The joys of waxed paper!
12-19-2011, 09:33 AM
#1
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Upstate NY, north of Syracuse Area
Posts: 6,003
The joys of waxed paper!
I just wanted to share an accidental discovery I made while working on a t-shirt quilt.
I had a few shirt fronts with heavy vinyl designs and my machine just would not move over the vinyl and kept sticking to it. So I got some waxed paper to lay over the design and sewed over the paper so my foot would slide over the paper. Well that was the perfect solution for that problem but what I also discovered was that it is also the perfect solution for sewing stretchy fabric in general.
I found that I could quilt the design using the wax paper and my foot glided smoothly over the fabric, never needing to be lifted because of stretching. The twists and turns following the design were so easy as the wax paper allowed to foot to glide almost as if it were floating over the design.
I do not use fusible on my t-shirt quilts, just a piece of muslin or cotton under the knit.
To remove the wax paper, I simply used a bamboo skewer, went over the seam line with the point and it tore right off. Any little bits that remained came right off with the skewer tip.
You can be sure that from now on, all my t-shirt sewing will be done over waxed paper, whether there is vinyl or not. I was able to quilt the remainder of the squares in about 1/3 the time as the first ones.
I had a few shirt fronts with heavy vinyl designs and my machine just would not move over the vinyl and kept sticking to it. So I got some waxed paper to lay over the design and sewed over the paper so my foot would slide over the paper. Well that was the perfect solution for that problem but what I also discovered was that it is also the perfect solution for sewing stretchy fabric in general.
I found that I could quilt the design using the wax paper and my foot glided smoothly over the fabric, never needing to be lifted because of stretching. The twists and turns following the design were so easy as the wax paper allowed to foot to glide almost as if it were floating over the design.
I do not use fusible on my t-shirt quilts, just a piece of muslin or cotton under the knit.
To remove the wax paper, I simply used a bamboo skewer, went over the seam line with the point and it tore right off. Any little bits that remained came right off with the skewer tip.
You can be sure that from now on, all my t-shirt sewing will be done over waxed paper, whether there is vinyl or not. I was able to quilt the remainder of the squares in about 1/3 the time as the first ones.
12-19-2011, 10:03 AM
#4
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Arizona
Posts: 4,039
HOLY MOLY BATMAN!!! this is a GREAT tip. Im going to remember this. I made and quilted EIGHT tshirt quilts this year and got to the point where I would just go around the design on those with that rubber screening. Swore it would be a long long time before I did another one. Now I cant wait to try it. THANKS AGAIN!!
Originally Posted by wildyard
I just wanted to share an accidental discovery I made while working on a t-shirt quilt.
I had a few shirt fronts with heavy vinyl designs and my machine just would not move over the vinyl and kept sticking to it. So I got some waxed paper to lay over the design and sewed over the paper so my foot would slide over the paper. Well that was the perfect solution for that problem but what I also discovered was that it is also the perfect solution for sewing stretchy fabric in general.
I found that I could quilt the design using the wax paper and my foot glided smoothly over the fabric, never needing to be lifted because of stretching. The twists and turns following the design were so easy as the wax paper allowed to foot to glide almost as if it were floating over the design.
I do not use fusible on my t-shirt quilts, just a piece of muslin or cotton under the knit.
To remove the wax paper, I simply used a bamboo skewer, went over the seam line with the point and it tore right off. Any little bits that remained came right off with the skewer tip.
You can be sure that from now on, all my t-shirt sewing will be done over waxed paper, whether there is vinyl or not. I was able to quilt the remainder of the squares in about 1/3 the time as the first ones.
I had a few shirt fronts with heavy vinyl designs and my machine just would not move over the vinyl and kept sticking to it. So I got some waxed paper to lay over the design and sewed over the paper so my foot would slide over the paper. Well that was the perfect solution for that problem but what I also discovered was that it is also the perfect solution for sewing stretchy fabric in general.
I found that I could quilt the design using the wax paper and my foot glided smoothly over the fabric, never needing to be lifted because of stretching. The twists and turns following the design were so easy as the wax paper allowed to foot to glide almost as if it were floating over the design.
I do not use fusible on my t-shirt quilts, just a piece of muslin or cotton under the knit.
To remove the wax paper, I simply used a bamboo skewer, went over the seam line with the point and it tore right off. Any little bits that remained came right off with the skewer tip.
You can be sure that from now on, all my t-shirt sewing will be done over waxed paper, whether there is vinyl or not. I was able to quilt the remainder of the squares in about 1/3 the time as the first ones.
12-19-2011, 10:37 AM
#5
Power Poster
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Northern Michigan
Posts: 12,861
be VERY careful using Wax paper!!! it can gum up your needles---and if you use it alot after some time some of the wax could work it's way up into areas you can not clean---and cause some very costly repairs...a paper without a wax coating will have the same benefit---with out the huge danger of messing up your machine.
12-19-2011, 12:29 PM
#9
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: IN
Posts: 1,153
Man-O-Pizza!!! I sure wish I had known about this before I spent a HUGE amount of time and bleeding fingers HANDQUILTING 20 T-shirt blocks!!! I'm still not sure, even with this tip, that I will ever do another one. What a PAIN in the caboose 
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