If you want to apply fusible interfacing with complete piece of mind, you need to use baking paper. Yep, that’s right. Baking paper.

Have you ever seen what the sole of an iron looks like if it’s been accidentally applied to the WRONG side of the interfacing sheet…? Well, you don’t want to, honestly. You either have to spend hours cleaning your iron, or you transfer glue onto all your clothes for the following month, … or you give up and buy a new one (eeek…!)

Accidents happen, right? Can you really be 100% sure you’ll NEVER be distracted by a phone call, or a text, or a “is tea ready yet?”… and that you’ll NEVER place the interfacing glue-side up…? I’m not.

So there you have it. Baking paper is your friend. It withstands LOTS of heat, so it’ll cope with your iron, and if EVER the worst happens and you place the interfacing the wrong way up, the baking paper will be happy to take the rap for it (it’s much cheaper to replace than an iron!!!)

1. Layer the stitched fabric (wrong side up), the interfacing (sticky side down), and last but not least the baking paper:

2. Iron the baking paper, then gently peel it off:

And you know what, even if you’re always careful, and NEVER get the sides mixed up… it’s STILL a great idea to use baking paper: there’s often a tiny amount of glue that bleeds past the edges of the interfacing… only a tiny amount, but enough to make your iron irritably sticky for a short while!

Extra tip, because I ♥ you:

If you use the same baking sheet more than once (only if it’s not been in a wrong-side accident, OK?), write something silly like “iron side” in one corner of the side that’s never been in contact with the interfacing, otherwise you’ll contaminate your iron with the glue bleeds from the previous time you used the baking sheet!

And now: ready, steady, apply stress-free interfacing!

A few design ideas you may like, for which this outline method works really well: