jshorty

I'm doing a quilt that has small baskets on it. The handle of the basket is sewn onto a triangle piece of background fabric, which will be sewn onto the basket top after. I'm trying to do a decorative stitch around the handle & the material keeps getting stuck in the machine. I am using fusing, not even sure if I have that on right. Is the fusing suppose to be between handle & background fabric or behind background fabric? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

donnajean

Fusing material goes between the handle fabric & background. Have you done the fusing/ironing step. If you have, the handle should be secured to the background making stitching the edges easy. I use Steam A Seam2

kathy

it goes between the two fabrics you want to stick together, if you do not have any tearaway stabilizer, lay the piece you are sewing on top of a sheet of paper, news paper if you have it, it will keep it from getting stuck in the holes and will tear away easily when you're done, just hold your finger on top of the stitches and tear gently

yayaquilts

Try using Tear Away Stabilizer on the back. It will eliminate the fabric being pulled down and getting caught!

jshorty

Thanks for you quick reply. More questions... So I cut a piece of fabric, use fusing between background & handle fabric, get them stuck together then cut out handle? I was cutting out the handle first. Good Idea about the paper under background fabric when sewing. Thanks

Carron

Sounds like you need a stablilizer under all the pieces or use an embroidery hoop to keep the fabric taunt.

Prism99

Sounds like the background fabric needs stabilization. I heavily starch the yardage for backgrounds like this before cutting the blocks.

Since you are already working on a block, I would suggest spray starching the back of the block several times (allow to dry between layers and before ironing, to prevent scorching the starch). You can also spray starch the front of the block.

Starching should help a lot. If it still isn't enough, then you need to purchase a stabilizer designed for embroidery to place underneath the background fabric.