Fabric

[roxannecooper]

Is anyone starching their fabric prior to cutting and sewing? If so, does the freezer paper wax still hold?

I did and the starch didn't seem to have an impact.

[MysteryBayQuiltDes]

Is anyone else having trouble with the shot cotton? I don't have my actual fabric yet - waiting for the kit to arrive - but I did a test block with some scraps. I used a shot cotton that I have and had lots of problems with it. Not only raveling and trying to fall apart when I took off the freezer paper, but also when sewing with the shot cotton down, it seemed to tend to crunch up as I began sewing - even when I was careful to start with it laying flat. I am using a single hole throat plate, so no problem there.
I am wondering if starching the shot cotton first might help. Any other suggestions?

[smardl]

Is anyone else having trouble with the shot cotton? I don't have my actual fabric yet - waiting for the kit to arrive - but I did a test block with some scraps. I used a shot cotton that I have and had lots of problems with it. Not only raveling and trying to fall apart when I took off the freezer paper, but also when sewing with the shot cotton down, it seemed to tend to crunch up as I began sewing - even when I was careful to start with it laying flat. I am using a single hole throat plate, so no problem there.
I am wondering if starching the shot cotton first might help. Any other suggestions?

This is not going to solve your problem with shot cotton raveling, but it will help. The trick is to remove the freezer paper from the inside to the outside pulling parallel to the sewn seams as much as possible. Use a chopstick or anything that has a dull point. For the house block poke the chopstick up the middle of the door and pull to the outside edge. Now start back in the middle of the door and pull the chopstick to the other outside edge. Starting to pull the freezer paper from the outside edge will give the most amount of raveling on the edges.

Starching may reduce the raveling. It may (almost certainly will) stop the freezer paper from sticking to your fabric. The freezer paper will in effect be sticking to the starch instead of to the fabric.

You can always try traditional paper piecing if the fabric raveling is too frustrating.

Hang in there.

[moneil50]

Thank you!

[KJuran]

I bought the background fabric on Etsy a few weeks ago. Try a search there and see what you come up with. I paid the going price so nothing too expensive and it came quickly.

[MysteryBayQuiltDes]

Is anyone else having trouble with the shot cotton? I don't have my actual fabric yet - waiting for the kit to arrive - but I did a test block with some scraps. I used a shot cotton that I have and had lots of problems with it. Not only raveling and trying to fall apart when I took off the freezer paper, but also when sewing with the shot cotton down, it seemed to tend to crunch up as I began sewing - even when I was careful to start with it laying flat. I am using a single hole throat plate, so no problem there.
I am wondering if starching the shot cotton first might help. Any other suggestions?

This is not going to solve your problem with shot cotton raveling, but it will help. The trick is to remove the freezer paper from the inside to the outside pulling parallel to the sewn seams as much as possible. Use a chopstick or anything that has a dull point. For the house block poke the chopstick up the middle of the door and pull to the outside edge. Now start back in the middle of the door and pull the chopstick to the other outside edge. Starting to pull the freezer paper from the outside edge will give the most amount of raveling on the edges.

Starching may reduce the raveling. It may (almost certainly will) stop the freezer paper from sticking to your fabric. The freezer paper will in effect be sticking to the starch instead of to the fabric.

You can always try traditional paper piecing if the fabric raveling is too frustrating.

Hang in there.

Thanks so much for the terrific advice. I starched the shot cotton, used the edge stitch foot as someone else advised, and used a sharp stick to remove the freezer paper from the stitched house at the end. The result was almost NO raveling of the shot cotton. And whoever came up with the idea of using the edge stitch foot, thank you! What a difference it makes in the stitching process!