Welcome friends!
Week 2 is all about paper weight &basting those pieces, what thread and glue to use and does it all matter! I think you'll quickly find out everything here is up to personal preface!
I know last week I jumped the gun and talked a bit about paper weights, but let's get a bit deeper.
The heavier in weight the paper is the thicker it is going to be. Here I've glue basted A) Regular printer paper, B) 90 lb. paper and C) 120 lb paper to see if the regular paper was too thin or if the 120 wt paper was to thick. By feel alone the regular printer paper will work perfectly fine! I was impressed at how sturdy it felt! The 120 lb paper was stiff but still bendy. I did get my printer to print on the 120 lb paper but I am thinking that not all printers will be able to handle such thick paper.
For my bats I went with the 90 lb paper.
I love fussy cutting my fabric and always try to aim to get the cutest picture in the piece. To fussy cut your fabric, lightly wrap the fabric around the paper to see how the fabric would line line up. You can also use a light board or a brightly lit window.
I have tried almost all of the major thread brands and I tend to prefer Aurifil thread. It has less shedding and tends to break less. I know at times I can get a bit aggressive with my pulling and I like a thread that can hold up.
Other brands that I have tried are Mettler and Gutermann. It is really personal preface and if you can only find thread at the bottom of you sewing box I say go for it! The important part here is that the color of the thread matches or is closely matching the fabric you've pulled for you bats.
A lot of brands have "invisible" thread. It feels like thin fishing line. I find the use of it very impressive but for me it is too invisible.
Glue or thread basting your paper pieces.
I've done both over the years. When I first started I only thread basted and I am pretty sure that was all that was talked about on the internet back in the day. Both my glue and thread basting has held up for years (pictured above pieces are 6 years old), so again this is all up to personal preface.
I am going to start with thread basting in 6 easy steps. I picked the most complicated piece on the bat to show this off, so the other pieces will have less steps and will be quicker.
When I glue my pieces I try to keep the glue all nice and neat and just on the fabric. But I am going to be honest here, there are plenty of times I am very heavy handed with the glue. If the piece is small enough, I am adding glue to the entire piece of fabric to keep that paper in there until I am all set. If you are heavy on the glue let it dry a bit before sewing your pieces together or it will be gummy and slide around from all the excess glue.
I find glue basting to be much quicker and easier on the hands.
And there you go, all set for next week.
I will be going live on Instagram Saturday, October 9th at 12pm PST if you have any questions or need any extra help! See you there!