Huh? Well, in one of my previous work incarnations (like 16 years ago), I worked on a tug boat. Have you wondered where the anchor chain goes when a ship brings the anchor in? The chain gets dumped into a large space called a chain locker. What does this have to do with elastic? Well, it's how the chain doesn't get tangled that matters. The end of the chain is secured to a spot in the chain locker. The chain never loops around and gets knotted, so no tangles.
What I ended up doing with my elastic was to use a zip-lock baggie. I pinned the tail end of the elastic to the inside of the baggie with a safety pin and cut a small hole in the opposite side of the baggie. I fed all of the elastic into the baggie and poked the free end out of the cut hole, using a clip to keep the elastic from getting pulled back into the baggie when it's not being used. The 10 yards of elastic fit into a quart-sized baggie & the FOE is in a gallon baggie. I can actually sew the elastic without having a total mess - the baggie sits next to the sewing machine and I feed what I need out of it. I really wish this would work with Christmas lights (tried it - the lights get snagged so the strands won't feed evenly).
Yes, I know, pictures. First, I have to find the camera ;-) It's probably under a stack of fabric (or in some strange spot that my DD decided to stash it).
Update - Found the camera. Here are my zip lock baggie elastic "chain lockers":
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| Quart-sized baggie & 1/4" elastic |
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| Gallon baggie & FOE |
THANK YOU!!!! A million time thank you!!! I tried the baggie thing w/o the safety pins and I ended up dumping the mess half on my lap and half on the floor to untangle and use the mess! :)
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