The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

It's been ages since I posted (I hope none of you were holding your breath!) but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy crafting!  In fact, I've managed to get quite a lot done on several projects, not to mention writing numerous assignments for my diploma, and starting a new job.  Phew!  I have been busy.

The first project I finished was a Christmas stocking for the Young Lad.  I started this before last Christmas, but didn't get it finished, partly because I wasn't quite happy with the embellishments that I had bought.  I am pleased to say that it was finished in plenty of time for Santa to fill it up!


First of all, I wasn't happy with the star that I bought last year, because the only one I could find that looked remotely like what I had in mind had a loop for stitching at the top, and it was a little small for my tree.  Then one day I was at one of my favourite craft shops, looking for something entirely different, and I found these lovely star buttons.  I couldn't make up my mind whether to buy the natural wood one, which was just the right size, or the gold one, which was a little small, but shiny, which a Christmas star really ought to be...

In the end, I bought both, and stitched them on one on top of the other!  I rather like the way it looks! 

The other thing I wasn't happy with was the decorations for the tree that I found while we were on holiday, at another great craft shop.  Although they were very cute, I didn't like the way the shank on the back of the snowflakes and gingerbread-men made them sit.

After pondering about this for a while, I decided to just cut them off, they were just plastic after all!

This was very easily achieved!  I just used a pair of nail clippers, which allowed me to cut the shanks off flush with the back of the decorations.

Then I had to figure out how I would attach them.  The gingerbread-men had little dots for buttons, so I used these as placement marks, and then stuck a drawing pin in them to make holes.  This was surprisingly easy.  

I then checked that I could fit a needle through the hole, and there were my gingerbread-men, ready to go.  I didn't need to make holes in the snowflakes, as the snowflake design had holes in it anyway which I could easily use to stitch them on.

And there you have it.  The Young Lad was very happy with it, and he asked Santa to put a rubbish truck, Superman, and some chocolate in it!

Tutorial ~ Even Simpler Machine Applique

It typical fashion, I've done things backwards.  ^_^
The other day, I put together a tutorial on machine applique, and while I was working on it, I thought to myself "You should have done a simple motif applique tutorial first"  But since I'd already taken the pictures and started working on that tutorial, I figured I might as well finish and post it first, which leads us to this tutorial, even though, logically they should have been the other way around.  And I'm also thinking that in the interests of completeness, I should also do a tutorial on making applique patterns...which will end up being third, but should have been second...I always do seem to go about things in a somewhat circuitous route!

Anyway, without further ado, lets get on with it!

Last time I showed you how to do applique using a stencil or pattern to create your applique shape.  This time, we won't bother with that, we will simply find a nice motif and applique that.  Even simpler!

You will need fabric with a fairly big motif on it.  I love these cute dinosaurs, so I'm going to make a T-shirt for the Young Lad.

You will also need: vliesofix, sharp scissors (not your best fabric ones though, remember), an iron and ironing board, and a T-shirt (or something else to applique onto).

First, decide which motif you would like to applique, and cut out a piece of vliesofix big enough to completely cover the motif with a bit extra for trimming away.  Place this piece of vliesofix on the wrong side your fabric with the rough side down.  Make sure your whole motif is completely covered.  Press to fuse the vliesofix in place.

Before you cut, think about where the stitching will go, and whether you want any background fabric to show round the motif.  I don't want the background to show, but I also don't want my stitching to cover up the dinosaur, so I cut it out just a few milometers from the edge of the motif, about the width of my zig-zag.  I have followed the contours of the motif quite precisely, but if you are new to sewing, you may prefer to make your outline a bit smoother.  You could even just cut out a circle or square of your fabric if you wish (if you're going to do this, you'll need your vliesofix to be that shape, of course).  I didn't bother to cut out between the legs, as there is hardly room for two rows of stitching there.  Also, I'm not worried about little bits of other dinosaurs being on the edges, as the stitching will hide them.

Next, peel the backing paper off.

(Different dinosaur, sorry ^_^)

Now place your motif on your T-shirt.

Hmmm, he looks a bit sad and lonely there all by himself, and really the motif is a bit small...lets add some friends!

Ahh, that looks better!  Now, just use your iron to fuse the motif in place, remembering to clean your iron before you do, just in case any adhesive got on it (you did read that other applique tutorial, right?  So you already know about cleaning your iron.  No??  Well, you can have a quick read now ^_^)  

Once again, set your machine to zig-zag, with your stitch length really short, and your stitch width small-medium (you might want to do a little test on a scrap of fabric).

Here's a tip for the benefit of any absolute beginner sewers out there.  When you are sewing round your shape, the only thing you need to worry about is curves and corners.  The thing you want to remember is that you want your stitching to cover up your fabric, not leave gaps, so just make sure that when you go round the corners and curves, you've got your needle on the correct side of your zig-zag.  I've made a couple of diagrams to show what I mean.  The black dot shows the needle position, and the yellow arrow shows where the stitch will go when you turn the fabric.

Outer curves

Inner curves

Inner corners

Outer corners

Now that we know what we are doing, simply stitch around your motif!

Viola!  Wasn't that easy?

In case you're wondering the fabric is designed by Robert Kaufman Fabrics, and although I have seen it in lots of places, I bought my piece here.

Tutorial ~ Simple Machine Applique Using Vliesofix

You know that phrase "there's more than one way to skin a cat"?  (Always hated that phrase, btw, the poor cat!)  Well the same applies to applique.  There are lots of methods, but there are two that I use regularly: hand applique, and machine applique using vliesofix.  I'll show you how to do hand applique in another tutorial later.

Using vliesofix makes applique very quick and easy to do, and it looks great for things like T-shirts, bags, or jackets.  I personally don't like to use it when I am quilting, but you certainly can.  For kids quilts that have a more fun, funky look, it would work just fine.  I guess I just tend to go for a more traditional looking quilt, so I prefer hand applique for that.

What the heck is vliesofix?  I hear you ask.  It is a fusable web that comes on a backing paper.  You use your iron to fuse the vliesofix to your fabric, and basically turn the fabric into a sticker.

So, how do we go about it?  Let me show you...

To start with, here's what you will need:

A T-shirt (or something else to applique onto), fabric, a shape to draw around (ok, maybe I should also do a tutorial on how to make applique pattern stencils, would anyone be interested?), vliesofix (or another type of fusible webbing), a pencil, sharp scissors (but not your best fabric scissors, as you'll be cutting the backing paper of the vliesofix), and an iron (and the ironing board, but that didn't fit in the picture ^_^ )

First draw your shapes onto the backing paper (the smooth side) of the vliesofix.  I've got just one wheel pattern, but of course, I will draw two wheels.  If your shape is directional, you will need to turn it over to trace round it, so that it will end up the right way round, as you will be fusing it to the wrong side of your fabric.  This is particularly important with letters!

Cut roughly round your shapes, about 0.5cm from the line (don't worry, you don't have to be exact, but you do want to have a bit to trim away)

Place this on the wrong side of your fabric, with the backing paper up, and use your iron to fuse it to the fabric.  If your fabric has a directional design, do make sure that you have it the right way round!  You can see through the vliesofix, so do check what will be in your shape once you cut it out...it would be a shame to find that you've cut off your favourite part of the motif, say, or all the heads, if it's a fabric with characters on it!

Now cut along the line to cut out your shapes

At this point, it is a good idea to give your iron a quick clean, by grabbing a bit of scrap cotton fabric (best if it is white, or pale coloured) and ironing it.  See those dirty marks on the fabric?  That's from a little bit of the vliesofix adhesive getting on my iron.  It would be a real shame if that got all over your lovely T-shirt!

Now, peel the backing paper off your fabric shape

Put it in position on your t-shirt, with the right side up and press to fuse in place.  If your design has more than one piece, you will need to fuse and sew the pieces in the right order.  For this design, I have the body of the car, and the wheels.  I will fuse and then sew around the car, before I add the wheels.  Just remember that anything that is in the background needs to be stitched before you add any foreground pieces (I hope that makes sense ^_^)

Now, you are ready to sew your applique.  Some brands of fusible webbing claim that you don't need to sew them, but I'm not sure if I believe that.  I'm pretty sure that the edges would peel away after a while, especially on something like a kids T-shirt.  Too much wear and tear to get away without stitching. Set your machine to zig-zag, with a fairly small stitch width, and a very small stitch length.  I have my machine set on 2.5 stitch width, and about 0.75 stitch length.  Do a wee test on a scrap of fabric.  You want the stitches to be nice and close together, like a satin stitch, and I like a narrow zig-zag.

Now, open the T-shirt up so that you don't sew the front and back together (that would be a bit of a disaster!) and place your work so that when the needle is on the right-hand zag of the zig-zag, it will come down just to the right of the edge of your applique piece.  Then stitch all the way around.

Pay particular attention when going around corners, especially any inner corners.  I had trouble getting a good close-up picture that shows this clearly, so I hope you can see what I am talking about.  See how I am sewing around the windows of the car.  I have just come to the corner, and I have carried on sewing past the edge of the window far enough that when I turn the corner, and the needle is on the left, it is the width of the zigzag away from the edge of the fabric.  Hope that makes sense!  

Once you've sewn all the way around, keep sewing for about 1cm over the top of the previous stitching. Pull your work out so that you have a long tail before cutting the threads.  Pull the threads through to the back,  knot, and cut off.  Next, if you have more pieces in your design, like the wheels in this one, then fuse and stitch them just as you did before.

Don't worry if the edges of your shape look a little wavy, just give the tee a good press, and it will be all beautiful!

And there you have it!  A beautiful applique tee!

(Yes, I know it's a different colour... I already made that one, so I couldn't photograph the process, but I just had to share this picture of the Young Lad in his Car-car Tee)

You might like to visit the patterns page for downloadable pdf patterns.  

At the moment, what I have available is a very cute love heart tee, and I plan to add more.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial, I have plenty more planned, so watch this space!

 ^_^

I Love Ponies ~ FREE Applique Tee-shirt Pattern

When I saw this fabric on our recent trip to Kaikoura, I just knew I had to buy some for Miss Missy!

I decided to make her a tee-shirt.  She really loves the mother and foal, so I decided to use that motif.  I like the way it turned out :-)

I've been thinking for some time that it would be nice to share some of my patterns, and as today is Valentine's Day, I thought, wouldn't it be just the perfect pattern to share?

Of course, it doesn't have to be I Love Ponies...it could be I Love Puppies, I Love Cupcakes, I Love Fairies, I Love Teddies...  You are limited only by the fabric you can find!  For the central motif, you need a fabric with a relatively large motif, the one I chose is about 6.5cm (2 1/2").  For the coordinating fabric, choose a tone-on-tone design, or a very small motif.  I first chose a dotty fabric which looked very pretty en masse, but when I tried it out, it looked a little silly, as not enough of the dots actually showed up round the heart.  So I chose instead to use the green, which has a slightly sparkly swirly pattern.  I bought the horse fabric here, and the green fabric here.  You will also need a blank t-shirt, of course.  

If you have never done applique, I'm planning to do a tutorial on it soon, so watch this space!

So... if you would like to make one of these yummy tees yourself, I have made the pattern available for FREE.  

This is the first time that I have created a pdf, and the first pattern that I have shared, and the first time that I have used this function to link a pdf to my blog, so I really hope it all works :-)

Happy sewing, on me!