Applique

This week I worked on some applique. I used HeatnBond, which is fusible on both sides. I found some simple outlines I wanted to use, first were the campfire and tent. I traced the shapes onto the paper side of the HeatnBond and cut around them, then fused them to the back side of the fabric I wanted to use. I used a pin to scratch the paper backing and remove it, then I fused the fabric to the items. In this case it was to make two coasters.

The applique needs stitching, so I chose a blanket stitch, made it small to match the scale of the coasters, and I love the result. I added borders and even repeated the blanket stitch there. I cut the backing oversized to fold to the front and bind it.

I found a cat silhouette I liked and added a cat applique to one of the cat-shaped coasters. I will continue to use the method on other things, like an initial on a coin pouch, or other shapes.

While looking for shapes I found some I liked, but they would work better as embroidered accents. To do that I’ll have to work on my embroidery machine (fix the tension) and test out a few.