By Kimberly Wilson
Use Water Soluble Thread in the top and bobbin of your sewing machine and stitch together pieces of your left over Water Soluble Stabilizer to make larger pieces that will fit in your hoop. It all then washes away with no change to your design!
I have always wondered what good washaway thread was. Great idea. Thanks.
Kim. is right you can get a lot more for your money if you do this. I have been doing this for several years and a good friend of mine gives me her scraps and she don’t want them back so I haven’t had to buy WSS for a long time.Guess I’m too greedy to throw away something you can use. One little tip went threading your needle don’t try licking your thread to thread the needle(guess you know what happens)Ask me how I know. It doesn’t taste very good either.
Cloreta Logan
You can also keep your pieces of water soluable stabilizer and use solvy topping in your hoop placed as the bottom and top of your water soluable pieces and stretch your stabilizer. In other words, place a layer of light weight topping solvy in the stack. Then place your pieces of stablizer any way just so you have your design area covered well with the layers you desire (I use two) and then top with another layer of solvy. When you wet it all goes away!
You can also stretch your topping solvy by saving pieces of it and placing it between brown paper with edges overlapping. Iron with a warm dry iron and the edges will fuse but the topping is still good and can be reused. The only draw back with this method is that you seem to need to change your needle a little more often.
Wow!what a great idea! Saves $$ and helps those throwaways become ususable. Thanks
If I have enough stabilizer left after I pull it off a embroidery I take a brown paper sack like the ones you get at the supermarket large sacks, cut the bottom out and cut down the side, fold in half, open and lay the stabilizer you have taken off a embroidery fill the hole with large scraps of stabalizer I have saved and fold sack over stabalizer and iron with dry iron for a few seconds turn over and iron again pull paper sack apart and pull a whole stabalizer sheet from paper sack.
that really is a great idea. now I know what to do with all the pieces I have gathering dust! ! !
That is a great idea. I have done this several times over the past 2 years. Sometimes it puckers, so you have to adjust the tensions.
This is a good tip and I also very lightly wet the edges of the water soluble stabilizers and they will stick together without any problems to your designs. I just find the longer sides of the left over pieces and stick them together until I have enough “stuck” together to go into my hoops. The pieces will lie very flat if you stick the pieces together on a flat surface. Works wonderfully and saves your left over pieces of stabilizer for a future design.
Good idea. And if you don’t have time to sew those little guys together, you can touch them with water and they’ll stick to the piece for you.
I really like this tip. I’ve been wetting the edges to stick it together but that sometimes leaves a wrinkled edge. The water soluble thread is the answer
I did not know that there was such a thing as water soluble thread, what a neat idea! I am always interested in ways to save money and make my purchases go a “longer” way!
Thank you for the great tip!
I would like to know where you can buy the Water soluble thread. I have not used it, or even heard of it. The invisible thread, yes. Your help is appreciated.
Great idea!
I have never seen water soluable thread for sale anywhere, I live in Washington state, anyone know where I can buy some?
Thanks
Since I am in the middle of my first alphabet quilt, actually my first quilt. I am making good use of the sticky stabilizer and what a great idea I read in your newsletter!
P.S.
I also use the tip of cutting out the middle and only replacing a “window pane” worth of stabilizer instead of a whole sheet.
What a good idea! I will put it into practice at once!
I ususally use two layers when I use water soluble stabilizer. The first layer is a complete piece then I take a water soluble glue stick and rub on one side of the full piece. I then take my scraps and put them down on the glue side of the full piece, if I have a few pieces that overlap I also just put a dot of the glue from the glue stick there to keep the edges down. When I hoop it the pieced side goes down and the full sheet is on top that way the machine foot doesn’t get caught on any of the scrap pieces.
I think that is a great idea. You could also so that with other wash away stabilizers like Vileen and Aquamagic. Makes your dollar go farther
What a great way to reuse,recycle and save some well earned cash. Thank you for the great idea.
Wish I’d thought of that!
Thank you for sharing this great idea! It is so simple that I wonder how thick I must be not to be able to think of this myself……
Lilyan what a great idea. I have always saved mine in a bag but didn’t exactly know what I would do with them. I had heard about using old pieces in a spray bottle with wayter to make a starch like substance.
great post as usual!
Nice
I have been putting my water-soluable scraps in a jar of water and storing it in the refridgerator. When I want to do something different, I pour just enough on a cookie sheet with a long strip of Organza or sheer fabric. I use a spatula and spread it, hang it to dry. When it is dry (short time) I then roll it and keep it in a plastic bag so not to absorb moisture and cut it as it is needed depending on the size of hoop. This works great for FSL designs. Also for FSL designs, I use a wood-burning iron to melt back the edges where there are threads and nylon fabric sticking out.
I have a mason jar in my refridgerator and I put all water soluable stabilizer in it for future use. I place a long strip of organza or other thin see-through nylon fabric on a cookie sheet and with a spatula, I spread the liquid on the fabric, hang it over the edge of my kitchen counter until I get 3 or 4 feet evenly covered. Then I hang it to dry and in a few minutes, I have a nice stabilizer for FSL or decorative items. I then use a wood-burning iron and run quickly around the edge of the item to clean off anything that I want removed. Once the material is dry, I roll it and store in a plastic bay and cut it as it is needed to fit either of my two hoops 4×5 or 5×7.