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I have a bunch of dies with stitching holes for making all sorts of things -- key fobs, change purse, etc. For the dies I have the holes are close to the edge of the shape. When I went to stitch the wool felt some of the holes opened when the wool came apart.
Has anyone here used fusible interfacing with their stitched felt projects? Does it work well? Is there a better way to reinforce the felt?
Also, is there any fusible interfacing that you don't have to iron? Can you use a heat gun instead of an iron to fuse the ironing type?
__________________ Elizabeth in Hoboken, proud parent of a feisty and mischievous parrot who likes to chew craft supplies
Here are some no sew, no iron possibilities. I haven't tried any of these on felt. Do you not have access to an iron? The iron-on interfacing seems like the best, and least expensive, choice.
You could get a "craft" iron, or what I use is a travel iron I found on Amazon, & I use it only for crafting. Here is one on Amazon, not the one I got, but you can see just how cheap you can get them. Look here: https://www.amazon.com/Quilting-Hous...581509&sr=8-27
When you are stitching felt together that has been cut and punched for use with paper, then I would suggest that you use a straight stitch in the holes (in both directions to make it solid) or use a back stitch. Don't use a blanket stitch or a whip stitch along the edge.
If you can imagine it, think about what your thread is doing with the blanket or whip stitch. It is pulling out on the felt. Any stress on the project will cause the felt to pull apart.
Then think about when you stitch along the holes without any thread going over the edge, like you would do with a straight stitch of any type. There is nothing pulling out on the felt, instead, it is pulling the two layers together.
See if that solves your issue. If not, then your die has stitching holes too close to the edge to truly work for sewing on felt. The 100% wool that I have purchased at my quilting store is felted extremely tightly and would work well with a straight stitch. The 100% wool that I make myself is definitely tight, but I will not die cut it because I make it really thick, and the dies would not cut it.
Another option is to trace around the dies on your felt and cut them out...that way you don't have the sewing holes. You can sew pieces together without the holes (sew about 1/4 inch from the edge) and I have never had any problem with that stitching pulling out regardless of what stitches I use. I use the smaller size of perl cotton or I use embroidery floss for the stitching.
I think I may have tried to do a blanket stitch. I have a bunch of stitching dies from Papertrey Ink, and a lot of the dies (but not all of them) have the holes very close to the edge.
Thank you everyone for the advice. I'm pretty new to felt stitching.
__________________ Elizabeth in Hoboken, proud parent of a feisty and mischievous parrot who likes to chew craft supplies
Felt Stitching Question
