How Make Freezer Paper Templates

Do you hate to trace out many tiny pieces or turn away from rotary cutting small bits?  I know I do! 

Freezer paper is the answer to your quilting dreams!  If you have not tried freezer paper to use for making small or appliqué templates, now it the time!   Here is how I am using freezer paper to make this adorable #bescrappy dresden plate that is rather small and includes beautiful vintage scraps from my collection. 

Freezer paper is not the same a parchment paper or wax paper.  When you purchase it make sure it says "PLASTIC COATED."  You do not want to know what happens if you hit your iron on wax paper!  Not pretty at all!


Freezer paper can be trimmed to fit into your printer or it can be traced onto with a permanent pen.  I snag whatever ball point pen the college kid is not using at the moment because he usually has the best ones in the house.

First roll out some of the paper and make it into a manageable sized piece.  I like the 8.5x11.  For this project I did smaller.  Notice that there are two sides to the freezer paper.  One is flat and one is shiny.

Pre shrink your paper by pressing over it with a hot dry iron *****SHINY SIDE DOWN****.   It will take only a second and then you can be sure that your templates will be sized correctly :)

After the freezer paper prep, grab your handy pen ( thank you boomerang boy!) and trace your template onto the paper.  My lines are not pretty, I hate to trace! But that is okay!

Lay the paper shiny side ****DOWN**** on your fabric scrap.  Hit it with a dry hot iron for a few seconds and it will stick!  This does not leave a residue and it reusable ( YAY)! 

Trim this up and save that bigger small scrap ;o) 

Freezer paper templates are also great for fussy cutting!  I am a bit of a fussy cutting maniac and will try to find and fussy cut anything I can.

If you hold it up to the light you can see how perfect your centered fussy cut will be.  This one should actually be a little more to the left.

After the trimming, you just peel the fabric off of the paper and on to the next piece!  I like to make a bunch of them and then use them and store them on clear bags to use again.

I hope you will try freezer paper templates as a great tool to add to your sewing studio to help use up your scraps!