Any fabric wrapping gurus care to share your knowledge?

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Emibub

Emibub

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Nov 2, 2001
Posts
9,246
Loc
Centennial, CO, USA
Fabric wrapping liners is relatively new to me. I need a little guidance. I'm not looking to continuously wrap just yet. I just want to wrap the fabric around the ends for a more finished look. My customer brought me the fabric to match something in her house. I didn't say I was going to wrap the ends so I don't have to but I just want to. I do have extra fabric to play with but am concerned if I biff it I don't think it would be too easy to reuse the liner itself. Now to the questions.......

I've used the Miracle Muck for mats but I have always reactivated it with heat. It seems to dry way too fast, how do I apply it to the liner, keep it usable without heat? Or do I use an iron. Hope not because this is a pretty deep scoop liner. The fabric is linen but fairly thin, it would seem too much glue would bleed through.

Is there a trick to cut the fabric at the corners where I want to wrap it around the end? I know I just want one single layer of fabric on the end but I am in particular concerned about where to cut at the very inside corner.

How smoothly primed does the wood have to be? I've sanded but me thinks the paint was a bit thicker than necessary, there are some brush strokes. I don't want to waste a lot of time resanding if it won't show.

There you have it, in a fairly large nutshell, my questions presented to anybody interested, or not. Respectfully submitted for anybody's approval. A hearty thank you will be cheerfully bestowed upon anybody so kind as to respond with any useful information that I might glean.
 
It may sound crazy, but if one uses a liner
that already has fabric on it as the base,
glues will settle into that fabric and one
will have a much longer working time to apply
the new fabric.

Hugh
 
Practice, practice, practice.

no, really.

Each profile has it's own particular challenge, and scoops are probably some of the more difficult. Work in stages. Just how thin is the fabric? Will brush marks show through? Will you need to thin and spray the Muck to get an even enough coat? You have plenty of material, do you have any extra liner blank to play with?
I usually brush on 2 coats of Muck and apply the fabric when still a bit wet and work it into the scoop, but if the fabric is too thin and the glue oozes through then heat reactivation might be the answer. If you can't get the iron on the profile, you can heat the fabric with a shrink wrap gun (wear gloves).
 
Kathy
Try this out on a spare piece of liner first.

Have your tacking iron for your press, adhesive release film, sharp scissors, razor blades, clean hands. Cut your liner. Just remember that it will GROW a little bit with the fabric on the ends.

Cut fabric for each liner piece so that it is big enough to over lap ENTIRE END on each side. Brush on Miracle Muck. Lay down the fabric on one piece .. smooth down.
Bring fabric over the entire end on each side taking care to keep it as smooth as possible on the scoop part. Most fabrics with the Muck will stretch a little so don't worry.
Make little nips and tucks on the fabric if needed. Use your tacking iron to heat up problem areas with the release paper under it over the fabric. When dry trim off excess with sharp blade.

Now clue your liner just like a frame with the Miracle Muck . You will have a beautifl wrapped liner.

Franks fabrics has some great hand outs for this procedure. Call him and have him fax it to you.
 
Thanks for the help guys.....I have completed the task. It really went quite well until I went to build the liner. It would not hold a bond to the fabric when I joined the mitres. I tried Miracle Muck and Cornerweld. If I were prone to wild temper tantrums I would have beaten it to death with a hammer but instead I just remitred the corners to get rid of the fabric on the ends and assembled like a regular liner. Not sure where it failed but I will attempt in the future when I have extra liner to play around with.
 
And did it give you the finished look that you were expecting?? I have never heard of wrapping the liner material completely around the ends of the miters before now. I have always wrapped the liners and trimmed the ends flush. When the liner is joined, it should look closed and complete.

One trick that I use when mitering the corners of liners when you get those little fuzzy wuzzies on the edges of the linen is to take a hard rubber sanding block with 320 open coat sand paper (the grey type with wavy grit that body shops use for sanding paint) and sanding the fuzzies off the ends of the miters.

You have to follow a few guidelines so you don't make a mess of it though. You can roll the fibers of the linen over the edge of the miter with your finger. Then sand lightly in one direction away from the face of the liner towards the point of the miter. Also sand only in one direction. If you don't you will drag the fuzzies back over the edge of the liner edge and will have to roll them back over the edge onto the face of the miter again.

If you sand carefully and don't tilt your block into the miter or at an angle, you should have a nice clean edge in no time. I have tried to trim these with a scissors but have never figured out how to get them trimmed close enough. The scissor blade always seems to get in the way for me.

Framerguy

[ 02-10-2004, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: Framerguy ]
 
Kathy: One other thing to consider is the assembly of the covered liner sections. With the thick fabric at the ends, it's hard to get good contact. I don't do this technique often, but when I do I like to remove most of the fabric from the ends, leaving just enough overlapping the mitre to prevent a gap. (Or do what Framerguy just described.)Then I assemble the liner in the vise, using 1" drywall screws driven into pre-drilled and countersunk holes (you can get a bit that does both operations at once). This holds the corners together very tightly and looks great.

:cool: Rick

[ 02-10-2004, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: Rick Granick ]
 
Kathy
I am sorry it did not work first time out. Next time make sure you clamp all four sides at once ( a strap clamp is good) let the corners dry completely before v-nailing....

It takes a longer drying time with fabric corners. The fabric absorbs a lot of the fabric glue. It is not like putting together a wood corner.

Continuously wrapped corners are really beautiful but you will need flatter profiles.
 
Tom, I was unfamiliar with wrapping the fabric over the ends until a friend showed me last year, she had seen a demo at Las Vegas. I just think it looks really professional.

I realize I was missing a key component, which would be the "Patience Factor". I have a christening gown I want to make for the store so I just ordered the raw liner and will experiment with my own stuff. I just want to try it. I'll post pictures if it turns out!

Thanks for the input again.
 
Have you ever assembled the liner first then covered it like you would a mat? That really gives a nice finished look. No miters visible at all.
 
Yes Frank, I definitely want to experiment witht he continuous wrap, couldn't on this one because it was a deep scoop. My plan is to let the pros do it but I still want to give it a try.
 
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