Another day of experimenting with the fusible web.

Last night I prepared a couple of horses and riders on Vliesofix. I was able to purchase some yesterday from a local quilt store.

Vliesofix is a German product but was not sold in the USA under that name.

Many of my friends tried to buy it in the US, some folk here in Australia think it was marketed under another name but I searched for years and never found anything comparable.

Now it's actually being manufactured in the US.

Never the less. I used Vliesofix for 20 years or more, buying it in huge 60 foot rolls and on the whole it was great.

But when I found Steam a Seam lite, I found it was better for the projects I was using it for.

One of the main reasons is that I need to position the applique image on a Teflon mat prior to assembling the entire project.

The other reason is that the glue is smooth and its easier to draw accurately on the tracing paper side.

This applique is positioned on the Teflon sheet over the pattern. The Vliesofix has a shiny back when adhered to the fabric so it slips about on the surface of the applique sheet and I used to iron each piece down… but that's restrictive with this project so the tackiness of steam a seam lite is a huge advantage.

I often have to make up single images like this soldier above, I iron it to the sheet, lift it and lay it on a spare sheet ready to combine the entire picture at a later date. Sometimes I can have up to 10 components in waiting.

Sadly, the vliesofix pieces I did today were really difficult to work with. I had to iron down each small piece.

So I decided to try a suggestion of a friend and spray baste the glue film back to the tracing paper of the Steam a Seam.

I did some yesterday, separating the glue film and the tracing paper… but it was hard to accurately put them together after spraying.

Try again and I cut about a 20" length.

I folded back half of the glue film and sprayed that part.

With the other side still intact it makes it easier to just roll the fuse back onto the tracing paper.

Then I folded the other side. Spray glued it and rolled it back onto the paper and smoothed it thoroughly with my hand…. Perfect and I've saved an entire roll.

separated glue sheet and paper

I've been given another suggestion so I will try that tomorrow and report back.

I repeated the process about 5 times, each time I cut the paper longer… and I was able to do it perfectly with the technique above.

I completed one horse and rider with the re attached stuff and it worked a treat.