Vanessa does beautiful appliqué work (take a look at that gorgeous bag above!), and knowing how busy she is… I figured she’d have a few tips and tricks up her sleeve that allow her to speed up the process. “You betcha!” she said! Well…. she might not have said, “you betcha,” she might have just said, “okay,” but, she was hap-hap-happy to help. So, today, we are very pleased to bring you a wonderful appliqué guest tutorial from Vanessa herself. She gives you step-by-step instructions to create fast-and-easy, finished-edge appliqué elements you can use to build into your own wonderful designs, like the dramatic dahlia above or whatever else your creativity imagines.
I love to appliqué, but I don’t love raw edge appliqué as much as I love the “turned over” look. That’s where your edges are turned over and you hand stitch around your design’s edge. I do it this traditional way all the time because I find it soothing, but I know many of you find it more of a scary thing than a fun thing. So, today, I’m going to show you the way I do most of my appliqué now… and it’s not scary at all I use use Pellon 807 fusible webbing. It makes the turned-over look very easy to accomplish, and your friends will think you spent a bazillion hours doing the technique!
You will need a template, an iron, a washable pen, fabric and Pellon 807 fusible webbing.
The template can be as easy as a cut out of your shape from paper or from card stock. Or you can buy the plastic sheets, which is what my hexagons are made out of in the picture above.
Trace your shape on the RIGHT side of the fabric. You could do the wrong side, but we’d have to change the instructions a little, so for today, we’re going to show you how to do it by tracing your shape on the right side of your fabric.
Once you have the shape traced onto your fabric, cut out a piece of Pellon 807 fusible web big enough to cover your shape on your fabric.
Once you have sewn around your whole shape (end by backstitching a few stitches to secure), cut out your shape leaving an approx ⅛” seam allowance around your stitched line.
Next, pinch the webbing out from the fabric, and make a small slit down the middle of the webbing. Turn the shape inside out.
With scissors or a pencil gently push out the corners and round out any edges. Be very careful so you don’t tear the webbing!
Next, with your fingers, press down your seam so it gives you a nicer edge.
Pin the appliqué in place. With an iron, adhere your shape onto the background.
Time to do the appliqué stitching! Find thread close to the color of the shape you are working on. Come up from the wrong side of the project, and make sure you “catch” the corner of the edge of the shape.
Next, go down right next to where you came up. Make sure you go right next to the shape, as far in as you can without going back into the same stitch you had coming up.
Continue to do this all around the shape. When you look from the side of the shape, you will see small little stitches from the edge going into the side of the shape.
Use your finished appliqué pieces to build a beautiful bag or whatever else you strikes your fancy.
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