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How To: Make Your Own (Real) Oilcloth

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Want to make your own picnic tablecloth? The crafty folks at Curbly have discovered how to make oilcloth the traditional way. Rather than using petroleum, you use...

 
 

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linseed oil! For the full instructions on how to make oilcloth, see Curbly. You're not limited to tablecloths. Oilcloth is so tough that it can be used as a floor covering!

Via: Craft

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How To..., fabric & textiles, DIY, oilcloth

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Comments (8)

Isn't oilcloth from linseed oil called "Linoleum"?

posted by bepsf on July 7th 2009 at 1:12pm
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It's THE best idea ! I wanted to treat a great fabric I turned into a cloth, but I'd rather have an oilcloth. THe only patterns I could find were ugly, but now, I can aesthetics and praticality !

Great find !

posted by Loora on July 7th 2009 at 1:46pm
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Just a heads up, linseed oil is highly flammable. A friend's studio burned down after some rags with linseed oil spontaneously caught fire. Just a word of caution.

posted by emcguire on July 7th 2009 at 2:03pm
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Yes, I also burned down my shed after I left rags soaked in linseed oil in glass jars on top of my new wood workbench. Oops!

posted by jen_g on July 7th 2009 at 2:58pm
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I used linseed oil recently on a tabletop. The next day, my husband told me I smelled terrrible. Several showers lter, my skin and scalp still had the odor; my theory is that I breathed in the fumes and now the odor was coming through my skin, as can happen when someone eats a lot of garlic.

The tabletop looks great, though.

posted by JeezLouise on July 7th 2009 at 2:58pm
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Oh fun! It'll be a while before I get around to crafting, but maybe for my porch-as-next-year's-project!

posted by BlueLM on July 7th 2009 at 3:20pm
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I would leave this to the pros -- linseed oil is not childs play!

posted by Mid-C Frank on July 7th 2009 at 3:41pm
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to those who are talking about linseed combusting..

when linseed is exposed to the air it starts to oxidize and the process is exothermic, once the process is completed the stuff is completely safe (but not flame resistant)

The reason the rags can catch fire is when enough rags are moist with the stuff and they are bunched together they can get hot enough to start burning (the VOC's are what catch in the heat).. the recommended action after using linseed and other oils which oxidize is to place them in a water filled metal bucket until they can be disposed of safely or I leave each cloth in the sun for a few hours to dry and then keep them separate until the process has finished.

Lousie, fortunately it wasn't because you breathed it in, linseed has highly volatile compounds in it to keep the oil in suspension, when you start working with it, it will evaporate and take some oil with it and settle into all sorts of places including hair, unfortunately, once its in there, you're pretty much stuffed and you have to wait until the smell dissipates completely (approximately 3 days)

Linseed is about as dangerous as any other sealing product, when you stop and read the instructions and follow them and don't make assumptions about how they are suppose to be used.

posted by Ben on July 8th 2009 at 4:40am
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