Friday Finishes - Satin Stitched Edge Applique. . .

The satin stitching on my Winged Whimsies samples is complete.  The fabrics and colors came together well and the result is colorful and bright.

I'm not sure which panel is my favorite.  The butterfly,

or the ladybug,

or maybe the dragonfly.  I like how they each stand well on their own.  Each bug was stitched with a zigzag stitch set between 3.5 or 4.0 for width and 0.75 for length.  There are a few places where I used a 2.5 for smaller areas where the larger width would overtake the applique fabric.

I wanted to discuss a bit about my technique for making a satin stitched applique.  Each applique piece is backed with fusible interfacing.  Fusible interfacing is generally used in garment making.  The fusible interfacing is a stabilizer for the tight zigzag stitching to keep the pieces lying flat.  I also put a tear-away stabilizer on the backside of the applique panel to stabilize it as seen here.

I DO NOT use fusible web for this technique.  Notice when looking at the completed dragonfly how the lower stitched layers DO NOT show to the top.  Looking on the backside above, you can see the various stitching layers.  If I had used fusible web, each layer of stitching would, in fact, show through.

One additional note about the tear-away stabilizer.  I used Swedish tracing paper for this project.  When done, notice that I made sure to tear most of the paper away (I didn't worry about the tiny pieces).  If you block your projects as I do, either with steam or fully wetting, this tear-away can shrink and wrinkle your project.

Happy Friday,

Satin-Stitching Applique Edges Begins. . .

I began appliqueing the Winged Whimsies panels today.  For this technique of satin-stitching the edges, the stitching begins on the pieces that sit behind/under other pieces.  In this case, the leaves are stitched first.

Due to using a 28 wt. thread for stitching and various layers of fabric, I am using a 80/12 Microtex Sharp needle.  The majority of the stitching is done with a zigzag stitch set at a width of 4.5 and a length of 0.75.  

As the stitching gets closer to the leaf point, I reduce the width in increments from 4.5 to 3.0.  I have mentioned previously that I use the free-motion zigzag often as it's my favorite stitch to do.  I decided to use the traditional zigzag stitch with my feed dogs up for this project to maintain a consistent stitch.  The stitch is as I had expected although stitching is much slower than with a free-motion stitch.  I'll have to practice my free-motion zigzag a bit more to gain the stitch consistency I like for a project like this and yet be able to keep the speed. :)

Until next time,

Winged Whimsies - Another Applique Project Begun. . .

As long as I was in the mood to do an applique project, I decided to do another shop sample at the same time, Winged Whimsies, another of my patterns.  This also will be a kit.

Here is the dragonfly panel,

and here is the ladybug panel.  There is also a butterfly panel but I seem to have missed taking a photo of it.  I'm stitching tonight so will show some of the results tomorrow.

Until next time,