A piece of old fabric makes a great tool….

For today’s “Quilting Tip Tuesday“, I am presenting a piece of scrap fabric. And, I am talking about something that isn’t a quilt-quality fabric….. maybe a piece of muslin or fabric that doesn’t have a close weave…..

And now I hear you saying “Exactly how is this a tip“?

Well, let me tell you….

This piece of fabric stays on my ironing board…..

When I accidentally iron over something that I shouldn’t, say the wrong side of Wonder Under, I grab this piece of fabric, lay it over the edge of my ironing board, and use it to wipe my iron.

Remember that my iron is HOT at this point. I have not let it cool first!!

This is done by simply holding my iron at an angle and pressing down really hard on the fabric…..

Now, there is nothing on my iron at this point in time, so it doesn’t look like anything is happening, but it will scrape any debris off of your iron without hurting it or damaging your ironing surface.

As you can see, this issue has happened more than once for me…..

The other thing I use this fabric for is when I am working with magic sizing, particularly when preparing appliqué pieces. (more about this process next Sunday)

Because the iron stays in one place for so long and there’s already magic sizing there, it is easy for the sizing to char, just a bit, leaving these unsightly stains…..

And isn’t it better for those stains to be on this piece of scrap fabric rather than on my ironing surface?

When your cloth gets too dirty, just toss it and replace it with something else.

So, here’s to an old piece of fabric and the things that it can do for you!!