Valerie Hearder Quilt & Textile Artist & Author

Using teflon pressing sheet for fusible appliqué.

Ever wanted to try fusible appliqué? It’s one of the hottest techniques being used by quilters. It’s an easy, almost instant way to create fabulous designs for everything from quick crafts to art quilts.

Essentially, you iron a fusible web onto the back of fabric - sort of like melting a very thin sheet of glue. This fuses the fabric fibers into a stable sheet that can be cut out into any shape without it fraying. The shape is then ironed down onto fabric to make your design. There are several brands of lightweight fusible webs such as Wonder Under or Misty-Fuse (www.mistyfuse.com) which is the most light-weight fusible available. I recommend using a Teflon pressing sheet to keep the fusible web from gunking up your iron. You can also use parchment paper. Here’s how to do it:

Cut fabric a little larger than the actual finished size of the shape you want.

Fold Teflon sheet in half on the ironing board. Open Teflon sheet and lay the piece of fabric the wrong side up on one half of the sheet.

Cut a piece of fusible web the same size as the fabric and lay it on the wrong side of the fabric.

Fold over the Teflon sheet so that the fabric is sandwiched between two layers of Teflon sheet.

Iron the Teflon sheet for about 4 seconds with a hot, dry iron and let cool for a few seconds.

Open pressing sheet and peel off the fused fabric. The fusible web is now melted into the fabric.

Wipe the sheet clean with a small wad of fabric to remove every trace of melted fusible web left on the sheet. This is important - you want to keep the sheet clean.

Draw the desired shape on the reverse side of the fabric or cut free hand with a sharp scissors. Make sure that there are no little "fringes" of fusible showing around the edge as these will stick to your iron. A product such as 'Hot Iron cleaner' is useful to clean off any bits of fusible that inevitably get onto you iron.

Your shape is now ready to iron down into place. If your fusible appliqué design is used on a quilt that will be washed, finish off the edges with machine stitches. If it’s for a wall hanging that won’t be washed, the edges of your fusible appliqué shapes can be left with out stitches.

NOTE: To preserve the life of your Teflon sheet, avoid ironing on the fold. Repeated folding with a sharpe crease will cause the fiberglass to snap. Store it flat or rolled.