Monthly Archives: May 2006

My friend Monica emailed me today and asked how I get my images onto fabric, so I thought I’d provide a little info here for those who have never used or heard of fusible web.

Fusible web is an iron on glue which can be used to stick pieces of fabric together,  it is flexible and has a strong enough bond to keep most bits in place until the piece is quilted.  It comes attached to a backing sheet which is very similar to baking paper.

These grass inspired pieces are actually reverse appliqued.  This means
that the top fabric is cut away to reveal the fabric underneath.  The
Dredger, on the other hand, was appliqued so all the bits were cut out
then arranged onto the background fabric.  For this piece I decided to
go this way because I didn’t want to be handling long wisps of fabric
which can get out of shape easily (often being cut on the bias).  

Once everything is cut, I peel the backing paper off.  Then I spent a lot of time  (like an hour even for this small piece) arranging the top fabric so all the design is positioned correctly.  This is very important for these pieces where there are strong lines crossing and a combination of postitive and negative bits.  I think I was scooting bits of fabric by a fraction of a millimetre in the end.

When I am happy, I set the iron to cotton, turn the steam off then lightly press the iron down onto the fabric so as not to disturb the pieces.  Once everything is stuck I then give it a few shots of steam 🙂

This is Side B for the handbag.

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