Appliqué is one of the most versatile techniques in sewing. It allows a simple piece of fabric to become a canvas, on which you can create collages of textures, colors, and other fabrics. Machine embroidery takes this traditional art form to new, and amazingly easy, heights. Specially designed stitch files do most of the work for you. You just 'float' a piece of fabric, trim, then watch as your embroidery machine precisely creates an ingenious blend of beautiful embroidery and appliqué.

You will need to purchase a design that has been digitized specifically for appliqué. Most home embroidery machines don't come with these kind of designs built in, but they are easy to find online or in stores. For sourcing ideas, read our article: Embroidery Week: The Many Ways to Get Embroidery Designs.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any Embroidery Machine (we recommend the Janome Memory Craft 350E)
• Embroidery hoop in appropriate size for project
• Appliqué embroidery design in format appropriate for your machine

Fabric and Other Supplies

• Small scraps of fabric for appliqué
• Purchased napkins
  NOTE: Make your own napkins with one of these Sew4Home tutorials: Thanksgiving arts & Crafts Style Napkins or Citrus Holiday: Easy Napkins with Festive Trim .
• Thread in colors to match or accent your appliqué fabrics
  NOTE: Some embroidery designs call for multiple colors; be sure to read the instructions provided with your design.
• Super sharp scissors – a pair specifically designed for appliqué if possible
• Tear away stabilizer

Getting Started

1. Your selected design should come with instructions for use. Review these instructions to make sure you understand any specific steps required. Our instructions below are for general use.
2. Put a new embroidery needle in your machine. Embroidery projects require more frequent needle replacement to ensure optimum fabric penetration and perfect stitches.
3. Following the instructions for your machine, load and access your selected design to the ready-to-stitch screen.

At Your Sewing Machine

1. Set up your machine for machine embroidery. On our machine, the Janome MC350E, this requires simply pushing a button. Other machines may require more steps and/or the addition of a special embroidery attachment.
2. Hoop a piece of scrap fabric with some stabilizer, and test stitch your design. We are doing this to confirm how large the design will actually stitch out.
3. Once the design has stitched, measure the actual finished size. Cut the piece of fabric you are using for the appliqué to a size about 2" larger than actual all around.
4. Confirm the placement of the design on the napkin. We wanted ours at the point of one corner. Mark your napkin with appropriate placement guidelines.
5. Place the napkin in the hoop with a piece of tear away stabilizer behind it.
6. Attach the hoop to the machine.
   
7. Lay the piece of fabric for appliqué on top of the napkin (on top of the hoop) in the location where the machine will begin stitching the design. The fabric should be as flat as possible.
   
8. Press the button to begin stitching out the design.
9. The machine will first stitch an outline of the design. Being VERY CAREFUL to avoid the needle, use your fingers to smooth the appliqué fabric as necessary. You want the fabric to lay as flat as possible during this initial stitch out.
10. When the machine has finished the outline, it will stop and alert you to change thread colors. Raise the presser foot and remove the hoop from the machine.
    
11. Without shifting the napkin in the hoop, use your super sharp scissors to cut away the excess fabric around the design outline. Any fabric outside of the traced area should be removed. Gently pull on the stitched fabric so you can get as close to the stitches as possible without actually cutting the thread.
    
12. Place the hoop back on the machine, and stitch out the remainder of your design.
    
13. Repeat to create the same design on as many napkins as you need for your table setting. We used a different fabric and thread combination for each napkin. They all coordinate nicely, yet each is unique.
    

Hints and Tips

Pay attention to any additional instructions included with your design. Some may require more than one thread color, so you will need to re-thread as indicated for your design. Other designs may require more than one fabric application. If this is the case, repeat the steps above with each new fabric application.

Other machines suitable for this project include the Pfaff Creative 2170 and the Bernina Artista 640E.

Comments (1)

MerrilyAbels said:

	... Great project! Looking at the exorbitant prices for these wonderful projects when one understands that they are not that difficult, makes it a definite winning project. Always a winner gift item.
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November 27, 2009
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