I sew with a very short stitch also, then I fold the paper along the seam and tear from the inside out to the edge of the seams.

love love love PP and I pull with tweezers and short stitches do help

I use a shorter stitch and freezer paper. Copy paper seems too heavy.
Sue

You can also spray a bit of water onto the paper before tearing....it softens the paper and makes it easier to tear....not to worry about the little bits of paper left, they will disappear in the wash!

I do lots of paper piecing...two things that can help in addition to dropping your stitch length, fold your paper along the lines before sewing to make them easier to rip when you're done. You can also perforate the lines by running the paper through your sewing machine without thread in it before sewing. Good luck! :)

I hope you shortened your stitches and folded the paper before trying to remove it.

Also I hope you used a thin paper and not computer paper. I tend to use 25% rag vellum that I got on sale from Staples years ago. Still haven't used it all up yet. I have also used that thin drawing paper from pads meant for children. I haven't used it but know that exam table paper also works.

Have fun.

A friend of mine uses old telephone books for free, thin paper. I have tried it with regular printer paper and like that it is so stiff for intricate work. When I can, I sew, fold the paper at the seam, finger press and tear from the seam side while I hold the main piece in place. It seems to work for me but I don't do a lot of paper piecing. I hope you're having fun experimenting with this technique.

i remember on this forum somewhere that someone said to pull the paper apart, like both horizontally, not one horizontal and one vertical.

It probably does help to perforate the paper first as your pattern directed, but in my opinion that could get rather tedious. Small stitch, fold before tearing, and start tearing in the middle of the seam will help prevent those loose stitches.

I use Stitch-N-Tear Lite for my foundation piecing and I love it. I shorten the stitch length. But it is very stable, translucent, goes through the ink jet great and is very easy to remove. On a few small projects such as a table topper, I just left it in because it is so thin and flexible.