Seriously, that bad Wonder Under can drive a girl bananas. I have lots of it. In fact, I wrote Pellon and complained about the five bad yards I had just purchased at Walmart and they sent me five replacement yards. That would be great... except it's bad too.
I tried waiting to peel the paper until the next day. I tried peeling the paper while hot. I tried peeling the paper while cold -- even straight out of the freezer. It's just all around bad.
Then as I was cruising the aisles at our local Super Target (which I adore!), I saw this...
The parchment paper, not the glue or the messy nest of floss.
I had heard about such a beast, but usually only in the context of chocolate chip cookies. Vaguely the rememberance of using it with fusible creeped into my brain. I think the roll cost about $2.34.
When I got it home I tried peeling the fusible off the bad Wonder Under release paper, carefully laying it over the fabric, then laying a piece of the parchment over the top. It was so slick. I mean literally slick. It fused the webbing so flat and smooth and tight, I nearly did a back flip in relief and celebration. I immediately through the original release paper from the WU away lest it get confused with the parchment.
I also put a piece of parchment over all the wrinkly, bad, spotty WU that was fused on other fabric and it improved the surface significantly.
Of course this is all old hat to you. You have a couple of rolls of parchment in your studio right next to the freezer paper, right?
I'm not sure why Mel is so excited about the Telflon cooking sheets though I'm sure they work great. Maybe there is some downside to my new best friend, Parchment. Mel, will you enlighten me?
I also bought some Misty Fuse at the local quilt store when I was cursing the WU. But I haven't had a chance to use it with the parchment yet. I bet it will be brilliant.
Oh and what have I been making with all this freshly fused fabric? Tune in later.
Edited to Add:
Now that Mel has written about the obvious advantages of the Telflon sheets, I must add that I'm in a temporary apartment until our home is done. (I decided not to bring too many art supplies. I even packed up the sewing machine. It only took me about two days to regret that decision.) So, when I decided to do a small project, I wanted to buy just what I absolutely needed and not spend too much. Plus, I needed it now now now. I am nothing if not cheap and impatient. I'm not proud of it. But it's true. Parchment was easily available and cheap.
16 comments:
I've been hearing so much about the bad wonder under that I'm really afraid I'll get some. Last month I bought a bit of new bolt at Hancock's, when home and tested it, then went back and bought the rest of the bolt. I hope by the time I use it all up, that bad stuff will be completely out of the system.
Yep. I have 2 rolls of parchment and only 1 roll of freezer paper. Depending on what's on sale, I will buy the htc transweb (?? is that it?) at JoAnnes which is the paperless wonder under and use the parchment.
And I use the parchment instead of saving the release paper.
I will reply in my blog today, and link yours.
I just bought two bolts of WU- haven't tried it yet but I will next week so I can see if it's bad or not. I DID buy a bolt of 100 yards of Misty Fuse and it works great. Kind of a pain because the paper is separate but it's certainly less of a pain than fighting with getting the release paper off the WU.
So, yes, I have both freezer paper and parchment but I still save my release paper....
BTW, still looking for the frogs...
teri
Deborah,
Having gone to cooking school and learning to NEVER put anything in the oven without it, I am a user of parchment for many many things, not the least being with wonder under (it doesn't deserve to be capitalized). Oh, my point.
You can purchase parchment at a restaurant supply store and it is the size of full sheet pans, which is much more convenient than the rolls. And, you can cut them in half (with a rotary cutter, as they slide all over the place when cutting lots at one time) and they will fit on your customary half sheet pans (cookie sheets?) and you will never have to grease a pan or clean up from oven mess again.
I'm so glad you emphasized "parchment" because all the while you were talking about it, it was registering "freezer" in my brain...I've been SO FRUSTRATED with the stuff I've been working with. i almost blogged about it, even took a picture, but I just thought I was doing something wrong...duh. trust thyself....
You know, after 15 of working for the same company (big time fabric store chain) you'd think that the Pellon people would get their Wonder Under perfected. I bought some awhile ago, deep regrets. It's awful. Trust me, this is not the first time I've seen complaints about the stuff. Aleenes used to make some kind of fusing web. It was great. Too bad the company went bust. Want to try the Misty Fuse. Liz Berg wrote an article for Quilting Arts magazine and that's what she recommends. Good luck to you all.
I just used Wonder Under for the first time last week, and I found it to be messy and rather inconvenient. Bits and pieces of it stuck to my ironing surface and my brand new iron. I don't know if I got the "bad" stuff or if that's just the way WU works. Frankly, it was a pain in the tush. I hope Misty-Fuse is better!
Ohhh, goodness. I just discovered this site. Last year I had a whole bolt of bad Wonder Under. That was a first, as I have used it for years. I could not get the paper off. I sell my crafts at fairs and can't afford to have things fall off. I wrote to Pellon and they sent me a new bolt. They said the fault was not in the glue but in the paper. Now, if some of you can enlighten me, how do you use the parchment paper or freezer paper. Also, how does Heat and Bond compare to Wonder Under. I used to use it but had problems with edges not fusing.
Thanks.
Heat and Bond is the absolute pits. Get just the tinest bit too much heat and the bond is gone. Don't even think about new bonding where your iron will touch the previously done bond with Heat and Bond. That will undo your previous work.
I'm a fan of Steam-a-seam. It is much better behaved and I've never had a problem with its paper.
Becky
This is my first stop at your blog. Have any of you tried fusing wonder under to muslim & running it through a copy machine? It seems to have worked when i tried it. Any reason not to? Jody
I accidentally got wonder under on my brand spanking new (and expensive) ironing board cover. Any ideas as to how to get it off?
jeanette
I just wanted to say "THANK YOU!" for blogging about this! I just bought 1/2 a yard of Wonder Under and it was horrible. I'd never had problems before, but this was terrible. It would NOT come off the paper after being ironed to the fabric and was shredding my fabric! I read about using parchment paper here and peeled the glue off the Wonder Under and used the parchment instead - it's a miracle!!! It was so smooth and peeled RIGHT off the paper and the glue stuck to the fabric so easily. You saved me a LOT of annoyance. Thanks again :) OH - side note: does anyone know how to get the glue off of an iron and ironing board? That's another whole issue ;)
I dropped my hot iron on the carpet and what a mess I had.The carpet melted and stuck to the iron. I rubbed the hot iron over an old towel until most of the glue came off ,then I scrubbed it with my ceramic stove top cleaner with the scrubbing pad . The iron was completely clean and I ironed over waxed paper several times. This might work for the glue problem.
Hey Deborah! I know this is a very old blog post, but I wanted to let you know that it's still helping people! I have been having a horrible, horrible time with two different cuts of Wonder Under--apparently the folks at Pellon still haven't figured it out all these years later! Anyhow, this parchment tip has completely saved the day. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much. I bought a huge roll of Wonder Under several years ago that does not work very well. Your blog is just what I was looking for. I would have never thought to use it the way your have suggested.
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