Mosaic Piecing Tools 2 – Glues and Clips

On Monday 9 January 2023Thursday 16 March 2023 By DendariaIn ToolsLeave a comment

In this post I will be assessing several glue sticks (not liquid glues) and some ways to hold templates together as you sew. As with yesterday’s post, all items were bought in Australia except where noted, and all prices are in Australian dollars. Prices may vary from store to store.

1. Glues: Sewline, Sue Daley, Matilda’s Own, Roxanne, June Tailor, Bostick

I have to preface this section by stating that I live in Canberra which usually has pretty low humidity. There were some days where I had to apply the glue one side (that is, one inch) at a time because it was drying so fast that I couldn’t get the fabric to stick if I left it longer. I also lost a bit of glue from the Sue Daley pen when a lid wasn’t put on tightly enough and 5 mm of the glue stick dried out overnight.

Sewline
Cost: $11.55 for a pen with 2.2 g glue plus one replacement cartridge ($2.63 / g)
Refills available: $16.50 for 6 ($2.75 each or $1.25 / g) or $58.50 for 20 ($2.92 each or $1.33 / g)
Country of Manufacture: Japan
Width of glue: 8 mm (5/16″)
Colour: blue, dries clear (refills are also available in pink)

The 8 mm width is perfect for small templates. The glue goes on smoothly and the colour makes it easy to see where you have and haven’t applied it. Drying time is pretty fast (5-10 seconds) and removal is easy from most template types, especially if the glue has had 24 -48 hours to dry fully. I was able to glue-baste 23 hexagon flowers from one cartridge (966 inches) but obviously your usage may vary according to how much you put on at a time, what template material you are using and the humidity of your house. Note that the larger refill pack is more expensive per gram than the smaller pack.

Sue Daley
Cost: $11.55 for a pen with 2.2 g glue plus one replacement cartridge ($2.63 / g)
Refills available: $15 for 6 ($2.50 each or $1.14 / g)
Country of Manufacture: Japan
Width of glue: 8 mm (5/16″)
Colour: Pink, dries clear

This is identical to the Sewline pen apart from the colour of the glue. Both are made in Japan and both use the same replacement cartridge. I’m not sure if they are made in the same factory but it’s likely. The refills are slightly cheaper than for Sewline. The above illustration shows a Sewline refill cartridge fitted to a Sue Daley pen, so they really are identical.

Matilda's Own glue stick — *Matilda’s Own glue stick*

Matilda’s Own
Cost: $7.95 for a pen with 2.2 g glue ($3.61 / g) (no refill included)
Refills available: $42 for 12 ($3.50 each or $1.59 / g)
Country of manufacture: South Korea
Width of glue: 8 mm (5/16″)
Colour: blue, dries clear

Although sold as “Matilda’s Own” this is made in Korea and intended for the Japanese market (all the text on the pen is in Japanese). It uses the same pen and cartridge design as Sewline & Sue Daley. I felt (but cannot quantify) that it is slightly more adherent than the above glues and it’s the one for which I have ordered refills. It is the most expensive, though, and for people on a tight budget it’s probably not worth the additional cost over Sue Daley / Sewline. Also, if anyone can tell me the original brand name I’d be obliged — I can make out the kana but not the kanji.

Roxanne
Cost: $13.95 for pen with 6 g glue ($2.33 / g)
Refills available: no
Country of Manufacture: China
Width of glue: 12 mm (about ½”)
Colour: clear
This glue is very, very greasy (I don’t think it’s actually grease but it feels like it). It takes a long time to dry, it leaves a lot of residue on templates and if it gets on your fingers it won’t wipe off easily (nor will it lick off — I had to go to the sink and scrub it off). I found that it worked best on the very porous Paper Pieces / cardboard templates (even then it wasn’t very good) and worst on Mylar (almost useless — it did dry eventually but took around ten minutes). It was also more difficult to remove the centre papers. I would not recommend this glue if you have alternatives.

June Tailor
Cost: $8.20 for 8 g pen ($1.03 / g)
Refills available: no
Country of Manufacture: Taiwan
Width of glue: 16 mm (5/8″)
Colour: purple, dries clear

This glue doesn’t feel quite as greasy as the Roxanne and it dries more quickly. but it’s definitely less effective than the three pens. The wider stick width makes precision usage very difficult, especially on the Eppiflex, where a lot of it ended up in the cut lines. It adhered adequately on very porous templates, such as the Paper Pieces and the medical forms, but poorly on the slightly glossy Sue Daley / Sewline templates and even worse on Mylar.

The stick is the same size and shape as the non-sewing 8g glue sticks such as Uhu and Bostick that you find in stationery stores. The design of the stick does not allow for replacement cartridges so you would have to buy another whole pen, but on a gram for gram basis it’s cheaper than the other sewing brands.

Bostick
Cost: $2.18 for pack of 2 @ 8g ($0.14 / g) (might have been a special price), $3.95 for 21 g ($0.19 / g)
Refills available: no
Country of manufacture: China
Width: 16 mm (5/8″)
Colour: deep blue, dries clear

Having seen that the June Tailor stick was the same design as UHU / school glue sticks and that the Roxanne stick felt very much like it, I tried to find one to compare. I couldn’t find UHU but I did find a Bostick glue stick in OfficeWorks (along with several other copycat products). I found that it was pretty much identical to the June Tailor glue in feel, adhesiveness, drying time and removal. It’s not as greasy in feel as the Roxanne stick. The colour was very strong to start with but it definitely dries clear. It is also the cheapest of all by a considerable margin.

Conclusions

For small pieces a narrow applicator is appreciably easier to use (because no matter how often you tell yourself you’ll tilt it on edge, you always end up with it vertical), and of the three pens I tried I preferred Matilda’s Own. However, the plastic-to-glue ratio is much higher in these pens and the price per gram of glue is also high. The two wide applicators (June Tailor and Bostick) were more or less the same in effect as each other and I don’t think you’ll harm your fabric by using the cheap glue from your office supply store rather than the more expensive June Tailor brand (as long as you check that it does dry clear and that it is washable). The only one I would advise against is the Roxanne glue stick because I hate the feel of it on my fingers.

I am planning on doing a washability test soon.

2. Clips: clothes pegs, Wonder Clips, SewTite magnets, SewTite Lite magnets

Clothes Pegs
Cost: Varies from 5 to 30 cents each

Widely available, these generally have enough strength to hold small pieces together. They are best for holding the first few petals to the centre or each other, when the peg can be at the bottom, but can get in the way for the last couple of petals and can be dislodged easily. Because they are so long I find that they don’t catch the thread as often as the Wonder Clips.

Wonder Clips
Cost: $8.00 for 25 ($0.32 per clip)

Wonder Clips hold the pieces together quite well but they are easily knocked awry and they catch the thread frequently. Their small size makes them more versatile than pegs when sewing together larger modules. They do take away some of the strain of holding pieces together but that’s about all I can say. (Sorry for the stock image, I can’t find my container of Wonder Clips at the moment.)

SewTite magnets
Cost: $30 for 5 dots – $6 per dot
Magnet size: 15 mm diameter; 177 mm²

These magnets are great for holding pieces together. I bought the $20 mixer pack (small bar, large bar and dot) and I’ve only used the dot, but the bars would be useful for larger pieces. The dots are covered in plastic and are about ¾” (18 mm) in diameter. They are smooth and don’t catch the thread at all. Unfortunately the magnet is so strong that it jumps to the steel when it gets close and can be difficult to separate from it. After some experimentation I found that the best way to attach it was to align my pieces, place the steel disc underneath and then bring the magnet down on top. Although much more expensive than clips, they will last forever (as long as you don’t do something silly). I think they are too large for cats and rabbits to swallow but dog owners should be careful in putting them away after use to prevent disaster — I have a steel trolley beside my chair so it’s easy to park the magnet there when I pack up for the night.

SewTite Lite: Libs Elliott magnets
Cost: USD 24.99 for 5, plus postage (not very much) – about AUD $7.70 per diamond.
Magnet size: 9 mm diameter, 64 mm²

These are a weaker version of the original magnets and I found them much easier to use but also easier to dislodge. They are strong enough to hold my 1″ templates together but the magnet doesn’t jump out of my hand. They aren’t available in Australia yet (I bought mine from Paper Pieces in the US) but I’m sure they’ll be here soon. The diamonds have corners and might catch thread occasionally but I haven’t noticed it myself.

Magnetic tape
Cost: ?? I didn’t buy any.
Like most people I have a large collection of fridge magnets and was interested to see how they would compare. The difficult part for me was finding a small smooth steel object to pair with them — I ended up using a bar from the SewTite set. Unfortunately magnetic tape is not strong enough to hold hexagons together. You could cannibalise a larger magnet (the type that has a magnetic disc glued onto it) but with all the bother of getting the glue off and finding a suitable piece of steel you might as well buy a SewTite.

Conclusions
Magnets are the best way of securing your pieces, but the original SewTites are a bit too strong for hand piecing at this size. The Lite versions (in diamonds and bars) are great for handwork and I hope they will be available in Australia shortly.

Mosaic Piecing Tools 1 – Templates

On Sunday 8 January 2023Sunday 8 January 2023 By DendariaIn ToolsLeave a comment

As I’ve previously said, I’ve started piecing some 1″ hexagons together, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to assess all the glue sticks and template materials I was able to buy. The post turned out to be rather long so I’ve split it in two — today’s post will be all about template materials, and tomorrow I’ll post about glues and clips. All items were bought in Australia except where noted, and all prices are in Australian dollars.

Templates:
a. Card stock: Sew Easy, Sue Daley, Paper Pieces
b. Mylar: June Tailor, OzQuilts, Eppiflex
c. Fiskars 1″ hexagon punch: bakery cartons, medical forms, grocery boxes

Note that I removed the centre template from each flower before I stitched the petals together so that the template wasn’t creased. That also allowed me to assess how each template stood up to multiple uses while leaving the petal templates in place.

A. Card stock templates

Sew Easy
Cost: $9.50 for pack of 100 ($0.10 each)
Light card stock, smooth surface. Probably die-cut. Flexible, but sturdy enough to withstand the pressure of fabric being folded over the edge. Most glues stuck reasonably well but the papers were fairly easy to remove, especially if removal was a couple of days after basting rather than the same day. I have used templates up to 6 times with no problems, although there was significant glue residue towards the end (not enough to hinder removal, though). If you reverse the card you can easily get 10-12 uses from each.

Sue Daley
Cost: $6.90 for pack of 100 ($0.07 each)
Light card stock, smooth surface. These look and feel identical to the Sew Easy cards and are probably from the same source.

Paper Pieces
Cost: USD $4.50 for pack of 100, plus postage
The cost is around AUD 6.90 ($0.07 each), so comparable to the Sue Daley templates if you ignore postage which, to be truthful, isn’t a lot. Delivery was around 7-10 days — I can’t be more precise as I only check my post office box once a week. The templates have tiny tags in the middle of each side as a remnant of die-cutting. The paper is thinner and more flexible than the Sew Easy/Sue Daley, and it has a rougher surface — it feels more like cartridge or sketchbook paper than card. Most glues adhered better to this surface than the glossy papers but I found that the templates still came away fairly cleanly once sewn, except where I had inadvertently stitched though the edge. I think that the thinner substrate will lead to a shorter number of uses but 5 or more is proven.

B. Mylar templates (aka BoPET: biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate)

June Tailor Templates
Cost: $29.95 for pack of 25 ($1.20 each)
Country of Manufacture: USA
Made from thick (almost a full millimetre) glossy white Mylar, these templates have a slight curve, presumably from the roll of Mylar they were cut from. Some of the edges retain a few shreds from the cutting, but they aren’t sharp. There is a small hole in the centre to permit them to be strung together. They are slightly flexible and could be folded if you put some effort into it but I chose not to do that.

Since one of the features of Mylar is its non-stick nature, it’s not surprising that none of the glue sticks adhered well. Most of the adhesion was at the corners where glue attached the fabric folds, and some of the templates were falling out before I had started stitching the petals together, so they really need to be basted with thread (which, to be fair, is what the packet directions advise). The thickness and weight of the template made it almost impossible to align the hexagons precisely, even using magnets. Having said that, however, I acknowledge that they are infinitely re-usable since they retain very little of the glue residue and are easily wiped clean if any residue is found.

They are the most expensive templates of all, by a factor of four to twelve.

OzQuilts Templates
Cost: $15.00 for pack of 50 ($0.30 each)
Country of Manufacture: Australia
These templates are also cut from white Mylar (by laser, judging from the slight discoloration around the edges) but are much thinner. Although they feel almost as smooth, they took the glue a lot better than the June Tailor templates and I didn’t have the same problem with fabric coming loose. Removal was easy. Alignment was good. Repeated use showed no deterioration up to ten uses and I think they’d be good for dozens if not hundreds.

Eppiflex Templates
Cost: $15.00 for pack of 50 ($0.30 each) or $35.00 for a pack of 175 ($0.20 each)
Country of Manufacture: Australia
These are made from transparent Mylar with additional cut lines to allow the pieces to be bent or folded — very useful when stitching rows or flowers together. I believe they are die-cut but I could be wrong. They are very thin, very light and very flexible. The surface is the least smooth of the three brands and I thought it would help the glue to stick, but strangely it didn’t. Because they are transparent I sometimes found it difficult to see where I had applied glue, and I found that I had to use all the glue sticks at an angle to prevent glue getting into the slits. I have to admit that I didn’t find them quite as nice to handle as I had expected, but the flexibility is the best of all the templates and they would definitely be the template of choice for larger flowers and more complex designs where you have to bend adjacent pieces.

Interestingly, the Eppiflex website says that although the templates are PET and therefore technically recyclable they won’t be recognised by recycling centres and should be returned to Eppiflex (or designated stores in the UK and US) for proper disposal to avoid them being sent to landfill.

C. Fiskars 1″ hexagon punch
Cost: $39.00
Country of Manufacture: China
Although expensive, this punch will pay for itself after 390 templates (assuming 10 cents per template). It is advertised as easy to use and I found that to be true. I have hand issues, as I’ve previously written about, but I didn’t get any pain from this — but I was careful not to do more than 50 at once. I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone with inflammatory arthritis or connective tissue disorders, but making enough for each day’s sewing shouldn’t cause pain for the average user. The worst thing about the punch was the fact that the templates bounce up and can land a fair distance away.

I used the punch on several different substrates: light waxed card from bakery cartons; light card from a stack of old carbonless copy pads I accumulated from my time in Defence; and light card from supermarket boxes such as crispbreads (Ryvita / Vita-Wheat). I also tried to cut templates from plastic milk bottles and slightly heavier card from the back of writing pads, but they were too thick. I didn’t try waxed milk cartons — it’s rare to find milk in cartons (Tetrapaks) these days and while cream is still sold this way it’s almost impossible to get all the fat out of the cartons so I didn’t try the punch on them. I didn’t try cereal boxes either as I don’t eat cereals, but I suspect that the cardboard is roughly the same thickness as crispbread boxes and not the thick cardboard used in America (termed chipboard there, I believe).

The glossy surfaces of the bakery cartons and grocery boxes presented no problems at all although I found that the bakery carton tempates worked better with the waxed side facing the fabric and the other side (which had roughly the same glossiness as the Sew Easy and Sue Daley cards) getting the glue. The card seemed very flimsy as a 20 cm / 8″ box, but once cut into small pieces (about 50 pieces per box) it was much thicker than the commercial card templates. It was still very light, though, and didn’t present any problems with alignment or the magnets I used to hold pieces in place.

The card from the Defence forms was non-glossy but a similar weight and thickness. I had no difficulty with glue sticking or template removal. I was able to get 24 hexagons from each A4 card.

Conclusions

Commercial card templates are very cheap and can probably be used 10 times or more if you reverse them (that is, glued five or six times each side). The Paper Pieces templates have a shorter life due to the thinner, more porous stock but at under 5 cents (US) per paper they are also the cheapest. For all cards I found that it was harder to remove them after several uses due to the build-up of glue residue.

Mylar templates can be used many times if cleaned occasionally. Of the three brands I liked working with OzQuilts the best, but Eppiflex templates are fine and have the advantage that you don’t need to remove the centre to stitch the petals. I would not recommend June Tailor templates because of their price, their weight and their thickness, even if you are happy to baste with thread instead of glue.

The Fiskars 1″ hexagon punch is worth the price if you need several hundred templates and have access to light card stock that would otherwise go to waste. It is not strong enough to make templates from plastic or thick card, and probably not from Mylar sheets.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about glues and holding devices.

The Eclectic Needle

Category: Tools

Mosaic Piecing Tools 2 – Glues and Clips

Mosaic Piecing Tools 1 – Templates