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It's a Sharon Schamber trick. You can find it on youtube. I've used it and it's perfect. You can also use the Elmer's school glue (which is a starch). It's great for doing mitered corners also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by girlsfour (Post 5096110)

I work pt at a fabric store & a customer told me about using Elmers School Glue (has to be the school glue) instead of pinning. When she initially tried it (she was skeptical of this), she immediately liked this method better than pinning. She said it made it so easy to be perfectly accurate.

She bought a special tip that goes on the glue bottle to ensure a thin line. Runs the line of glue inside of the 1/4" seam allowance towards the raw edge of fabric, then goes over it with her iron to hold it. She said the school has cornstarch in it and it completely water soluble so if you want to remove the glue, just wet it a little bit. She said there is absolutely no shifting of fabric and her seams match perfectly.

Has/does anyone done this? I am going to try it out next time I am working on a quilt.

I've done it many times. I learned this technique from a Sharon Schamber video where she uses it for her binding. But I've used it on other seams as well. My seams match up perfectly when I use it..much better than with pins. I've never tried wetting it to loosen the pieces but I would imagine it would work. It does wash out completely.

I too, have watched Sharon Schamber's video how to's for using School Glue to hold a binding until you sew it. It works great. The skinny tip makes the whole process very easy. You will be just putting on a very skinny line of glue within the seam allowance. Then heat set with your iron. It all washes out in the end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlottsQuilts (Post 5100144)

I saw it on the video too, although I did not have much sucess with it. It made the material stiff, and I found it hard to get a needle through (that was on the binding).

If your binding is stiff, you used too much glue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaciqltznok (Post 5098116)

interesting, but what if you don't finish this top/quilt for a year or so?

If you live in an area with high humidity it might not be the best choice for you because of bugs. I live in a really humidity area, so I wouldn't be afraid to use it on a top that takes a long time. I have only used school glue on a few seams that were really obnoxious. I do use it on my bindings, because I have to sew my bindings on. It really helps.

Elmers glue works great for bindings. I used a special tip at first,but after using this method for several quilts. I now use the glue bottle without a special tip.

I used some on my applique. But, have never used it for binding or instead of pins. I'll have to try it. Thanks for the tip.

I use it all the time for applique and love it. I read about it somewhere and have been using it ever since.

Yes! Just yesterday I tried this with Elmers school glue, and added a tip from my cake decorating kit - to provide me with a smaller line of glue as it was applied. I used this idea after watching a video, on the seam, lightly pressed with the iron, and proceeded to sew the seam. It works great! I'm sold on this idea from now on!

I have been using the glue method for over a year now, I always "steam" my quilts before I give them away and the glue just disappears from the steam. (I have a front loading LG washing machine that has a steam clean function)