I’m working on an applique project that I need to keep secret-ish since it’s a gift, but I can show sneak peeks of it for the purposes of WIP Wednesday.
I will say that I’ve tried a new fusible for this applique, and I’m not any happier with it than I was my prior one. I still have problems with the paper separating prematurely and some weird fraying. The fraying could be because of my fabric choice, or how I’m stitching the blanket stitch and getting “the bite” on the shapes. The paper separating could be the brand or could be the age of the fusible, because although it’s new to me, I have no idea how long it was sitting on the vendor shelf. Ugh.
Anywho, I’m carrying on and will just make sure the quilting is awesome!
I agree that fusible is a wild card. I don’t use, if I can help it, Moda fabric with fusibles, because that fabric frays so much. I have wondered if cutting the applique’ shapes out with something like a Sizzix or a Accuquilt Go cutter would make for less fraying,b ut since I haven’t tried it (no letter dies) I don’t know.
I have recently used Softfuse as a fusible. I liked the end result very much and didn’t have *as much* trouble separating the paper from the fusible as other brands. It wasn’t all sweetness and light, though. Have you tried Softfuse?
I like the Soft Fuse too. Very light but holds well. For fraying issues, I find placing the longest straight edges on the bias helps a bit. But nothing is foolproof. Sharon Schamber has a method that uses fabric glue along the edge of the appliqué shapes. I can’t remember exactly how it worked (i.e. Apply before or after cutting?) but I bet that would be the best solution to fraying. I took the workshop but didn’t have the correct type of glue so mine was not very successful. It wasn’t Elmers.