Tape Isn't Always the Answer

I'm one of those people who  believe that there isn't much that can't be accomplished with adhesive tape. I use tape to mark seam lines,

to hold small pieces in place,

Pouting cat

and recently, when my cat pushed the edge of the window screen free and escaped, I duct taped the screen
to the house until my husband had time to fix it. The cat, having enjoyed a brief taste of freedom, was quite annoyed to find the screen immovable, while I, on the other hand, was happy that she wasn't wandering outside with the coyotes. Thank goodness for duct tape.

The first vintage pattern I sewed--Simplicity 1690--had two damaged pattern pieces, one of which was ripped in half. In my very first blog post, I wondered why the original owner hadn't taped together the pattern pieces. Well, thank goodness she hadn't.

I recently bought a pattern for a 1940's dress and some of the pattern pieces were taped.

The tape had gone all gunky over the years and the semi-liquified adhesive had soaked through the layers of folded tissue.

It may be hard to see, but this is the adhesive residue resisting
my efforts to separate the pattern layers.

Peeling the layers of pattern apart without damaging the delicate tissue was a slow and painstaking process--and not fully successful.

When I finished, I had gooey areas on the pattern--and on my camera from the adhesive that was still sticking to my fingers after peeling the pattern pieces apart.

The tape had left residue on the pattern pieces that had been in contact with the taped pattern piece.

In order to store the pattern again, I cut tissue paper and set it on top of the gooey area where it adhered from the residual gunk.

And then, after all that, I realized that this particular pattern was missing so many pieces--the sleeve and the complicated bodice front to name a few--that I had to abandon the project. But I learned something about tape--it doesn't solve all problems. Sometimes it makes new ones.