Today: Shaun White as guru and contact paper

Shaun White and I have so much in common.

Wait, let me rethink that: The two-time Olympic snowboarding gold medalist, great and mighty Double McTwist 12-60-sama, gracer of the Rolling Stone cover twice, mentioned by President Obama and bearer of flaxen red tresses and I, a Redondo Beach hausfrau, do not have so much in common.

However, I was listening to a radio interview with the Flying Tomato. He answered a question as to why does he keep going? Keep pushing the boundaries? When he could just kick back and just let the money and the girls flow in? His answer went like this:

"I always just get to a certain point where I feel bored. I feel like I need to do go out there and do stuff. And what's crazy, everybody wants to understand how I do it. Everybody wants to know how I do this, how I stay motivated to do it.

It's something that's not fun. It's not fun. It's fulfilling. It's like you go out there and you slam after slam...it's like a math problem and you sit there throwing solutions at it and you finally get the answer. And you receive a good feeeling, a warm feeling..."

Do you ever get that? Where you're working on something that you just want to figure out? Well, that's where Shaun White and I are just so alike. Totally same wavelength. We're like spiritual siblings. We could totally hang out...right?

All this red gingham and scraps of paper and landscaper's cloth (yes, landscaper's cloth is my secret weapon) is just me, slam after slam, trying to figure out the problem of making the most beautiful dress...ever...

Now, about those tissue paper sewing patterns. Today: Clear contact paper.

Clear contact paper should be available at your local craft, home improvement or scrapbooking store. I ordered mine on Ebay. It seemed the most affordable way.

My contact paper came on rolls 9 feet long and 18 inches wide. One roll was more than enough to cover one pattern sheet.

Now to the nitty gritty.

First, I removed the creases from the pattern sheet with a warm, dry iron.

I spread the pattern sheet out over the flat, cleanly swept floor.

Before applying the contact paper, I feel a bit like Shaun White at the top of the half pipe...yeah, that's the ticket...Shaun White needing to master a triple McTwist 1550 to win the Gold Medal and return America to her former superpower superglory...

Okay, I exaggerate. Maybe. Just a bit. But, applying this contact paper cleanly and smoothly without any McTwists does require some superhuman ability. At least for me.

I place the contact paper slightly outside the edge of the pattern sheet, so that the contact paper also adheres to the floor to hold the pattern sheet in place.

Now this is kind of difficult to explain, but try to envision that you need to separate the contact paper from the backing. I do this by just sliding my flat hand across the backing and pulling it down the length of the pattern sheet as the contact paper adheres to the pattern sheet. Slow and steady. Slow and steady, there you go... The roll of contact paper unrolls as you go...contact paper to one side, backing to the other...

Hopefully, the contact paper is lined up nice and even and the contact paper runs straight down the pattern sheet. That way, two lengths of this contact paper will cover a pattern sheet.

However, if you do not have superhuman lining-up-the-contact-paper-parallel powers, and the contact paper sort of veers this what or that as you slide down the pattern sheet, you can cut and piece bits of contact paper to patch up the missed spots.

As you apply the contact paper, you will notice that there are little air pockets between the contact paper and the pattern sheet.

Running your hand over the contact paper will get rid of most of the air pockets. Or use a rolling pin or spatula.

I used Dracula spatula and it took I bite out of my work.

Nothing a bit of contact paper Band-Aid-ed over the spot doesn't heal.

This technique is a bit difficult to master. But it does have the extra bonus of bragging rights. No, I mean it has the extra bonus of protecting your pattern sheets from spills.

Stats:

• Contact paper: 12 rolls of 9'x18" contact paper plus shipping $23.00 (Ebay).
• Amount needed: One roll per SCKL pattern sheet, with plenty left over to patch over boo-boos.
• Rating: I'll give this method 4 out of 5 stars, because it does require some manual dexterity and Shaun-White-like-mastery of the space time continuum.