Using Scotch Tape

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 81, Issue 1, 15 July 1950, Page 84

Using Scotch Tape

By

EVELYN E. MOORE,

Rural Sociologist, Department of Apiculture, Palmerston North.

ONE of the most useful of the labour- and timesaving materials, and one of which plentiful supplies have at last become available in New Zealand, is scotch or cellulose tape. IT first proved its. value in the wrapping of parcels— many town and country shops it is now a valued substitute for stringand the gaily patterned varieties quickly became popular at Christmas time for giving presents a festive air. In the home it also has countless uses —for quick repair work, to hold a bandage in place, to mend a torn page in a book (the transparent varieties do not obscure the print), or to mend a small tear in a rubber or plastic raincoat (placed on the inside it is quite invisible). The edges of plastic, which should never be tacked, can be held together with scotch tape while they are sewn, and if an end is left loose, it can be removed easily when no longer required. As it can be sewn over, it is more useful for this purpose than sticking plaster, which gums up the needle. Scotch' tape may be used to reinforce stitches on the tops of pockets in plastic aprons. It should be applied on the wrong side of the material, lin. above the top of the pocket and lin. down the seam. Other parts which are likely to tear may be reinforced similarly. The housewife who is frequently annoyed by reels of cottori becoming unwound in her cotton box, but who finds the slots on cotton reels quickly get broken off, may place one strip of scotch tape across the ,end of each reel, sticky side up, and a second strip across the first to hold it in place. After each length of thread has been cut off, the end on the reel may be laid across the sticky tape, where it will stay until the cotton is used again. . The handy man may find a use for it when driving a nail into plaster to hang anything on a wall. Placing the tape on the wall and driving the nail through it prevents cracking and crumbling of the plaster and loosening of the nail. ’ ' Convenient small holders now available prevent the tape from becoming dirty and make it easy to unroll. Scotch tape has many other uses which doubtless will occur to the housewife from time to time, and therefore is a useful addition to the household supplies in most homes.