Hola amores! Welcome to another installment of Sewing 101. For those of you who have not used freezer paper, let me tell you, it's a godsend! I've used it for circle piecing the Love Beads quilt by The Modern Quilt Workshop book, you can use it to create stencils on fabric, and you can use it to save your pattern pieces for reuse.
I use this technique all the time with the patterns I sew for my daughter since she grows so fast. The pics below show a basic dress bodice that's my go-to pattern for her. I can add a simple skirt or just make it longer and I've got something sewn together in almost no time! Here's the run down (as always, click any pic to enlarge):
Cut the largest size of the pattern piece so that you capture all of the smaller pattern lines. If there are overlapping pattern lines be careful to not cut any off. Tape the pieces to a window or sliding glass door.
Get your handy-dandy freezer paper & tape it (shiny side down) onto the window covering all of the pieces.
Trace the pattern size you want, and be sure to also transfer your pattern markings (dots, triangles, center fold lines, fabric grain lines, etc).
Admire your new pattern pieces. Sigh. Then cut & use!
Another awesome feature of freezer paper is that you can iron it onto the fabric and temporarily set it, which means NO PINS WHEN YOU CUT!! Woo hoo! Of course, you'll want to make sure that your pattern stays folded nicely so that the top & bottom pieces are cut the same, but you already knew that! ;) Just be sure you iron the shiny side down onto the fabric, and use the cotton setting with no steam.
Thank you so much for this tutorial. Getting started again sewing and used to just cut but have weight fluctuations so wanted to somehow trace. This is a get idea, and step by step explanations really help newbies or once again newbies. Also patterns are getting quite expensive, particularly the specialized ones such as Jalie, which I am considering for knit fabrics. Thanks again, Naomi's Aunt
ReplyDeleteThis is great - I'm making pajama bottoms for my 3.5 year old boy and I don't want to have to buy more patterns when he grows! By the way, where can I find large (larger than letter size) freezer paper? Any recommendations?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lora
Hey Lora! I found my big (VERY BIG 75 foot roll) roll of freezer paper at WalMart. I live in Southern California, and I tell you, some crafters made it sound like the rolls were everywhere! Maybe in other states it's that way... you can find it in the grocery store or something, but for me it's the WalMart. You'll find it by the rolls of aluminum foil and plastic wrap. It was about $6 for the roll.
ReplyDeleteOh my god. You're a genius. THANK YOU. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic! As I started cutting yet another pattern tonight it pained me to know it wouldn't be usable in 6 months. So I stopped what I was doing and googled. You were the 3rd link I clicked on. I was so excited I squealed. :) Thank you so much!
ReplyDelete