Most crafters cringe at the thought of trying appliqué. Even accomplished quilt makers will avoid it at all costs. Finished appliqué work can look as if it is an art form that is hard to master; however, using a few techniques that are mentioned below, anyone can easily master the art of appliqué.

What is applique?

Applique is the art of creating fabric collages. A design or motif is created by stitching pieces of scrap fabric onto a piece of base, or background fabric. These pieces can be appliquéd by hand, or by using a zigzag satin stitch on a sewing machine.

The art of appliqué can be traced back to Europe in the days of the Middle Ages, but really flourished in Colonial America, where it came to stand as a symbol of neighborliness. Applique work was often done in groups, and finished works were used as gifts. Women would often create individual appliquéd quilt blocks that were joined to form a whole quilt. These quilts were used as gifts for friends, or for those in need.

While appliqué work is most commonly used to create quilt blocks, you can use the art of appliqué to embellish ordinary household items such as tablecloths, runners, pillowcases and even clothes.

Materials

Materials required for creating your own work of art in appliqué are inexpensive, and you can probably find most of them already around your house.

• Fabric

  Base, or background, fabric and fabric scraps, which you will use to create your design. Natural fabrics are the best choice, such as cotton, linen, wool and silk. Synthetic fabrics are hard to press, and can move around on you when you are sewing them.

• Thread

  You can use natural or synthetic thread. Six-strand embroidery cotton floss works well, and it is available in a variety of colors that can match just about any fabric.

• Tools

  Scissors, embroidery or sewing needles, thimble, tracing and carbon paper, ruler, steam iron, marking pen with fine tip.

For Hand applique you will also need freezer paper and a pair of tweezers.

For Machine applique you will need a sewing machine that has a zigzag stitch on it, an appliqué presser foot and a can of spray glue or iron-on fusible webbing.

Getting Started

Before you are ready to stitch, you must first choose a design. If you are a beginner, you should try to choose a design that consists of only a few large pieces. You can draw your own design, or use one from a pattern that you have copied. Center your design on your base fabric, and transfer it using carbon paper. You will then need to trace around each individual shape of the pattern, creating your template pieces. These templates can be transferred onto pieces of cardboard, making them easier to trace around.

You will need to decide what fabric pieces you will use in your design next. This can be one of the most difficult tasks of appliquéing. Before you make your final decisions, lay your fabric choices next to each other, being sure that they all complement one another. A wrong choice in fabric shades, or tones, will stick out like a sore thumb, and distract the eye of the viewer.

Cutting Your Fabric

How you cut your fabric will depend on whether you are going to be hand appliquéing or machine appliquéing the scrap pieces onto your base fabric. Cutting hand appliqué pieces will require leaving a seam allowance, while machine applique pieces can be cut directly on the traced template lines.

About Hand Applique

Hand appliqué requires painstaking stitch work by the artists, and can be very time consuming, but produces heirloom quality pieces. The result is well worth the amount of time that can be spent creating a hand appliquéd piece.

Among antique quilt collectors, one of the most prized types of quilts is the Baltimore Album Quilt. These quilts are a sampler of hand appliquéd designs, often worked in bright and cheery colors such as red and green on a white background or base fabric. The blocks were often designed by the quilt maker to represent meaningful events in their lives and act as a fabric journal of sorts.

How to Hand Applique

An easy way to hand appliqué scrap pieces of fabric is by using freezer paper as a temporary stabilizer. Place your cardboard template, right side down, on the paper side of your freezer paper. Trace around your template and cut out the design from your freezer paper.

Once you have decided which fabrics you will use for your design, you can temporarily attach the freezer paper templates to your fabric scraps by using a warm iron. Place the shiny side of the freezer paper down on the wrong side of your fabric. Press lightly for about 5 seconds, or until freezer paper is attached to fabric. Trace ½-inch around paper. This will be your cutting line.

To prepare your piece for appliquéing, wrap it around cardboard template, so that the seam allowance folds to the back. Remove cardboard and press the seam allowance down. You are now ready to pin your motif piece to your base fabric, and begin hand appliquéing!

Before attaching your motif pieces, be sure to start with the bottom pieces first. Lay each piece out in the order that you will need to attach them. This will help avoid mistakes, and can save you the work of ripping out stitches.

You can attach your motif pieces to your base fabric using a variety of different stitching, with the most popular being the blind stitch. The blind stitch consists of making very small stitches on the right side of your work, moving your needle diagonally to the left, about ¼-inch on the wrong side of your work. Decorative stitches can also be used, including the blanket stitch, turkey stitch, or even satin stitching. Choosing what stitch to use will depend on the desired look you want for your piece.

Begin working from right to left, stitching around the outer edge of the motif. Be sure to remove the freezer paper before you are completely finished. You can use tweezers to aid you in removing the freezer paper.

Once you have completed appliquéing all of your pieces to your base fabric, you can add embellishments and embroidery stitches, if necessary.

About Machine Applique

Machine appliqué is faster, and gives your designs a bolder, more professional look. This type of stitching can result in a stiffer piece of work, and is generally used for items of clothing. Motif pieces are cut by tracing templates onto fabric and cutting on traced lines. No seam allowance is needed for machine appliqué work.

How to Machine Applique

There are two different methods that can be used to keep fabric from sliding, or crawling, around when you are machine appliquéing. The first is to use spray glue. Lay the smaller pieces of your design wrong side up on a piece of newspaper, and spray with glue. Position the small pieces on the base fabric, face side up, and lightly iron.

The second method is to use iron-on fusible webbing. Using fusible webbing will give your fabric a very rigid feel. Keep this in mind when choosing what projects you will use the fusible-webbing technique on. Attach your fusible webbing to the wrong side of your fabric by using a warm iron and a pressing cloth. Trace around your template design, and cut your fabric pieces out on this line. You can attach these pieces to your background fabric by peeling of the paper backing off the fusible webbing, and pressing them into position with an iron and pressing cloth. Once you have temporarily attached your motif pieces using the method of your choice, use a zigzag satin stitch on your sewing machine to stitch around all of the raw edges of your motif pieces. You can really make your machine appliqué pop by using contrasting thread colors.