tip of the day - sticky needles
I’m working on quite a large piece of fabric that’s been heavily fused together. Needless to say, my sewing machine needle is covered with sticky gunky glue and is breaking thread like crazy!
Did you know that alcohol-based hand sanitizers will dissolve the glue from fusibles?
I keep a cotton ball lightly dabbed with the gel next to my sewing table when I’m working with fused fabrics. Just run the cotton ball up and down the needle every couple of minutes of sewing.
Presto! No more gunky needles or broken thread :-)
Tags: free-motion-quilting, fusibles, sewing, sewing-machine-needles, tip of the dayRelated Stories
POSTED IN: sewing, tip of the day
3 opinions for tip of the day - sticky needles
Kate
Nov 16, 2007 at 1:41 am
What a great tip. Thanks!
Tracee Sioux
Nov 16, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Hi Chloe. I recently wrote about the “feminine art of sewing” and realized there is a huge population of women who don’t even know it’s an artform. I never realized how lucky I am to know the basics of sewing. Of course, this tip is way beyond me. I don’t think I know what kind of fabrics are heavily fused. It’s usually the needle that breaks on me.
Just browsing around my new neighbors in the new Lifestyle Channel, I’ll come back here for sewing tips when I’m into a new project. Or get ideas for more projects. Nice to meet you.
Chloe
Nov 17, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Hi Tracey - thanks for stopping by :-) I used a commercial iron-on product to fuse the fabric together. It’s great for making designs on fabric, because the decorative top layer of fabric is evenly glued down - it does make a mess of needles though!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: