Okay, friends, I'm relatively new at machine applique and found it more of a challenge than I anticipated.
Any tips welcome!!! cora jo
ho cora jo, welcome. what part are you having trouble with or are you having trouble starting : ) ? are you using a blind button hole with clear thread or are you using matching thread. are you doing turned edge, or raw edge? gini
gini in north idaho
practice turning corners before you get started. if your buttonhole is catching on the left, drop your needle at the point on the right swing of the stitch and rotate your fabric. you will have a couple of extra stitches at the point, but when you figure out how to time it the stitches will look fine. gini
I have done a goodly amount of hand applique and love it. Recently, I made a table cloth with lots of applique which I COULD have done by hand...but, I thought I would just machine it. Oh ya. Took me ages...lots of flowers on flowers with centers...leaves...you get the picture. It called for raw edge applique. I used the blanket stitch on my mahine. I just felt it could have looked more ... tidy?
good morning cora, did you fuse the pieces down first, that seems to make the edges neater. if you are making a piece that will not need laundering, with the use of fusables you can do a staight stitch around the edges. gini
I use wonder under to iron on the back of a shape I want to applique and then iron it onto the fabric. It holds it in place while you satin stitch around it. For useful hints go to this website: http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/techniques/applique/machine-applique-tips_ss1.html?sssdmh=dm17.514249&esrc=nwapq032211&email=3163227734
Yellow Rose
I forgot to mention. You always want to put a stabilizer behind the machine applique. For an imexpensive stabilizer, I go to our local Dollar Tree and get gift tissue (non shiny kind) and spray some quilting adhesive to it and place it on backside. Without the stabilizer your applique will pucker.
rosalie, i do machine applique without stabilizer and haven't had a problem with puckering. it might depend on the machine you are using. i use dabs of elmer's glue stick to hold it in place. gini
I do have an older singer machine fromthe 1970's. May just be a hiccup of my machine. This works well for me.
Yellow Rose (Rosalie):May just be a hiccup of my machine. This works well for me.
all our babies have their own little personalities, don't they. my machine gave me a fright when her touch screen stopped working. i love this machine and really don't want to break in another one.
mostly...ran out. I did not put stablizer underneath though. Not sure what that is or how to use it. I didn't have a pucker problem, though. My machine is a Janome computerized model. Newish. I DO have older machines that do pucker, though. My table cloth looks great, just felt lost in the woods there. Practice is what I think I need! You are all so great to respond to my questions!
Thanks for helping me here. I'm new at the computer blog business! Have to decide just how much technology I'll try to keep up with. I have a newer machine I was using for this project. BUT, my older machine does pucker applique, which is why I didn't use it. I also have (this is my favorite machine) a Singer treadle. I use is alot. We used to live off the grid and I used it only. lol
when we were in vietnam, we went to a market where you could have clothes made. each woman had her little section with all her fabric and they were all using treadle machines. most of them models i had never heard of. they make incredible garments on those machines.