Using a Glue Stick to Hold Appliqué Pieces

January 18, 2016

Fabric glue sticks are handy!

Using a fabric glue stick to hold appliqué pieces in place while I sew has been one of my best discoveries ever.

Maybe a bunch of you do this already?

I have a very fraught relationship with glue. There are the glues that make your paper bubble and warp. The glues that seep beyond where you put them on fabric. The glues that stick your fingers together. The glues that don’t really stick like they should.

I have glue issues.

Usually my strategy is to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve glue – like this method for hooping finished embroidery pieces.

But last year I started using glue to hold my appliqué bits in place and I fell in love!

Let me count the ways. . .

  1. Fabric glue sticks are designed for use with fabric. They don’t seep through, and they’ll soften up after washing. They’re perfect for a temporary hold.
  2. They work really well on slightly napped fabrics like velvet and cuddle fleece. The beaver bits on that face you see above didn’t shift a smidge while I sewed them on with the machine.
  3. I especially love using fabric glue for hand appliqué. Pins distort the fabric and – even worse – my thread was constantly getting hung up on them. With the fabric glue stick I can position all the pieces right where I want them, stick them in place, and then whipstitch away. Everything stays perfectly flat and I never catch my thread on a pin. Joy!

I tried a few brands and they all worked well, but I’m carrying this one in my shop because it works well and is a great price. 🙂

If you have ways that you use fabric glue sticks, I’d love to hear them!

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi
That's me!

To Prewash or Not to Prewash

January 13, 2016
Do You Need to Prewash Your Fabric?

This is a weirdly divisive question in the quilt world.

It’s also one of the most common questions I get. Do you prewash your fabric?

Yes.

Mostly.

How’s that for a definitive answer?

Let me clarify. . .

I prewash all quilting cottons. Always. They go straight into the laundry hamper when I buy them and they’re not allowed into my sewing room until I wash them.

Why?

I have had bad experiences with the fusible adhesive not sticking to fabric because of the sizing in it.

I have had dark colors bleed onto light colors in a finished quilt, washed for the first time. (Absolutely heartbreaking!)

I have had shrink issues with doll clothes where the fabric puckers badly along the seams because it had not been prewashed.

Sure – most fabrics won’t cause these problems if they haven’t been prewashed. But some do! And you never know which will be the problems until AFTER the heartbreak.

Prewash!

I prewash all knits and flannels.

They have more of a tendency to shrink than wovens and I want to get that shrink out of the way. I’m getting ready to start handsewing some clothes for myself (using this fabulous book my husband got me) and I definitely don’t want those to shrink after the fact.

I don’t prewash faux fur, satin, polar fleece or cuddle fleece.

They don’t have shrink issues. I’ve never had any of them bleed. The ones I buy never seem to be coated with excessive sizing so they don’t feel icky. There’s no real reason to prewash them.

I don’t really use any other fabrics – so I have no advice to give about rayons, voiles, challis, etc.

One more note. . .

A lot of people say they don’t prewash quilting cottons because they like the crinkle effect they get after washing. I’ve found that I get plenty of crinkle – even with prewashed fabric – by using cotton batting. I use Warm & Natural brand 100% cotton batting and I do NOT prewash it.

Want quick access to a bunch of other posts about fabric?

Here are links to all the posts about cutting your blocks.

Here are links to all the posts about quilting your blocks.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about how to applique.

Happy stitching!

Using Stretchy Knit Fabric for a Rag Doll

January 8, 2016

Using Stretchy Knit Fabrics to Make a Rag Doll - Tips from Shiny Happy World

As soon as I wrote this post about sewing softies with stretchy knits, I started getting questions about using knits to make Dress Up Bunch rag dolls. I decided to give it a try and the answer is YES!

With a couple of caveats. 🙂

Everything in the post about stuffed animals applies to rag dolls.

  • Test your fabric with a universal needle and prepare to switch to a stretch or ballpoint needle if needed.
  • Do not overstuff.

The Do Not Overstuff rule is especially important for rag dolls. If you stuff them too fat, they won’t be able to fit into the regular Dress Up Bunch clothing patterns!

Using Stretchy Knit Fabrics to Make a Rag Doll - Tips from Shiny Happy World

The knit fabric will change the proportions of your doll a bit – she’ll be a little wider. You can see the difference here between the knit Poppy (purple hair) and the woven Poppy (copper hair).

Using Stretchy Knit Fabrics to Make a Rag Doll - Tips from Shiny Happy World

I was super careful not to overstuff, but you can see that the knit Poppy still has a slightly wider head.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you’ll also want to use a knit fabric for the hair. If you use felt hair with the knit skin, the hair will not stretch but the face will and it will look like her face is bulging out from under her hair. Not cute. 🙁

I used this peat solid from Cloud9 Fabrics for the hair, and a very high quality Waldorf doll skin fabric in tan (from Weir Crafts) for the body.

So you need to be extra careful with the stuffing, but the finished doll is incredibly soft and cuddly in a way that you can only achieve with knit fabric. Give it a try!

Update – I added a new post here showing a Dress Up Bunch doll made with Cuddle Fleece – and it has an overview of all the specialty fabrics I’ve used for these dolls over the years. Go take a look!

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi
That's me!

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!