Wednesday, June 11, 2008

reverse applique

Oh look, another tee shirt for Ellie. (I promise there won't be many more - I'm about done with her summer wardrobe.)

I decided to try a new technique on this one - reverse applique. The applique fabric is attached underneath the tee shirt fabric and the tee shirt is cut away after it's sewn in place.

I cut out a large circle of floral fabric first and serged the edges. It was held in place during sewing with some temporary basting spray. The applique shape was drawn with water soluble marker on the front of the tee. I wanted the stitching to really stand out, so I chose a stitch on my machine that goes over each stitch three times. It meant sewing very slowly to be sure when turning around curves, I was doing so after a stitch was completed. (It took a while before I stopped counting 1,2,3 in my head over and over again.) The last step was VERY carefully cutting away the excess tee shirt fabric from the center of the design.



I was hoping the knit fabric would roll up a bit more. Perhaps with successive washings.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good lord woman, you could totally start a thriving Etsy business. I know my Ellie would adore shirts like this.

Poppy B. said...

Wait.

They've invented basting spray?

You kids today. You have it so lucky, you don't even know.

I remember when you had to use a needle and thread.

Rebekah said...

so adorable! I think I have some of that fabric in a green colorway.

blackbird said...

THAT would be the project you'd find on my front lawn, stabbed through the heart with my very sharp pointy scissors.

Anonymous said...

It's adorable, Wendy! Maybe I should try something like that with a tee shirt of mine.