English Paper Piecing with the Sewline Glue Pen

English Paper Piecing seems to be everywhere at the moment, I picked up the latest copy of Love Patchwork & Quilting Magazine and they have 10 pages dedicated to it! Its not surprising as the weather warms up English Paper Piecing is the perfect craft to take outside and enjoy in the sunshine.

Before I left on holiday we got a humougous delivery of Sewline Glue Pens and since I cannot go on holiday without a craft project in my suitcase I popped in some fabrics, some hexi paper pieces and a Sewline Glue Pen.

Having previously only basted my paper pieces with a traditional needle and thread I thought I would share my thoughts.

How to:

Using a Sewline glue pen is really easy, simply pin your fabric to your paper piece and glue along one side of you paper piece. Using your nail fold your fabric down over the glue ensuring it is flush with the edge of the paper.

Repeat on the next side of the paper piece, you will need to apply some glue to the fabric where it overlaps the previous side.

Repeat all the way around until your paper piece has been basted.

and thats it!

Pros of using the Sewline Glue Pen

• Super portable and much easier to whip out and use than a needle and thread
• Much quicker than using a needle and thread, you will have a stack of basted paper pieces in no time at all
• Comes with an extra glue refill and more refill packs are available
• Glue goes on blue but dries clear so you can see where you’ve put it
• Its easy to peel off the fabric to remove the paper pieces

Cons of using the Sewline Glue Pen

• It is glue and glue does melt so probably not one to use on super hot days or left in direct sunlight where it *might* melt.
• Its not quite as secure as thread basting and I did notice that my fabric occasionally came unstuck when I was sewing my pieces together, not a huge problem when you can easily glue it back down

Despite the couple of cons I’m definitely a convert and don’t think I will be returning to needle and thread basting purely because using a glue pen just saves so much time!

If you are looking for Paper Pieces to go with your Sewline glue pen you can find our full range here. I will hopefully be back in a week or two with my finished hexi project, still debating how to finish it!

Happy sewing!