Friday, November 19, 2010

Technicolor Vine Machine Appliqué

I remember the first time I saw machine appliqué. I was standing in a horrific line to get fabric cut at Joann's Fabrics (gag) and looked over at the Viking machines and one was whirling away at an embroidery design. An appliqué embroidery design. I had never seen that done before and I instantly loved it. Fast forward 3 years later, to now.
I’ve had a tutorial before about appliquéing letters, but here’s another appliqué tutorial, with a few more instructions this time. This time the sample item is my Technicolor Vine appliqué design.
1. Hoop your fabric and stabilizer. (duh) Load the thread color you want to use for your final satin stitching, in this case, yellow.
2. Sew the placement stitch. It’s hard to see here because without bionic eye balls because its yellow. Sorry.
technicolor vine applique (17)
3. Cut a scrap of fabric large enough to cover the placement lines, usually just a rectangle. Now you can either spray it temporary spray glue (I like 505) but I actually prefer to just starch the heck out the rectangle. Just use heavy duty spray starch that you would use for any other clothing item. (Assuming you iron, I don’t.) Lay the heavily starched square over the placement lines and sew the second stitching.
technicolor vine applique (16)
4. Remove hoop from machine and trim away excess yellow fabric with small curved appliqué scissors, $5 bucks at WalMart. DO NOT REMOVE THE fabric from the hoop!!
technicolor vine applique (14)
5. Replace hoop, sew the tack down line. This is usually a wavy zig-zag or just another straight line, depending on the design. (There may or may not be two tackdown lines sewn. Usually just one though.)
technicolor vine applique (12)
6. Sew final stitching, usually a satin stitch, but not always. Sometimes I use different types of cover stitching* like a criss cross pattern of Xs, as seen in my geranium design or even just a fancy swirly cover design, like my boutique label. But for this design, a regular ol’ satin stitch was used, as seen below.
technicolor vine applique (9)
7. Finish the embroidery process. In this case, one more leafy couple and then the stem.
technicolor vine applique (8)
8. Sew up your pillow!
technicolor vine applique (7)
*Here are some different cover stitch lines other than satin stitching.
Here’s kind of a butterfly edge (orange thread), with a zig-zaggy stem stitch (green thread) on these circle appliqués.
DSC_0916 copy
Here’s a criss-cross of Xs on the main petals (orange stitching) of  this geranium applique.
geranium appliques (3) copy
That’s it my cyber-embroidery buddies! Machine applique is super easy, so give it a try.

8 comments:

KarrieLyne said...

Thank you sooooo much for this tutorial!! I've had my machine for 3+ years and it also has an embroidery attachment. Would you believe I've not taken even one embroidery stitch?! I've been wanting to know how to do this and you gave a great tutorial for me to give it a go. :)

QuiltingCyclist said...

Cynthia, WOW! I purchased this pattern from you not too long ago. I see that I have an outline copy, a lacework copy and a filled copy. Do these equate to that? I am confused. Would love to know. I thought it was just embroidery.
Thanks, mona

Cynthia said...

mona, you bought the stitched out version. this is the applique version. :) cynthia

QuiltingCyclist said...

Cynthia, thanks. I will order the applique version as well. Looks like it will be wonderful. Hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving day. Just got my kitchen cleaned up.mona

Elena said...

I am so beyond thrilled I found you on Flickr and it led me here! Like karrielyne, I've had my embroidery module for over a year and have hardly used it. I've done a few monograms directly on the machine, but I haven't yet ventured into software b/c it seems very intimidating and expensive, to boot.
Can you give me your recommendations for software and how to learn/navigate machine embroidery? Yours is the only site I've found with any good info. I thought I'd only be doing names and monograms, but your gorgeous designs make me think otherwise :)

Thanks!!!
Elena :)

Angela Maria said...

Olá! Seu trabalho é muito lindo...Parabéns!!!
Angela Maria

Jen said...

Hi!

I need some help. i get to yr site from the cuteembroidery link

I am having issues with appliques. never done them before and i saw this item on the www

http://www.sewforless.com/item/WunderStitch_Fuse_N_Stick_Embroidery_Stabilizer_9in_x_12yd_Roll_INCLUDES_10_FREE_EMBROIDERY_NEEDLES/8555

Its a fuse and stick stabiliser and i dont know if this is neccessary and in what type of applique? like the one u shown here is direct applique onto the fabrics but there's another type where its to be iron on? pls advise. Thank you!

Cynthia said...

Jen--I hope you see this as you didn't leave an email address. I don't like using any adhesives when I applique because sometimes it leaves a residue which then attracts dirt. I've had this happen to me before when using a spray glue on some sweatshirts I appliqued for my kids. They looked lousy and filthy.

That's why I like starching my fabric instead. It keeps it really stiff and therefore shouldn't pucker when the machine is sewing it down. I also think my way is the easiest. :)

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