Saturday 27 June 2015

Freezer Paper Applique - Jugs

I'm always keen to try different ways of doing applique. Needle-turned is OK for most things that I do, but I'm soooooo... slow at it and therefore find it a tad frustrating. When there's lots of applique to do I really like this freezer paper method and, once you get into the swing of it, it's a doddle and gives neat results - fairly neat in my case! Freezer paper is great because you can use the same piece many times - it sticks over and over again.

I seem to have a bit of a "thing" about jugs! I hadn't realised until I counted up how many I have accumulated from jumble sales, etc. Even those that I diligently put in a box to car boot someday, have ended up back on my shelves filled with flowers from the garden. Now they're even appearing in my quilts!!



I did both of these with the freezer paper method below, apart from the tulip leaves.which are raw edge zigzagged in two colours of thread to give them a bit of depth. I "splodged" some fabric paint here and there for the same reason, and to give a bit more realism to my fruit.

I start by drawing my shape onto the matt side of the freezer paper just as I want it to appear in my picture. Then I cut it out on the line.

I iron this onto the right side of my fabric and cut out approx 1/4" larger all around.

I remove the paper, turn the fabric shape over on my ironing board so that it's right side down and place the freezer paper, shiny side up, on top.
Now I turn over the edge of the fabric with the point of my hot iron so that it sticks to the edges of the paper - and being a bit hamfisted this process is accompanied by "Ouch...ouch...ouch!!"
If there are inside curves I snip these before turning the hem.

Now I place the prepared piece of applique onto the backing fabric, iron it to temporarily stick in place and sew around with the natty stitch on my machine - called blind hem stitch on some machines.
Lots of people use invisible thread for this, but I'm quite happy for my stitches to show. After all my machine can sew far more neatly than I can!!
When I need to change direction (or if I'm feeling out of control) I stop with the needle down in the backing fabric.

To remove the freezer paper I cut a slit in the backing fabric and carefully pull it out. 

This is a link to my one page printer-friendly pdf on:
freezer paper applique

Can one have too many jugs?? - Anita :)



1 comment:

  1. I have quite a few jugs too, and tried to get rid of some when we moved house, but couldn't find any that I didn't like!! Great blog!!

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