A Cork Experience

So…

when it gets close to Quilt market time it’s not at all uncommon for us to get requests from various fabric houses or designers to make bag samples in their brand new fabrics for display in their booths.

It’s a classic symbiotic relationship in that my bag sample serves to help THEM sell fabric, while that same bag sample hanging in their booth display helps ME sell patterns. So I generally say yes, unless the fabric they’re releasing just isn’t my style at ALL.

But this time a relatively new company called me and here’s the thing… their main product wasn’t fabric… it was CORK!

My first inclination when I heard this was to decline and I told the caller that, because I never really thought of my designs as being particularly suited to cork. I guess its because the corks products I’ve seen and handled so far struck me as being too thick or bulky for our patterns, particularly in the seam areas. But my contact assured me that this cork was different… more like fabric. “Just give it a try”, she said!

So I did… and it was AMAZING!

I’m telling you, this cork is SO thin, SO pliable, and SO easy-to-work-with that it was hard to believe it was cork! But is IS cork so…here’s a couple of special considerations I noted as I was working with it!

• I tried to do most of my pinning in the seam allowance areas. Cork does tend to self -heal but it’s wise to be careful all the same.
• this cork takes a press beautifully, but I definitely utilized a pressing cloth.
• the cork side of this product can be a little grabby with a standard metal sewing foot so I used a teflon foot with much better results.
• I did not use the called-for interfacing in the areas of the bag that were corked.
• and finally, I used the called for cotton webbing on the interior of my strap, but in retrospect, I think I should’ve used nylon webbing which is less thick, (or maybe no webbing at all) so that the strap would move thru the slide buckle easier. I’ll experiment more with that.

Now here’s the BIG question!

The company that sent me this cork maintains that their cork is much thinner and more pliable that any other cork fabric on the market today!

Is that true? I honestly don’t know, but I’ll tell you what…when I’m at Market in a few weeks, I plan on checking out the various sources of cork that will also be there and I’ll give you a complete report upon my return! So in the meantime, please do not take the suggestions I’ve outlined above and apply them routinely to the cork you have in your possession, because here’s the deal…it may not work and cork is too expensive to waste, right? So do stay tuned for my post Market report!

And now…. it’s YOUR turn!

So how about you? Have you ever tried cork? And if so, do you have any tips of your own to share? And remember, we love reading your comments and answering your questions too, so please feel free to leave either or both in the space provided below.

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