Thursday, 24 January 2013

Applique in a panic!

This week everything seems to be about panicking!

It has been one of those weeks!

Anyway, last week I needed a quick way to get a set of learners to make blocks for a wall hanging for their support centre. Skills and time were in short supply, so asking them to cut individual patchwork blocks and sew them in a traditional way wouldn't work!

Whilst stewing on the idea with a cup of coffee I remembered a technique I had watch Sarah Fielke use in her Craftsy class - it is brilliant by the way!

She used glue to secure all her hand applique! To me this was brilliant!

No pins, just glue dabbed onto the middle of the shape to keep it in place and then the edges could be tucked and sewn... total genuis!

But I wondered if this technique could be applied to machine applique?

Could I get away with some fabric glue instead of expensive Bondaweb, which I love using, or fiddly pins that would drive the learners insane?

After 30 minutes of experimenting, I found out I could!


Machine Applique Flower

I get a fast and satisfying result using scraps of fabric, which large groups of my learners will be able to follow! They can design their own applique and make it into cushion covers, quilts... whatever they want!

Yesterday I used the method again on me second demo quilt for Saturday's class, and it worked a treat again!


The scraps were glued in place, then stitched - it was quick and easy!

Because it doesn't involved an iron I can use with my after school clubs too, giving them more freedom to design!

You can find a free tutorial here, if you fancy giving it a go!



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