May Embroidery Club - Applique

This month's topic is embroidery machine applique.  It's one of my favorite embroidery techniques.  With applique, you get a lot of bang for the buck.  You can create a sizeable design very quickly and easily.  It is perfect for garments,quilts, or baby items because the finished product is soft and pliable.  Sometimes large embroideries are stiff and can often feel like cardboard.  Stiffness can ruin the drape of a garment. 

Before we go into our lesson, lets look at all the fabulous work done by the ladies (and gentlemen) of Maryland Sew & Vac's Embroidery Club.  I think that you will agree that we have a lot of talented people in our group.

Now for machine applique.  Here's how to do it. 
1.  Hoop your background fabric with a lightweight stabilizer.  Since applique doesn't have very many stitches, you can use a light weight or medium weight tear away stabilizer. 

2.  Stitch out the first color.  This will show you the placement for the applique piece on the background fabric. 

3.  Place a piece of the applique fabric that is big enough to cover the stitching you just did.  You can spray the back of the fabric with a temporary adhesive spray (i.e., Sulky's KK2000 spray) to hold it down on the background fabric, but it is not usually necessary to do so. 

4.  Stitch out the second color.  This will tack down the fabric.  Remove the hoop from the machine but do not remove the fabric from the hoop.  With a sharp pair of scissors (I prefer to used curved embroidery scissors), carefully trim the fabric from the outside of the stitching.  Try to trim as close to the stitching as you can. 

NOTE:  You could also print out the applique template and precut the applique shape ahead of time.  This will save a lot of time.  If you don't have the ability to print out the applique designs using editing software, you could place a piece of cardstock on top of the stabilizer in step 2 above and stitch it once without thread in the needle.  You could cut out the applique shape to use as a template to precut the fabric applique pieces. 

If the pieces are very small or if you are concerned that the pieces will flip in the hoop, then I suggest tracing the template on fusible web such as Wonder Under or Steam-a-Seam Lite and press them in place (Step 4 above).  You could also use a spray adhesive to hold the pieces in place.

5.  Now place the hoop back into the machine and stitch out the last color.  This color stop will seal the edges of the embroidery with a satin stitch, a decorative stitch or a blanket stitch. 

6.  Now your applique is finished.  Remove any jump stitches and tear out any stabilizer from behind the design.

Now, wasn't that easy?

You can use applique in so many ways. 

I have a free pattern for all the members of Maryland Sew & Vac's Embroidery Club.  They received in the club email newsletter.  The  Pinwheel Tablerunner is a quick and easy way to make a delightfull spring tablerunner.  It's also a great way to use up scraps.

Viewers of my blog can also receive the free pattern for the next 90 days.  The project is the pinwheel table runner shown below and is available in .pes format.  If you would like the free embroidery design and table runner instructions then send a email to me at Geri@soeasyquilts.com and I will be happy to send it to you.  Remember, that this design is for personal use only.  You may not share the design or the instructions with anyone, nor do you have permission to sell the tablerunner or any items made with the pinwheel embroidery design.

Pinwheel Table Runner

Check back next month. Our topic will be Aprons, Aprons, Aprons!

See you soon!