Couching is a method of sewing 3-dimensional “stuff” (cord, braid, strings of beads or sequins, etc.) to fabric by zigzagging over it. It allows you to sew down things that can’t be sewn through. 🙂
You do need a special foot for couching. I the video I show you the one I use with my Bernina, and point out the features you need to look for when you’re buying one for your machine. They’re usually pretty inexpensive and it’s a nice foot to add if you do any decorative stitching.
You could use it to add raised whiskers on cats, raised stripes on a snake, pearly snow on the ground, and lots more. I can’t wait to see what you do with it!
I LOVE working with felt! The edges don’t fray, it’s delightfully warm, it takes embroidery beautifully, and it comes in the most luscious colors.
But it’s different than regular fabric.
These tips will make it super easy to work with.
Why wool felt?
It’s way more durable that the cheap acrylic stuff you can buy at any craft store! I wrote a post about the difference here.
One important thing to know – it doesn’t need to be 100% felt to get that quality boost. The main thing is that it’s NOT acrylic. That’s what makes cheap craft felt pill. The felt I use is only 20% wool and 80% rayon and it’s lovely. If you have allergies and can’t work with wool, try bamboo felt instead. It can be harder to find, but it’s WONDERFUL!
How to Mark on Felt?
The trickiest thing about wool felt is that it’s hard to mark on it. It’s so thick that you can’t trace a design through it, and drawing on the felt tends to lift the fibers and make it look messy. I use two products that really help – freezer paper and Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. There’s a video here talking about both – but here are the details in a nutshell.
Freezer Paper
I use freezer paper when I just want to cut out small shapes. Trace or print the templates on the paper side of freezer paper, fuse it to the felt with an iron, and then cut the pieces out through the paper and the felt together. Peel the freezer paper off and it doesn’t leave even a trace behind. It’s the perfect way to cut out small shapes very precisely!
If I need to mark dots (usually for eyes) I punch a hole in the freezer paper before I fuse it down, then mark through the hole for very precise placement.
Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy
If I need to transfer anything more complex than a dot I use Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. I love this stuff so much! You print or trace onto the stabilizer, peel off the paper back, and stick it to the felt. Stitch right through the felt and stabilizer and then rinse away the stabilizer. Every trace dissolves in water and you’re just left with beautifully stitched felt. I show a lot of process photos demonstrating this in action in this post.
I can’t say enough how much I love this product. It has opened up a whole world of possibilities!
Whipstitch
I mostly use whipstitch to applique on felt and to sew felt pieces together. It’s called whipstitch for both uses – but the stitch actually looks a little different for the two applications.
This free felt coaster pattern is a great way to get started working with felt. You’ll do a little applique and a little embroidery and you’ll end up with a pretty set of coasters.
If you’re got a lot of random felt scraps, try this free felt garland pattern. It teaches you a different way to applique and join pieces together – the blanket stitch.
All my ornament patterns have solid felt backs – no applique or embroidery. That makes it the perfect spot to add a name or date using this free alphabet embroidery pattern!
In my family and in my husband’s family, it was a tradition to give handmade ornaments to the kids every year. Having our names on them somewhere was absolutely necessary since we both have siblings. 🙂
Now that I’m a grown-up with my own daughter it’s fantastic to have those dates too. She loves knowing how old we were when we got each ornament and who made them for us. 🙂
It’s easy to add a bit of embroidery to the back of your felt ornaments. Here’s how.
Download the free alphabet embroidery pattern I used here. You can also choose to type up your name and date and adjust the size and choose the font – but be sure to choose a font that’s mostly straight lines with minimal tight curves so it’s easy to embroider.
Now grab a piece of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy.
This is a great use for any small scraps you’ve saved. 🙂
Draw a straight line to use as a guide to line the letters or numbers up, then trace them onto the stabilizer.
Peel off the backing, stick the stabilizer to the felt, and stitch right through it.
I used backstitch with three strands of white thread.
I traced the date in pencil. It can be a bit hard to see, but there’s NO chance of it bleeding on the white thread. Most pens bleed a lot – test yours or use a pencil.
After you’re done stitching, soak off the stabilizer in cold water and lay the piece flat to dry.
One of the main problems with it is that the edges fray like crazy.
Seriously. All you have to do is look at it and it does this.
But you can reinforce the fabric with fusible interfacing and it makes it much stronger and controls the fraying. Once the interfacing is applied you can treat it just like any other fabric.
Layer a press cloth over that and press, following the instructions on the interfacing for time and steam/no steam.
Rough cut your paper-backed fusible adhesive pieces and layer them over the interfacing. Cover that with a press cloth and fuse according to the fusible adhesive instructions.
Don’t be afraid to explore the fabric store beyond the quilting cottons section! A lot of those fabrics can be used in applique with just a little special handling. 🙂
Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.
Satin applique is just perfect for getting shiny smooooth things like this blue dragon.
Usually when I use satin in a quilt I use it for soft 3D pieces – like the lining on these fun, floppy ears in my Mix & Match Monsters quilt.
But you can do satin applique too – even if you use fusible adhesive!
Like fleece – the big problem is heat. The heat required to melt your fusible adhesive will melt most satins too.
The answer is simple.
Use a press cloth!
A press cloth isn’t anything fancy, and it isn’t anything you need to buy. It’s just a piece of regular woven cotton that you put between the potentially melty thing you’re ironing and your iron.
That fall tree in the top photo is satin. Here’s how I did it.
Fuse your paper-backed adhesive to the back of the satin, just like you would with any fabric except. . .
. . . top it all with a press cloth before you fuse.
Use the press cloth again when you fuse the tree top (or whatever) to your block.
After that just stitch around the edges as usual. The fusible adhesive keeps the edges from fraying in every satin applique I’ve tested – but the content of satins can really vary so you might want to make up a quick sample yourself and test it before you use it for a full size quilt that you’re planning to wash a lot.
Wouldn’t it be super cute to make all the cars and trucks in the Beep Beep quilt out of satin, so they’re shiny and smooth like real cars?
Have some fun adding satin applique to your next quilt project!
Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.
But you can also use glue stick to hold the fleece itself in place on a quilt block!
You can use any glue stick made specifically for fabric. It’ll hold really well (and make things kind of stiff) but it washes out easily so your finished quilt is cuddly and soft.
That means you do need to stitch the edges down permanently!
If you look at that blue bird up there you can see I used a fairly wide and open zigzag stitch around the edges. That’s one option.
Another option is just to use a simple straight stitch, like I do around all my other applique pieces. You can see that option on the snowy ground in this Shiny Happy Houses quilt block.
I loaded up large images for both of these – so you can click on them to see them closer. The zigzag stitching leaves a slightly crisper edge, where the straight stitch is a softer, fluffier edge. If you decide to applique with fleece, just choose the edge treatment that works best for your project!
Both of my examples are using cuddle fleece, but this method also works well for polar fleece. Just make sure to get the no-pill kind!
I’d love to see some fluffy, fleecy cats and dogs!
Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.
One of my favorite stitches is the wave stitch. So, when Maddie asked for a scarf for fall, I knew right where to turn!
First, I pulled out a SpaceCadet Rainbow Mini-Skein Bundle and let Maddie choose the colors she wanted.
(Since each mini-skein is 70 yards, I needed less than 3 to make a baby cowl… but one set would more than make an adult one!) Maddie is really into red, so she selected the red, pink and orange.
Then, I grabbed a hook and started crocheting! With this fingering weight yarn, I used a C hook.
The result is lovely and drapey… and Maddie loves it!
tr= treble crochet
With A, ch 30. Row 1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and each ch across. (29) Row 2: With A, ch 1, turn, sc in next sc, * sc in next sc, hdc in next 2 sts, dc in next 2 sts, tr in next 3 sts, dc in next 2 sts, hdc in next 2 sts, sc in next 2 sts. Repeat from * once. (29) Row 3: Ch 1, turn. Sc in each st. (29) Row 4: With B, Ch 4 (counts as tr), turn. * Tr in next st, dc in next 2 sts, hdc in next 2 sts, sc in next 3 sts, hdc in next 2 sts, dc in next 2 sts, tr in next 2 sts. Repeat from * once. Row 5: Ch 1, turn. Sc in each st. (29)
Repeat rows 2-5 until piece measures desired length (circumference of the cowl) and fasten off and sew ends together!
I used this pattern to make a cowl, but you can also use this pattern (repeating rows 2-5 until piece measures 5.5″ long) and add with other blocks to make a sampler cowl!
When I told folks that I was working with flannel on my next quilt, I got a lot of questions.
How do you keep it from pilling? Is it going to hold up to a lot of use? What about durability?
I got some variation of this question over and over and over again.
I understand! When my daughter was little, I made her a lot of pajama pants using all of those cute flannel prints you can find at the fabric store. Sometimes they held up really well, and sometimes they were very badly pilled after just one washing. And it seemed so random!
A lot of people also wanted to know about how well flannel would work for raw edge applique – particularly how badly it might fray.
I was worried about that too! So I decided to run a test.
I made two sample blocks – one flannel background with a cotton applique, and another flannel background with a flannel applique.
I tossed these blocks in every load of laundry I did for the last month. Everything – clothes, towels, sheets – everything. I put the blocks through both the washer and dryer with each load. That’s a lot of laundry and a pretty rugged test.
I was stunned by the results! In a good way. 🙂
Here’s the flannel background with the cotton applique.
No pilling! Not even a tiny bit! It gets a beautiful crinkle and the applique looks great. And did I mention that there’s no pilling?
And here’s the flannel block with the flannel applique.
No pilling – and no additional fraying on the applique!
I really expected to see more fraying around the edges but it’s pretty much the same as the smooth cotton.
The only difference I see is that the black outline and mouth line get a teeny bit lost in the fuzzier flannel surface. When I make a finished quilt (get the Peekaboo Bears quilt pattern here) I’ll use 12 wt. thread to outline the applique to get a slightly thicker line.
You know why the results are this good? I used good quality flannel! It makes such a difference.
For this test I used flannel from Timeless Treasures – a well-established manufacturer sold in quilt shops. I’m so excited with how terrific the results are that I’m planning two quilts using it.
The first is a remake of the Peekaboo Bears quilt with flannel backgrounds and non-flannel applique. Here are just a few of those blocks.
And someday I’m going to make an applique rag quilt. Oh yes! I think it’ll work great to use my applique patterns for a rag quilt and I can’t wait to give it a try!
One of my favorite Dress Up Bunch patterns is this one for a witch costume.
As I was making it, I kept thinking that it could easily be converted to a princess costume – just change to a sparkly princess fabric and make a tiny change to the hat.
Here’s exactly what I mean by “a tiny change to the hat pattern.”
The witch hat is a simple cone with a brim added. For the princess hat (a hennin) you just leave off the brim and add a pretty little fall of fabric to the top.
Take a look at the scraps you have left over after you make the dress. I had a long strip 6 inches wide. From that I cut 3 pieces, each 6 inches wide and 12 inches long. You could use a couple of 12 x 12 squares, or several skinnier strips, or make them longer than my 12 inches, or add some pretty ribbons. Just play around and see what you like the look of.
Grab your fabrics at one corner, bunch them up as small as possible, and sew them into the top of the cone when you sew the hat seam.
See the little bunch sticking out from the top of the cone? The rest of the fabric will be inside the cone (as shown) while it’s inside out.
Make sure you go over that little bunch a couple of times with your stitching. I backstitched over mine a few times. Princess fabric tends to be fragile and you want it to be securely attached. 🙂
There are two kinds of applique that rely on the print of the fabric you’re using – fussy cutting and broderie perse.
A lot of you have probably done fussy cutting without even realizing it has a name. It’s when you carefully position your applique template to incorporate images printed on the fabric.
I did it on this Paper Doll quilt block to make sure the top T.A.R.D.I.S. was centered on the V-neck and the bottom ones were lined up with the hem.
I also did it on this haunted house quilt block, to make sure there was a bat flying in the center of each window, and the skull was centered on the door.
Fussy cutting is easy. It just means paying attention when you position your templates. You can hold your fabric and templates up to a window so you can see really well where your outlines are falling.
Broderie perse is similar, in that it uses motifs printed on the fabric. But with broderie perse – the images ARE the templates. You’re cutting out the images on one fabric and appliqueing them to another. It’s traditionally done with flowers – but you can do it with anything you like!
Heres how I used broderie perse to add a couple of cute trick-or-treaters to one of my Shiny Happy Houses quilt blocks – designed especially for Halloween.
You have to start with adorable fabric. I’m using two fabrics from Dear Stella that are designed to work together.
Bundle Me Up is the fabric with the sweet animals faces, hands, and feet – but no bodies. Costume Party is the fabric with all the fun costumes for those critters to wear. So clever!
Roughly cut out the image you want (like the fox in this picture). Back it with fusible adhesive, and then cut the image out neatly (like the dress and crown).
The dress in this example already has little slippers attached, so when I cut out the fox neatly I decided to cut away the lower part of the body. It would have been hidden anyway and this makes assembly easier – I don’t have to line things up as perfectly.
I’m such a lazypants. 🙂
After that it’s applique as usual.
Position the critter first, then the costume and fuse it down with everything else in your block.
I stitched around all my pieces in simple black thread for a nice cartoony look. I added a couple of pumpkin buttons for their trick or treat pails, and – of course – some spider buttons on all that magnificent glow-in-the-dark spiderwebbing.
Have fun with broderie perse! It will make you look at your fabrics a whole different way. 🙂
Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.
