I've been wanting to try appliqué for a while but was a little intimidated by the process. Turns out, it's easy. At least, the way I did it was easy! All I needed was a few simple shapes, some scrap fabric, and Wonder-Under
You can certainly start with an item you've sewn (or fabric you intend to sew), but for this project I wanted to use my scraps from the baby clothes I've already made (here and here). Since the scraps were all prints, I decided on solid colored garments to coordinate. I chose white Gerber onesies
For the shapes, I searched on Pinterest for free templates. We don't know the gender of baby #3 and it was surprisingly hard to select gender-neutral shapes. You can find links to my choices on my "baby-make this" Pinterest board. I printed them out, then used tracing paper to make a pattern. I thought smaller would be better but after playing around with the different sizes I went with a medium size. Once I had my paper patterns, I used them to cut out my scraps. My opinionated 4 year old helped me choose which scraps for which tshirts and which shapes, it was kind of fun!
After I had my shapes cut from fabric, I needed to cut the same shape from Wonder Under. I used my awesome Gingher appliqué scissors
Wonder Under has two sides. One is lumpy and bumpy and contains an adhesive. The other side is the same, except it has a peel-away paper on it. This way, you can work with one side and then peel off the paper and work with the other. However, I found it easier to peel off the paper and just go at it all at once.
I have a stuffed pressing mitt with some sort of heat-reflective fabric on it (bought at a garage sale, so no info!) and placed that inside of my garment. Then I layered the Wonder Under (paper peeled off) and the fabric appliqué on the front. I placed a wet press cloth on top and then pressed down with a hot iron. This fused the shirt to the back of the WU, and the appliqué to the front of the WU, all at one time. I left the shirt to cool/dry and then moved on to the next. I don't think this is necessarily how you're "supposed" to do it, but I knew I'd be sewing the appliqué down in the next step so all I needed was a pretty good fuse. Spoiler alert: it worked!
After all my appliqués were fused to their shirts, I brought them over to the sewing machine and sewed around the edges. Easy peesy. The Wonder Under kept them in place far better than pins. It was a little tricky sewing on the front of a completed garment, but not impossible.
These items turned out so cute and will fit in easily with the stack of stuff I've already made. It was a great way to use up scraps and also coordinate the whole wardrobe. This will be the best dressed baby around when s/he arrives in 6 or 7 weeks!
This post contains affiliate links. When you shop through my links, your price is the same, but this mama earns a small percentage. Thank you for supporting 110 Creations!
These are so cute. No you are not the only one with a million and one techniques waiting to try out. We have Bondaweb over here sounds similar. I added a reindeer to a cushion last Xmas and I have more things planned. It's just time isn't it. Lovely makes K xXx
ReplyDeleteThose make me smile - such a great idea!
ReplyDelete