Applique Embroidery Lesson, Page one

How to stitch an appliqué design with an embroidery machine

After the first color has stitched, remove the stabilizer from the hoop and trim both layers to about 1/8 inch or 3 mm outside the line of fabric. Peel away the stabilizer on the back.

Hoop the fashion fabric onto which you want to apply the design. In this case it is a flower. I used the same tear away/ rinse away stabilizer and hooped the fabric,but it is also possible to hoop only the stabilizer and use adhesive on both layers of fabric to hold them in place. If you do that, it is smart to use a basting pattern to hold the fashion fabric in place in the hoop.

At the embroidery machine, go back to the first part of the design again. Stitch the design from the beginning again, so the the single line of stitches you just stitched for the cutout will be on the fashion fabric where you want the flower. This will guide you when you lay the appliqué cutout (lightly sprayed with adhesive) onto the hooped fabric. Now run the second color. In this case, it is a line that doubles back on itself and another round of zig-zag stitches that hold down the fuzzy edges. Many fabrics will need a layer of light water soluble stabilizer to hold down the fuzz, but this cotton/poly blend worked fine without that. Fabric choice is very important with appliqué work. You can get really interesting results with exotic fabrics, but some are very troublesome to stitch and don't wear well. Begin with a tightly woven light cotton or cotton blend. If you wan to try velvet or ultra-suede after you gain confidence, remember to lay down a layer of water soluble stabilizer on top of the appliqué from the moment when the first line section of the design stitches the applied fabric into place. Be very careful to use a light amount of adhesive, but do use an adhesive. If you don't, the fabric will usually bubble up a little and just won't be perfectly neat, and sometimes it will come away when it is laundered.

The rest of the process is the same for both techniques, and for any other embroidery design. Just stitch the rest of the colors.

Appliqué, part B

1785 stitches, 96 mm X 94 mm

Wild Rose Appliqué Embroidery Design

dst ... exp ... hus ... jef ... pcs ... pes ... thr ... xxx

Click the file format of your choice to download the zipped file.

We occasionally get questions about how to appliqué, so I decided to say it with pictures. The designs above was digitized so that you can use either of the two methods described. It has five color stops, but really only needs two colors of thread (or three if you prefer).

There are two variations of the basic idea. In one (A) you stitch the applied fabric to the fashion fabric and trim away the edges. In the other (B) you stitch the appliqué onto stabilizer first and trim it, then lay it over the hooped fashion fabric.

A

Hoop a tear away/rinse away stabilizer and lay the appliquéfabric on top. Press and starch the fabric first, and use a very light spray adhesive on the back. This stabilizer is made of fiber, but it washes out so the appliqué will be soft to the hand. You can use other stabilizers, but remember that the extra layers of fabric will add some bulk, so don't use any more stabilizer than needed. This is the first color of the design, which is usually a simple outline of the shape.