This week we are going to discuss a few of those items that are sometimes used in sewing that you have to iron-on to or fuse to fabrics... there are lots of different products that do this but we will just talk about the ones that I specifically use, because that's all I
First out of the gate is the magically fantastical stuff I use when I make my appliques. It is an iron-on adhesive, I use Heatn'Bond (which will be referred to as HnB from now on) brand, there is also Wonder Under and probably others I don't know the names of. They are work the same though. They are gluey on one side and paper on the other, you will adhere the gluey side to your fabric then peel off the paper to find another gluey side that you can adhere to other fabric. I find it's best to cut my shape (tie, letter, whatever you might want) out of the HnB first, I trace a print out onto the paper side of the HnB and then cut it out, like so...
Make sure if you are cutting out a letter or number that you do it backwards... just stop and think first otherwise you will end up with this... It's supposed to be a 1, ooops! (awesome fabric placement too, I was SO mad)
Once I have my HnB cut into my shape I get out my trusty iron, set it to whatever the adhesive packaging tells me (you REALLY don't want to go too hot because it will not work and things will get ruined and you will hulk smash something, for certain) and I find the perfect placement on the WRONG side of my fabric and iron that bad boy on. STOP! DON'T REMOVE THE PAPER BACKING YET! RESIST THE URGE! I know you want to, but it will make cutting it out more annoying, so just cut it out and then you can remove it.
Now that you have you adorable shape cut out in your fabric you can iron it to whatever you want. Again make sure it's not to hot because it will just melt the glue through the applique and it won't stick to the item. And it will smell burny.
I finish all my appliques on the machine after they cool, but we aren't doing a tutorial for that, we are just talking about HnB and how it works/how to use it. This is the only thing I use HnB for, not sure if it actually has any other applications.
Another iron-on-y item I use is interfacing, it comes in all sorts of thickness/weights and you use them for different things. I use a lightweight interfacing for just a little bit of stiffness/structure/extra durability. It just gives a little extra help to your item. I also always put it on the back of hand embroidered items to keep the stitches in their place (especially for things that will be exposed on the backside so that busy fingers don't ruin all my hard work).
I use a heavy weight interfacing for things that need to be more structurally sound, like bags/totes that you want to keep their shape.
Then there is fusible fleece, I like it because it's squishy like batting but it irons on and gives stability like interfacing. BRILLIANT. Now you can HUG YOUR PURSE! *SNUGGLES*
Interfacings also have all their own temperatures for adhering them to fabric, sometimes they want you to use a damp cloth between the iron and the fusible, I just use my steam setting (this MIGHT be wrong, but it works, so I keep doing it, I am sooo bad). You will always want to apply these to the WRONG side of your fabric, unless you want to use the wrong side as the right side and well, then you might just be crazier than I am. Sewing through interfaced fabrics can be tricky (ESPECIALLY with the fusible fleece because it's so puffy), but just keep elbowing it and it will go through, lol. Yes, my approach to sewing is brute force. IT GETS THE JOB DONE! (Though often time results in lots of punching and profanity).
This is the back of a piece of fabric that has a light interfacing on it...
This is a piece of medium to heavy weight interfacing (all crumbled and wrinkled from being in the bottom of a drawer)...
This is a squishy piece of cloud... I mean fusible fleece, you may or may not be able to see the little tiny bumpy glue dots on the backside (on the left), but they are there...
I haven't decided what to do for next week's blog so be sure to let me know if you have something you would like to hear me ramble about.
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