pittsburgpam

I wanted to get started on placing the applique pieces on a giant dahlia quilt and I didn't have any freezer paper, which I was going to try for the first time. So, I just printed the patterns on normal printer paper, cut them out, and was going to pin to the material.

As I was laying them out I thought of how spray starch made the fabric stick so... I sprayed the material with a light coat of starch and laid the paper pieces on the wet fabric. I pressed the paper pieces to the wet fabric with my fingers just to make sure it had good contact. I let it dry for several minutes and then gently ironed it. It sticks just enough!! I put in one pin to make sure and cut out the fabric pieces.

I found that the iron has to be on medium, the paper sticks to the iron if it is too hot. Don't get the fabric too wet with starch or the paper can tear. Let it dry until just barely damp before ironing. Press instead of ironing at first so it doesn't tear or move the paper.

Prism99

Wow, thanks for that tip! I'm going to try it out this afternoon!

pittsburgpam

I need to do some testing. Sometimes it worked perfectly, other times it wouldn't stick. I need to see if it was more or less starch, more or less drying, etc.

Prism99

I think I must be impaired when it comes to using spray starch. The very first time I tried it out today, I scorched the starch. I admit I sprayed too heavily (I'm not sure it's possible to spray lightly with the particular can I have) so the fabric was saturated, and I admit the iron must have been too hot. Still, the iron hadn't heated up completely before I used it.

I always seem to scorch starch if I try to iron when it is wet. It never seems to scorch on me if I let it dry in the fabric first and then use steam.

littlehud

Keep us posted. Sounds interesting.