hi I'm Linda from sewing boo Fabrics I
want to talk to you about polyurethan
laminate fabric we're going to talk a
little bit about what the fabric
actually is what it looks like under a
microscope how to sew with it how it
compares to other waterproof fabrics and
how durable it actually is so this is p
fabric it comes in a whole range of
colors as well as patterns if you want
some I'll pop a link in the description
as well as the comments you can see that
PR is a really soft fabric it drapes
really easily it moves really easily we
stop the 1 mm thick P because it feels
so much lighter and it does just the
same as the heavier P the 2 mm is a
little bit stiffer it's a little bit
firmer a standard
P comes with a pattern on one side and a
laminate layer on the other side it
doesn't crease and it doesn't Fray which
makes it really easy to be able to work
within projects it doesn't matter which
way round you have it to be able to get
your waterproof lay so you could have it
with your pattern side on the outside or
you could have it with this side on the
outside you don't have to have the
polyurethene against the area that's
having the water in contact however the
only thing that I would say is it can
feel a little bit sticky against the
Skin So if you were going to have this
side against the skin I would line that
side what you can also get as well is
sandwich P that's got the polyester
layer on this side the polyurethan on
the inside and then it has another layer
of polyester on the back side of it
obviously that feels a bit nicer against
the skin the only problem though is
you're making it thicker which makes it
stiffer and it's quite expensive um so
it's just as easy to be able to get a
standard p and just align it with a
cotton or a polycotton the reason that
polyester fabric is used to make
polyurethan lainate is that once the
polyester is being
coated it's still contains its
stretch whereas things like cotton
Jersey when they've been coated with
polyurethan laminate they don't maintain
their stretch and so that's why it's not
as useful so if we were to look at it
underneath a microscope you can see that
against the end of this pin that I've
popped next to it it's got a very very
fine
weave and on the back side of it you can
see where the polyurethene has coated
that weaved Fabric and still left it so
that it's
breathable now here comes the fun part
here's where we get to find out what
actually happens when you get it
wet so I've just picked up a solid color
piece so that you can see any
differences in Shades uh once it's come
into the
water so if we pop this into the water
now you can see that the there's some
color
changes and then we're going to dunk it
right the way
in completely submerge
it now when it comes back
up you've got all your initial water
dripping right off you can see how it
starts to bead in and around here
now what happens is because you've got
polyester on one side and you have the
laminate on the other you can see the
water sits on top of the laminate and
runs down but on the polyester side it
soaks into the polyester so the outside
layer stays feeling damp but the inside
layer it will just run clean
off now I've scrunched up some p and I
want to show you what happens if we pour
water inside of
it so if I drip it into
here you can see that there's none at
all that's coming through
there in fact other than the bits where
I've spilled a couple of little drops
you wouldn't even know on this side that
there had been any water whatsoever on
the inside so remember if I dunk
it you start getting this slightly
darker color change around here where
you can see it's being in contact with
water but everywhere else where there's
only water inside there's none of that
color change whatsoever so you see the
darker color where I've dunked
it all completely clear where it hasn't
touched the water in practicality how
well does it last well I've been cloth
napping My Two children since they were
born I made the um the first liners
quite early on for going around their
cloth nappies that meant that this
fabric was getting washed about every 2
days coming in contact with we and poops
and everything else there's not one
that's showing any signs of any problems
the only time that I've actually seen uh
polyurethan laminate uh to get damaged
is when this Underside here has got
damaged
now the usual way that it gets damaged
is if there's large areas where it's
either not lined or it's not coming into
contact with anything else so it's not
sewn and secured down and then if it's
in the washing machine or in the tumble
dryer with things that are a little bit
spikier so things like Zips then it can
catch on this back side of it if this
side becomes caught what tends to happen
over time is that as it's washed again
and again is that the polyurethan can
separate away from the polyester inside
so the way to get around that is simply
just to line it and then that way it
can't catch against anything in the
washing machine or just to think about
how you're washing it to make sure that
this part isn't going to come up against
anything abrasive so now we're going to
have a little compare between the
polyurethan laminate Fabric and some PVC
oil floth fabric so when you're sewing
something like the oil cloth you've got
your shiny side on the
outside and you've got your smooth
smooth more woven side on the inside now
when that comes to sewing that means
when this is against the feed dogs it's
going to feed through very nicely but
when this is against the feed dogs it
has potential to scratch it um so you
might need to be a little bit more
careful with that sometimes I use a
stabilizer to go through it uh or tissue
paper grease fruit paper something like
that would be fine and then tear that
away afterwards whereas you don't tend
to find that with the shiny side of the
P when you're sewing this you might want
to use um different feet to make it so
that it moves through the sewing machine
a little bit easier now when you're
sewing with the p fabric you won't need
to use different feet when you're doing
outside to outside so right sides out
but you may want to do it if you're
trying to sew something with the
polyurethene side on the outside of both
sides if you're only sewing with
say this kind of a position where you've
got got the polyester on one side and
then you have the laminate on the other
side I would always move the laminate
underneath to the feed dogs the feed
dogs will pull it through and this won't
cause you any bother with your foot at
all however if you do want to
sew so that you've got lamon at top and
lamon at bottom you've got a variety of
choices it's completely personal
preference what you want to use so some
people will use a Teflon foot other
people will turn their normal foot into
a Teflon CL foot by putting some Scotch
tape underneath
it you could also use a roller
foot a walking foot or my personal
preference is a knit foot now the next
thing we want to compare is how we're
going to keep our edges together so
usually we' pin things now the problem
with pins and waterproof Fabrics is that
every time you put a pin through it
you're making a tiny hole every tiny
hole makes it gradually less and less
waterproof now with the oil cloth if you
were to do that your PIN hole is going
to be permanent that means that you will
always have those little marks all the
way up CL now you can get around that by
using it so that it's just inside the
seam allowance and then it doesn't
matter if you've got those little pin
Pricks there your needle will also make
holes so as that goes along every time
the needle goes in that will also make a
hole some people might then use a
waterproofing t tape to seal that over
afterwards now the brilliant thing with
p is that if you do make those holes yes
those holes are there however if you pop
it in the tumble machine briefly on a
warm to high heat those holes will seal
back over and whether you have a tumble
dryer machine or not you still might
want to have a preference for using
these kind of Clips to hold your edges
together and then that way you don't
have to worry about any damage to the
fabric or any hold
whatsoever so now I want to show you
what it's like just to sew the fabric um
and to be able to turn it and see how
well it turns a
corner okay Okay so we've sewn our L
shape there and now we're going to do
exactly the same with our PVC oil
cloth so we're going to play fair on
both we're going to trim the
seams and then clip the
corner so this one is your PBC oil cloth
and you can
see as I'm trying to turn that it's
stiff it's hard it's firm it's a little
bit
[Applause]
awkward I'm still
going okay and we've turned it but you
can see here where I've turned and
there's a little bit of damage to this
around the edges so you have to be
really really careful how you do it if
you're a little bit rough with it you're
going to get that and that obviously
will have an effect as to what the
longevity is like if we give you the P
the same treatment so again we're just
going to trim close up to those
seams and then turn inside
out you can see how much quicker and
easier that really
is and if we have a look at the
seams you can see that looks a lot
neater that looks a lot
nicer it sits a lot better and now you
can see if I were to just use a standard
presser but if I've got both sides with
the urethan laminate on the inside
you can see how smoothly and easily it
sews so you only need to use different
foot when you're using the polyurethan
side facing upwards what have we learned
so far that it's light it's easy to
drape it's waterproof and it's
breathable and it's fairly easy to sew
that makes it brilliant for all sorts of
projects you could use it for anything
from waterproof trousers right up to
using it for wet bags and this is why
it's ended up so commonly used in things
like washable nappies now P was
originally designed with the medical
field in mind the idea being that they
wanted a waterproof fabric that could be
washed at high temperature again and
again and again so it's made to be
durable and it's made to be washed at a
reasonable temperature so we recommend
that ours can be washed up to 50°
Centigrade it also doesn't tend to stain
I'm yet to manage to stain any of my P
Fabric and we've been using it an awful
lot now the last thing that I want to
show you
is that not all polyesters created equal
so you can also get plush P this is a
silky soft
side that feels really silky against
your
skin with exactly the same waterproof
coating sitting along the back and you
can see that it's still got this woven
appearance it's still got this
breathability to it but it's got this
silky luxurious plush feel to it on this
side so that are other types of fabrics
that are available that have got this Ur
polyure themee backing to
it and if you enjoyed that don't forget
to share and subscribe and we'll bring
you more sewing tips and tutorials soon