I am afraid I have to be honest! I do not like dissing products publicly but I MUST say my piece about Easy Steam. I have Wire Fence I ready to quilt and have begun to do that. ALL over the quilt, places that WERE fused with Easy Steam are now lifting up and interfering with my quilting foot! I have a little mini bottle of Aleenes Tacky Glue beside the machine and I keep having to glue corners down. It is VERY frustrating!!! I have had similar problems from time to time with old, dried out Wonder Under but this is just sad. It has been kept wrapped up so it does not dry out but it seems to make no difference. It just keeps separating from the background fabric :-(
There are a LOT more places too but I am so sad about it , I could not bear photographing them. The pieces started lifting as I was placing them on the background so the edges are now woolly and frayed in spots. After all of my hard work, I certainly HOPE this piece works for me and isn't a mess when it is finished.
I want to add some info regarding fusibles later on. I regularly and normally use Steam a Seam 2 Lite, Wonder Under and Misty Fuse and will say how I use them and comment on their effectiveness - as soon as I have had my lunch :-) As my DH says, "M'ungry"!
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OK, back from lunch and ready to rip! Interestingly, while I was munching, I checked for Steam a Seam online and was on a Joann Fabrics site where there were reviews of SaS and Easy Steam. I feel vindicated! The reviews for Easy Steam were abominable. Anyway, here is my basic modus operandi:
I have my enlarged , printed pattern on the table and trace the whole thing WITH NOTES TO SELF written on , onto freezer paper. Then I cut pattern piece Number 1 out and iron it onto my fabric of choice. That is then trimmed roughly and placed on my fusible of choice ( fusible on the back, of course!) Then, I carefully press the back side of the fusible WITH PAPER STILL IN PLACE and THEN, the piece is cut out. This then leaves me with a totally fusible pattern piece. In the case of things like my leaves on Wire Fence I, that is my base piece. I then remove the freezer paper and iron it onto the top layer of fabric and make that layer fusible, then carefully cut that out and fuse that to the top of the first layer. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THESE TWO LAYERS STAY STUCK TO EACH OTHER!
Now, that said, I prefer to do my work with Steam a Seam. Why? Because it has paper on both sides of the SaS. The paper can be drawn or written on. The fusion capacity is stellar. Because SaS is tacky to touch, it can be placed on your background, checked to see if you like it, moved if necessary and can stay that way till you fuse it ALL at the end or can be fused right away . Best of all, ONCE FUSED, IT DOES NOT PEEL OFF!!!
I also like working with Misty Fuse. It is not everyone's cuppa. It is NOT sticky to the touch and it has NO paper backing. MF is flittery and a bit hard to control so normally, I make a biggish piece of my chosen fabric fusible first so the fabric has some body and I am not trying to manhandle the spiderweb of the MF. Once the fabric has MF on the back though, it is easy to cut a very complex shape from it using a freezer paper pattern ironed onto the right side of the fabric. The best thing about MF is that it is so transparent itself that you can use it to fuse delicate fabrics like chiffon, light silks, organza , tulle etc and it barely shows through. MF comes in black and white. It stays put quite well if fused carefully but it does not respond well to being moved if you have a change of heart.
Lastly, but certainly not least is Wonder Under. I use WU a LOT! It has a paper backing that can be written on . It is NOT tacky to the touch and has to be fused in place before it sticks but it CAN be removed and replaced if you are needing to do that. If it is kept wrapped carefully, it holds its fusibility well . It is pretty transparent but not s good as Misty Fuse.
I would add that it behooves one to keep ALL of your fusibles tightly wrapped to keep them from drying out.
There you have it , Folkses! MY take on the fusibles I use. I am sorry not to give a better report on Easy Steam but I just can't do it. I neglected to mention the fact that it REALLY sticks to itself badly if it manages to come in contact with itself. Then , you have disaster! SaS WILL do that but it is usually salvageable. Good luck to all with all of these products.
When the time is right, I will post this HUGE missive to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com
Maybe others will be less verbose than I . Hope so for your sakes :-)
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| Here I am , all ready to quilt- in fact I have begun ..... |
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| ...and here is what I keep encountering! |
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| and here... |
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| and here!!!! |
I want to add some info regarding fusibles later on. I regularly and normally use Steam a Seam 2 Lite, Wonder Under and Misty Fuse and will say how I use them and comment on their effectiveness - as soon as I have had my lunch :-) As my DH says, "M'ungry"!
_________________________________________________________________________________
OK, back from lunch and ready to rip! Interestingly, while I was munching, I checked for Steam a Seam online and was on a Joann Fabrics site where there were reviews of SaS and Easy Steam. I feel vindicated! The reviews for Easy Steam were abominable. Anyway, here is my basic modus operandi:
I have my enlarged , printed pattern on the table and trace the whole thing WITH NOTES TO SELF written on , onto freezer paper. Then I cut pattern piece Number 1 out and iron it onto my fabric of choice. That is then trimmed roughly and placed on my fusible of choice ( fusible on the back, of course!) Then, I carefully press the back side of the fusible WITH PAPER STILL IN PLACE and THEN, the piece is cut out. This then leaves me with a totally fusible pattern piece. In the case of things like my leaves on Wire Fence I, that is my base piece. I then remove the freezer paper and iron it onto the top layer of fabric and make that layer fusible, then carefully cut that out and fuse that to the top of the first layer. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THESE TWO LAYERS STAY STUCK TO EACH OTHER!
Now, that said, I prefer to do my work with Steam a Seam. Why? Because it has paper on both sides of the SaS. The paper can be drawn or written on. The fusion capacity is stellar. Because SaS is tacky to touch, it can be placed on your background, checked to see if you like it, moved if necessary and can stay that way till you fuse it ALL at the end or can be fused right away . Best of all, ONCE FUSED, IT DOES NOT PEEL OFF!!!
I also like working with Misty Fuse. It is not everyone's cuppa. It is NOT sticky to the touch and it has NO paper backing. MF is flittery and a bit hard to control so normally, I make a biggish piece of my chosen fabric fusible first so the fabric has some body and I am not trying to manhandle the spiderweb of the MF. Once the fabric has MF on the back though, it is easy to cut a very complex shape from it using a freezer paper pattern ironed onto the right side of the fabric. The best thing about MF is that it is so transparent itself that you can use it to fuse delicate fabrics like chiffon, light silks, organza , tulle etc and it barely shows through. MF comes in black and white. It stays put quite well if fused carefully but it does not respond well to being moved if you have a change of heart.
Lastly, but certainly not least is Wonder Under. I use WU a LOT! It has a paper backing that can be written on . It is NOT tacky to the touch and has to be fused in place before it sticks but it CAN be removed and replaced if you are needing to do that. If it is kept wrapped carefully, it holds its fusibility well . It is pretty transparent but not s good as Misty Fuse.
I would add that it behooves one to keep ALL of your fusibles tightly wrapped to keep them from drying out.
There you have it , Folkses! MY take on the fusibles I use. I am sorry not to give a better report on Easy Steam but I just can't do it. I neglected to mention the fact that it REALLY sticks to itself badly if it manages to come in contact with itself. Then , you have disaster! SaS WILL do that but it is usually salvageable. Good luck to all with all of these products.
When the time is right, I will post this HUGE missive to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com
Maybe others will be less verbose than I . Hope so for your sakes :-)
OMG that sounds awful i use fusibles also and like SAS...last time i used heat and bond it worked but was heavy in the quilt...thx for your review and best of luck
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, it is really helpful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info ,indeed I did not know one had to keep it wrapped.Arlene
ReplyDeleteHope everything works out for your piece and thanks for the great info
ReplyDeleteI hope you can salvage this piece as it's turning out beautifully :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely frustrating! I feel your pain. :(
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I'd not thought about how you do your quilting. As a non-quilter I hadn't even considered what you do with the tricky corners. I hope it all turns out well in spite of your bad encounter with a poor product.
ReplyDeleteThis is good information.! Now I need to make note of it somewhere and make note of it.
ReplyDeleteDo you find that you get gummed sewing machine needles and some skipping on your machine when you stitch them?
I've also had those frayed edges before. I must have used some of the wrong stuff too. I hope it works out.
I think you will be able to persevere through this project. It sucks when something doesn't go right. But now you know, and thanks to you now we know as well, thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteYour piece is stunning so I can understand your frustration. Although you don't like dissing a product publicly, I'm so glad you did. I'm always on the look out for new fusibles. You've saved me, and no doubt a few others, from purchasing a bad product. I've been wondering about Misty Fuse. Thanks to all your info I can now see where MF would come in handy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this information, Carolynn. Steam-a-Seam 2 Lite is one of my favourites, but it's been out of production for some time due to problems in manufacturing. I have been using Wonder Under instead. I've considered Easy Steam, but your experience will keep me from doing that! I also use MistyFuse from time to time, but most of my work calls for paper-backed fusible. I also use spray baste when needed (needs good ventillation!)
ReplyDeleteThat is good to know...thank you....But your pieces look wonderful!
ReplyDeleteOh, that is so frustrating! I love Steam a Seam 2 Lite as well and I'm so frustrated that everyone seems to be out of it. I hope everything works out with your piece -- it's looking fabulous!
ReplyDelete