Heatnbond vs Pellon: An applique making experience

All Indonesian needleworks crafters I knew are crazy about cute designer's fabric, including my self.

It's like a trend now, everybody hunts for Alexander Henry's, Robert Kauffman's, Farbenmix, Suzy Ultman's, etc, or just something similar to their design.

I love the picture/pattern/characters on those cute piece of fabrics (I usually only bought fat quarter because it's quite pricey to me, heehee ), feel timid to cut them. So what I did was just turn them into appliques.

To make appliques, I was helped by this great product named HeatNBond.

It's a double sided fusible web, so convenience to use. We just iron the web on the fabric intended to be appliques, only for 2 seconds and it's ready to be cut. To stick the applique to other fabric (in my case, it's a cotton hijab) just peel the paper backing and iron it again, slightly longer than the first one. Because the fabric I use is a thin, sheer cotton, it only took 5 seconds to stick it. Although there's a "No Sew " wrote on the wrapping, I preferred to stitch it afterward, just to make sure that the applique stays strongly on the fabric.

The second double sided fusible web I tried was Pellon.
It's slightly thinner than HeatNBond, the using direction mentioned that after it pressed to the fabric intended to be an applique (for about 5 or 8 seconds), cut it, peel the backing paper, put the applique on the chosen fabric, cover it with the damp cloth and press it for a bit longer time than the first one (about 10-15 seconds). The damp cloth was used as a temperature and timing guide, because after 10 seconds, the cloth will be dried and that means the web has fused perfectly.

I didn't use damp cloth for some reasons and did the first pressing too long. A mistake, because afterward it's quite difficult to peel the paper backing, the web stuck to the paper instead to the applique. The result was, the applique didn't stick well to the fabric I use (cotton hijab).

I took a second test. This time I only ironed the Pellon on to the applique for 3 seconds. I peeled the paper backing, voila, it stuck perfectly to the applique. Then I press it to the cotton hijab, still without a damp cloth over it. At first, some edges are still looked unstuck. I pressed it again for a longer time (20-30 seconds) and the result is perfect . As I did to the earlier applique, I stitched around it to secure it.

So, either HeatNBond or Pellon are works well, just need a bit different treatments. Price wise, Pellon is cheaper than HeatNBond. On both appliques I just feel the need to secure it with stitching, I use fusible web just to make the placement of the applique much easier & convenience. O yes, and my needle can go through the web easily, even though HeatNBond is more generous in its adhesive (therefore it's a bit thicker than Pellon).

You can see my appliques on Calyx Hijab here .