Raw edge applique is one of my all-time favorite quilting techniques.
And a great way for those of you to get started on it that have never tried before is really
basic and easy on a tea towel.
That’s today’s tutorial.
Let’s get started.
I was gifted towels from my aunt, thank you Aunt Sherry, this year for Christmas.
And I absolutely loved them and they were these great appliques on tea towels.
And I thought this would be a great project for all of us.
So I want to get a head start for this coming holiday season so I found this great panel
from Moda which has both big and small holiday characters on it.
But there was something else.
And I want you to listen carefully, you’re going to some extra stuff today.
One of the things I really liked about these characters on this panel was there’s plenty
of extra space around them so I can cut efficiently to help me with my machine quilting.
Let me show you more about what I’m talking about.
So what I did is I chose for my first run down is a his and hers set of tea towels.
And I want to talk about, before we even get into construction, some of the things you
might be thinking about as you’re purchasing your supplies.
So what you’re looking at right here is unwashed samples.
I bought the towels and I bought the fabric right out of my local quilt shop, went home
and put it together.
But, so I would see what happened is I also washed it.
So here you can see the difference between the washed and the unwashed version.
And so you can see there’s a little bit of fraying that will happen along the edge
because it’s raw edge.
Part of that is controlled by what style of fusible applique product you use.
I love Heat N Bond featherlight.
It’s a very, very lightweight fuse so when I’m done this is very, very pliable.
You don’t feel the fusing in it at all especially after it’s been washed.
However because it’s such a lightweight the edges could fray a little bit.
So in today’s video we’re using a size 70 needle and a fine cotton thread so that
we’re not putting any extra impact around the edges while we’re machine quilting.
And I’ll be showing you that in a minute here at the machine.
But so when I’m getting ready to cut out my applique parts what I want to be thinking
is how much reveal do I need around my image.
So before we can cut out we always want to have our Heat N Bond light or featherlight
is the one I prefer on the back.
So this is what it looks like.
There’s a shiny and a paper side.
And you can see that the paper side was set down and I always want to have a little bit
of fabric all the way so that I’m not pressing any of the glue from the fusible web onto
my ironing board.
So you’re going to follow your manufacturer’s instructions for your fusible.
Press it on the back side of your applique to be.
And then hopefully you’re using your wonderful new shark applicutter which has got this 14
millimeter blade.
And you’re just going to go ahead and cut a perimeter.
And the perimeter I’m cutting is also the track that I’m going to machine quilt in.
So the more efficient you are with your machine quilting the narrower the track you can make.
The least efficient you are with your machine quilting the larger the track you want to
make so that you have more wiggle room to work as you’re using in your machine quilting.
Ok let me focus on what I’m doing here now.
Now what I’m doing with my applicutter is I’m holding it like a pen so you can see
that I can quickly cut around leaving that reveal.
And I can cut forwards, I can cut backwards, however I need to make this easy.
But the reason I designed this tool was for just like this.
I don’t want you trying to use it around templates and things.
We’re just freestyle cutting with this.
And you can obviously use it in your left hand.
I want the blade on the inside of your body while you’re working so you might have to
switch the blade to the other side.
Ok and then of course if there’s any of these little spots where I didn’t, don’t
pull on that because you might leave a thread behind, right?
So just come back in and make sure you cut all the way through.
And I think I had one more down here very easy.
And the last one.
Ok now we’re ready to rock and roll.
I’m going to heat my iron up because I forgot to, right?
And then in a few minutes I’ll show you what to do with those little small pieces.
Now I’ve already put my tea towel in position on my ironing board.
And when I say in position what I mean is I’ve looked.
Because on the back of the tea towel there’s a cool hanging loop.
So you want to make sure you have what you need there on the top.
And then you’re going to go ahead and take the paper side off the back off your applique.
So I want to find a good spot to get started with that.
And I just start to peel and as I’m peeling I look and I want to see a sheen on the back
of my fabric which means the glue is bonded there.
And then when I press this out I may try, I’m not sure if you can see it or not.
But I kind of left the creases inside of the towel so I know that I’m putting it in the
center of the towel so that that way when I’m hanging it it’s folded nicely like
you’d want as it hangs over your oven door, right?
So I’m also going to bring up my applique just a little bit.
And you can always put cool trims and different decorative fabrics across the bottom.
But all we need to do for this now is we’re just going to set our dry iron and I’m going
to press it down with a few second count as I go.
And then we’re just going to simply free motion this in place.
As it cools let’s go over and talk about the machine a little bit.
Now whenever I’m doing my free motion machine stitching I love to have my Sew Slip mat down
on the bed of my machine.
And what this does if you’re not aware is basically it’s a teflon coating so it makes
everything slide so very nicely underneath the machine there.
And then I also have my Machinger’s gloves because this gives me good traction.
And I mentioned it at the beginning of the video but I really want you to have this settle
in, we’re using a size 70 needle right now.
Now that’s a smaller, finer needle.
We’re just going to take one lap of stitching around the outside of our penguin on that
cream colored fabrics.
I’ve chosen a cream colored thread as well.
So I’m not using a mono-filiment.
I want this to be, sorry I’m just struggling getting these silly gloves on.
It get’s warm here in the studio and so I’ve got a little bit of stick.
But I want to hold tight.
There we go.
We’re ready.
So I was starting to say about the needle, I want a fine needle because I want to be
able to go ahead one lap of stitching all the way around this and secure everything
and be able to take tiny little stitches so that I’m helping it prevent the fraying
as well.
Ok so what we’re going to do now is I go ahead by hand and rotate my needle down one
time.
And I’m going to pull up on this thread so that I now have both the needle thread
and the bobbin thread.
We’re going to take a few stitches in place.
And I’m kind of in an inconspicuous area right now on my tea towel itself.
And now without even using stabilizer on the back because we’re doing straight stitching
versus satin stitching.
I’m going to slowly machine quilt in this area.
And in a second I’m going to cut this thread here and then we’re going to talk a little
bit more about what’s going on.
So first of all I need to get back here.
Get this thread out of the way.
There we go, ok?
Now as I said that gap or the cream colored fabric is my target zone.
And the reason I left it there is I don’t have to be perfect and stay right on the print
of the penguin design or whatever design you’re using.
And over time it’s given me a little bit of relief so as that fabric frays away I still
have the design.
And of course I’m showing you the most basic of samples.
But you can always come in here and embellish it.
You can put all kinds of fabulous creatures together.
I just wanted you to get the feel of this because it’s so fun and they make such great
gifts.
Back at where I started from, so it’s as simple as that.
Really all I have to do is cut my threads.
Now let me show you on the back, as I was saying, it’s a single lap around here.
And I started to mention I think when my gloves weren’t fitting great that I did not use
a stabilizer.
And here’s why, when you’re using a satin stitch it pulls at the fiber.
So a zig zag stitch you’d want to stabilize the back.
A tear away would be a great product for that but because I’m just doing a single straight
line to hold the applique down I don’t want to have to tear away the stabilizer.
And you can see that with no effort the fabric stayed perfectly crisp.
So that my tea towel right now once I clean off that little thread tail there is completely
ready to be wrapped up and sent off for a fantastic gift.
I think two is better than one.
And I think you’re all awesome out there as fans watching Man Sewing.
You know I love your feedback so I want to hear from you what kind of other great gifts
you’re putting together this year for the holidays.
We’ll check you next time right here at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan.
It’s great to have you out there encouraging me to create fantastic new content.
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