CD Designs - Freezer Paper Applique - English Paper Piecing

The heart is a good practice piece for freezer paper appliqué. It has an inner corner, a point and curved edges. Trace or draw a heart on to the dull side of freezer paper.

Lay the freezer paper heart shiny side down on the right side of the fabric chosen for the heart as show in Figure 1. Press the freezer paper with a hot dry iron. A brief pressing of two or three seconds with the iron is all that is required to cause the freezer paper to adhere to the fabric.

Cut the fabric about 3/16” larger than the freezer paper heart. Separate the fabric heart from the freezer paper.

Figure 1

Basting

Take the fabric heart and lay it face down on the ironing board. Center the freezer paper heart over the fabric with the shinny side up. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Take the tip of your iron and flip the tip of the fabric over the bottom point of the freezer paper as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Start to press the fabric turn-under allowance over the freezer paper until the fabric adheres to the paper. See Figure 4. Clip the fabric to 1/16" to the paper at the inner corner before you reach it as show in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Continue to iron the turn-under till you are all the way around the heart as shown in Figure 5. If you have the problem of areas coming unbasted while basting an adjacent area (as with small pieces), baste an area and finger press it until it cools; then, when basting the adjacent area, try to avoid ironing over the already basted areas.

Figure 5

Appliqué

Iron the basted heart with the paper side down on the back ground fabric. You may need to use a little more time and pressure to make sure that it is very secure. Very small and very large pieces benefit with sew basting them down as well. Start to appliqué. the piece in place. See Figure 6.

Figure 6

There are two ways to remove the freezer paper. With small pieces you can take the paper out the front. Appliqué around the heart till you get about 1" before closing as show in Figure 6. Take a pair of tweezers and work the freezer paper out. After all the paper has been remove finish closing the heart.
On large pieces it is best to take the paper out the back. After you finish appliquéing the heart, turn your fabric over and clip the background fabric and paper on the back as shown in Figure 7.	Figure 7

Be very careful not to cut the fabric heart on the front. Cut out the background fabric and paper, leaving a 1/4" seam. Remove the left over paper under the seam as show in Figure 8.

Figure 8