"STITCHING MENDS MY SOUL"

Thursday, March 3, 2011

FUSIBLE APPLIQUE TUTORIAL PART 3

Now it's time to get your appliques onto your fabric. First you need to prepare the background. Cut it out larger than needed. The process of stitching applique, whether by hand or machine, 'takes up' some of the fabric, and you will trim the block to size after it's all stitched. Then finger press it in half in both directions, so you can see where the center is, and you have guidelines for centering your design. A finger press is good enough for you to easily see (although maybe not in my picture, LOL!), but will iron press out easily later.

The fun begins -- arranging my pieces.

Here I have my pieces pretty much (not exactly) how I want them. It's time to start sticking them down.

Peal back and remove the paper.

You can see that the paper is removed but the adhesive remains all around the outside edge of my applique. I can finger press it in place now. Continue with all your pieces.

One last check that everything is placed just how I want it. I can still move things around here, just like moving a sticky note.

I have appliques on my triangles too, so I finger press those in half both directions too, so that I know where the center is.

The stars get centered on the triangles and finger pressed down.

A star goes on my star.

Once you are satisfied that everything is just how you want it, it's time to press. Use the settings for the fusible product you are using. Mine says to use steam and a cotton setting, and to press for 10-20 seconds, so that's what I'm doing.

Here's everything all pressed down and ready for stitching.

Next, I'll finish with how I stitch these down.

3 comments:

Blondie ~ Vintage Primitives said...

Hello
found you through another link and have to say that I am engrossed in your blog. I can sit here all morning and learn. Thank you!

I Play Outside The Box said...

Oh my....you make this look so easy...that is just beautiful!!

Cheryl Willis said...

nice job, it is always fun to see a detailed version of how to do something. I love raw edge applique and tend to not do iron on any more, guess I just got out of the habit. It is pretty neat for doing lots of small pieces and keeping them in place. thanks for sharing~~ cw