos here on KZbin using this material to really see what can be a whole new exciting craft with this product. And you can dye it too. Watch a few of the how to dye it though you can use the more expensive dye you can also get great results with grocery store Rit dye. And the base color changes the dynamics of the dye so white gives you the most bright sharp colors while the medium colors can come out quite a bit darker using same dye amount. So a bright yellow might be gold or a muddy gold with stone or natural kraft-tex and think spring green vs. moody olives using the stone or natural kraft-tex. People just have fun with it and many just want a leather like product with a purse and to make it washable. So you can make totes washable while still using a paper or pairing it with paper and fabrics for a variety of designs where you might mix leather and fabric together. I think it's a bit expensive to go to over board for tote making but it does come in 10 yard rolls. Sometimes hard to find the 10 yards though usually you can find the 54" or 1.5 yard rolls by 19" wide. The more you play with it the more ideas will pop into your head to be more creative with it. Stay safe and have fun everyone.

[@radziwill123]

pity that you don't have control (untreated ) sample...

[@LovinglfDesigns]

Thanks for the testing. I'll not be machine washing mine.