English Paper Piecing, Freezer Paper, Hexie Sewing Tip...

I know that title is a little long, but I needed to get it all in! I've been sewing hexagons for over 15 years. I use the English Paper Piecing method of hand sewing. With EPP, you use some kind of paper as the foundation to shape the hexagon. I started with freezer paper and haven't changed since.

I wanted to share this little tip with you for ironing on the freezer paper...

A Mini Iron!!

Come in to see more tips and tricks and an EPP tutorial...



I've had this mini iron and press board for years and finally found a use for them with my hand sewing.

The mini Clover iron is the perfect size to iron on the freezer paper with the mini board right where I'm sewing, which is usually on the couch!!

Freezer paper is found in the grocery store where wax paper is sold. It's about $4-$5 for a very large roll.

It's double sided. The shiny side is what sticks to fabric. It doesn't harm the fabric and can be removed and used over and over again.

You MUST iron the shiny side down on the wrong side of the fabric. Shiny side towards your iron will get all sticky.

This is the best part with the mini iron. I can now do it wherever I'm sewing!!

Sticks right to the back of the fabric.

Pile of hexes all ready to be sewn into flowers!!

I love all things polka dot!!

Does this one look familiar? It's my blog logo!!

If you don't know how to sew hexagon flowers together, I've done a few posts on it in years past. You can click on my older posts in my side bar under English paper piecing.

I copied and pasted one of them below. It just so happens it's the red and white polka dot!!

Paper Piecing Tutorial…

To begin, fold over your first edge of fabric over the edge of the paper.

Then fold over the next edge, holding them in place.

Thread your needle and knot the end. Take a small stitch and back stitch again to anchor the corner where the 2 edges overlap…at that mitered corner.

One corner done.

Fold over the next flap of fabric and stitch again.

With each corner that you stitch, you are keeping the thread on the wrong side of the fabric. DO NOT stitch through to the front.

When you are done, each overlapping corner will be stitched down and the thread will be across the fabric on the wrong side.

The old way of doing this was to stitch through the paper, to the front to anchor the seams down. However, when you were finished sewing all the hexagons and then sewing them together into a quilt, you had to pull out all the basting stitches that were showing on the front. Not fun.

This way the stitches all stay on the back and you DO NOT have to pull anything out!!

Isn't it so tiny?

and so cute!!

Here's the back side of all the basted hexies. You will keep the papers on until you have sewn all the petals together. You can punch a hole in the paper first, if you'd like, to use a skewer to pull the paper out. I just reach in and peel the paper away.

To sew the petals together, place them right sides together and take tiny whip stitches across, just taking up a little fabric without going through the  paper.

Stitch all the way across.

Open it up. Don't cut thread. You will keep going.

Add another hexagon petal to the flower, right sides together...

and sew following the arrows. I opened up the petal again just to show you the direction to sew. The third arrow towards the left is when you would add on the next hexie.

Keep adding petals until your hexagon flower is done!!

You can cut another coordinating fabric and sew another row of 12 hexagons on to this flower to make this little flower bigger.

Hope these tips and tricks make your hexie sewing a little easier!!

Thanks for stopping by,

~Karen~