Stop Throwing Away Batting Scraps
Every quilter has a bin of batting leftovers: strips trimmed off quilts and offcuts too small for a whole project but too good to throw away. Callie Del® Batting Tape, in a 2-inch width on a 30-yard roll, joins two or more of those pieces into one larger, usable piece of batting. Instead of buying a new batt when a project is a few inches too big for what you have, you fuse the pieces you already own — and the join is soft, flat, and easy to quilt through.
What Batting Tape Is
Callie Del® Batting Tape is a lightweight fusible stabilizer made for joining batting. You lay it over the seam where two pieces of batting meet, with its rough, glue side against the batting, and press it with a hot iron. The heat activates the glue and bonds the pieces together. Because the tape is lightweight, it won't gum up your machine and won't add bulk to your project — there is no thick ridge to fight under the presser foot or the needle. It works with all batting types, and the roll gives you 30 yards to work with, so a single roll covers many quilts.
Why Quilters and Sewists Use It
The most obvious reason is size: joining pieces lets you build batting for larger quilts from smaller leftovers. It is equally useful mid-project — for machine quilting, you can easily add a piece of batting to a project exactly where it is needed. Hand quilters benefit too, because the fused join is soft enough that you won't even notice it when needling through. Beyond quilts, the same tape can stabilize seams, bias edges, and straight hems, and reinforce the edges of bags, tote bag handles, and other craft projects.
How to Use It: Step by Step
- Test first. Always test the tape on a scrap piece from your project before applying it to the whole piece, so you can adjust pressing time and heat as needed.
- Heat your iron. Preheat to a medium or wool setting, with no steam.
- Prepare the edges. If you are joining scraps, overlap their edges by a few inches and cut a wavy line through both pieces at the same time. Discard the small trimmings, then smooth the batting back together so the wavy edges meet neatly. A wavy join hides far better than a straight one.
- Position the tape. Center the tape over the join, keeping the cut edges no less than 1/2 inch from the edges of the tape for best results.
- Press. Place the rough, glue side against the batting, cover it with a light pressing cloth or a Teflon sheet, and press and hold the iron in place for 8–10 seconds.
- Work along the seam. Lift the iron and place it over the next section, slightly overlapping the first, and repeat until the whole join is fused.
Practical Tips
Protect your work surface accordingly — the glue side is meant to stick, so a pressing cloth or Teflon sheet between the iron and the tape is part of the instructions, not an optional extra. Press and lift rather than sliding the iron, which keeps the tape from shifting. And keep that test scrap habit: different battings respond differently, and a ten-second test beats rescuing a whole quilt sandwich.
Care and Storage
Store the roll with your batting supplies, somewhere dry and out of direct heat so the fusible stays ready to use. Keep the end secured so it doesn't unwind, and store it with your scrap batting bin — that is exactly where you will reach for it.
Project Ideas
Join scraps into batting for a large bed quilt, patch an extra strip onto a quilt that grew during piecing, stabilize a bias edge that wants to stretch, or reinforce tote bag handles and bag edges before stitching. Anywhere two pieces of batting need to become one, this tape does the job without pins, basting, or a bulky stitched seam.
Shop the Callie Del® Batting Tape 2in x 30yds at Linda's Electric Quilters.
