Answering the batting tape questions

From an image point of view, this has to be the most boring post ever. There's a lot of white space in this post but we'll move on and see if I can answer all the questions I received on last week's post about making your own fusible batting tape.

I think that the pre-packaged batting tape it wonderfully convenient but also insanely expensive. Depending on the number of pieces of batting, you could quickly go through $10 worth of tape to make one new batting. That's still less expensive than a new batt but making your own costs half as much.

One question was about the kind of fusible I buy. I get a knit fusible because they fuse at lower temperatures. You do not want to press your batting with a super high heat iron. When Joann has their interfacings on sale half off you can't go wrong with Pellon Easy Knit. Pellon also has Fusi-Knit and that works fine too. Get whatever is least expensive.

For this little demo I'm using black and white batting so you can easily see the two pieces of batting. I start by overlapping the two batting edges a bit. I need to get these edges so that they will butt together flush.

Cut through both layers where they overlap and you will have a nice clean edge to fuse. The cut doesn't have to be perfectly straight. It can be slightly wavy. Pull out the two trimmed edges and add those to the "pet bed stuffing" bag.

The batting strips don't need to be any wider than 1.5". Feel both sides of the interfacing. The bumpy side is the glue side. Those are glue beads. Put that side against the batting. You will do this wrong at least once and then you will get to clean your iron. I set my iron on the Poly Blend setting and I leave the steam on. These knit interfacings don't need high heat. A high heat iron will melt the interfacing and your poly blend batting and then you can clean your iron again.

Use very little pressure. Just let the steam do the work. Hold the iron over a section for 5 - 10 seconds and then move to the next section. When you hold the fused piece up you will quickly see any sections that need to be touched up.

That's all there is to it!

When I'm working on a big piece I just do it in sections. I cut and fuse whatever fits on the ironing board and make sure that the part that's hanging over has some overlap. Then I just roll up the fused section and finish if off.

Fifteen minutes of work and I had a whole new (free) batting for 2 more veterans quilts!

I need all the free batting I can get because my closet is full of veterans quilts to be quilted!

Then there are 2 rail fence quilts that I started at sewing this weekend. I'll get the strips pressed and cut this month and will get these tops put together next month.