Fusible Applique: Lickity Stick

Pictures from Thread Magic Garden, by Ellen Anne Eddy

Hand applique is pretty. Calming. Historic. A bit time consuming.
So is there a way to speed this up? Of course there is!

Fusible applique is the lickity split way to applique. Instead of turning your edges you either cover them  with some kind of stitching, or you don't. But either way, you fuse the applique pieces to your top fabric first.

Kinds of fusibles
Fusibles come in several classes

• Unbacked: 

These are raw spun webs or films of nothing but glue. They have no paper backing. Some of them are formulated to be less stiff. You need to be really accurate to use these. You want to applique piece to completely match the glue so it's really stuck and so it doesn't bleed glue around the edge. You probably want to use a teflon ironing sheet to protect your iron and ironing board.

Backed: Paper backed fusibles have a paper backing. It protects your ironing board and  iron. It can be ironed onto the fabric and then you cut the applique pieces. Which means it really is accurate and you don't have glue bleed. These fusibles have one paper side and one glue side.

• Tacky: These fusibles can be finger pressed onto your fabric, cut and then ironed down. Like a peanut butter sandwich you have two pieces of paper, and glue in the middle. You peel one side, pat it on to your fabric and cut your shape. Then  iron it down.

Web textures
Most webs have a texture of some kind. It will show through. Films and webs work better than webs with a formal glue structure on the back. Of course if you stitch enough on it, who will know?

Some of the first fusibles have been around for over forty years now, and have proved permanent. But  I don't ever trust it as a finished product. You might if it's:

•  a piece you never intend to wash.
   If it's just going up on your wall, it's probably fine, but cleaning it is going to be dicey if you ever need to.

• a piece that will never be rough handled. Keep in mind that shipping or traveling quilts to show can be very rough handling. 

Most people stitch after they fuse in some regards. But fusing fabric changes its texture. It's much harder to stitch through. So stitching by machine is probably the way to go.

Next time we'll talk about machine stitching applique.