How to Do Embroidery Appliques

Easy Embroidery Appliques

With added texture and details, embroidery appliques add unlimited design opportunities for anything you can dream up. You can add flowers, animals, trains, letters... anything! Traditionally, basic crewel embroidery stitches such as the blanket stitch were used to hand applique embroidery designs and do crazy quilting. The sewing machine is another modern option, but the concept is still the same: stitches cover the raw edges of a fabric shape applied on top of a larger piece of fabric.

Stabilizer
Double sided sticky stabilizer for embroidery appliques is a modern luxury that really makes custom applique easy to apply. Use it to turn your cut cloth shapes into stickers. Stick them where you want them, and they'll stay in place until you are done embroidering! The old fashioned method is to base the piece into place.

Stitches
The stitches you use need to keep the fabric edges from unraveling. You could leave a little edge to fray and fringe if that's the effect you want, but you still need good strong stitching to keep it from fraying in too far.

Hand Crewelwork -- Use the blanket stitch to secure the edge of the appliqué. Enter through both layers of fabric then come out just beyond the edge of the shape piercing only the background fabric. This covers up the raw edges. You can make it fancy by giving the stitches a tilt, varying the lengths in a pattern, or crossing them. Be sure to keep the spacing even between each stitch for a neat finish. You could also use the featherstitch or the ladder chain stitch. My great-grandmother hand sewed a crazy quilt with the featherstitch.

Machine Embroidery Applique -- Use a zigzag stitch or satin stitch to go over the raw edges of fabric. These stitches are available on nearly all standard sewing machines. It's essential to practice on a sample first so you can adjust the tension and stitch width. If you're doing an applique pattern on a special computerized embroidery machine, it will outline the area then stop for you to trim away the excess fabric before it satin stitches the raw edges. Just follow the directions.

Add Details
Once the edges are secured, you can add details and textures such as feathers on a bird's wing, butterfly antennae, or eyes, nose, and mouth on a teddy bear. Use any of the crewel embroidery stitches. As always, try to keep the back of your work neat!