Appliqué letteringAppliqué lettering

At the time I made this quilt, I posted instructions on how to make a snowball block and how to sew a quilt top together, but I also photographed the process I go through to make appliqué letters.

After finishing the letters on the aprons, I thought it would be a good time to post a li’l tutorial on appliqué.

So here we go!

The first thing I do is decide what letter or word(s) will go onto the project.

Next, I open up Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 (actually, I have version 7, but either would make a great Christmas gift) to sample fonts.  Or you could use Microsoft Word or any other word-processing program for this.  I type the letter or word out and sample a number of fonts to find the right look I’m after.

When I find the right font, I will adjust the size of the letter or letters until they are a good “actual size” for the project.  Keep in mind when making adjustments or choosing a font, that you want the letters to be thick enough to stitch around.  If a letter is too skinny, it’ll be very difficult to stitch around both edges.  You want a meaty letter.  Use the bold command if needed.

At this point, you should have the letter(s) how you want ‘em on the screen.  The next VERY IMPORTANT thing to do is use the “flip” or “mirror image” tool within your editor to reverse the letters.  In Elements, go to the ‘Image’ menu, then ‘Rotate’ and then ‘Flip Horizontal’.

Next, if you’re lucky enough not to have your printer destroyed by toddlers, go ahead and print out the letter(s).  And since I don’t fall into that category, I’ll show you my green approach.

You will need fusible web product.  I like this one:

It’s called Heat N Bond Lite and it’s available in any quilt shop or craft supply store.  I usually buy a section off the roll at my local quilt shop, but as you can see from the image link, it’s also sold in prepackaged sizes.  Heat N Bond Lite and other similar products are paper backed adhesives.

So, here’s what I do next.

I take the Heat N Bond Lite and paper-side-up, place it over my laptop screen.  I bend my screen almost all the way back, I just think it’s easier to trace that way.  Then I trace around each letter.  I used a pen here, but you could use a pencil or a Sharpie.   It doesn’t matter too much as long as the ink doesn’t transfer onto the iron’s surface, then you could have problems.

Then I cut the letters from the rest of the fusible web.  I traced the letters in a cluster and placed them somewhat close together to save more fusible web for future projects.  Just make sure none of the letters touch and leave space when you trim, too.

Now, if you have enough fabric, you may just fuse this cutout directly to the reverse side of your fabric.  I used what little scraps of fabric I had left, so I could not.  This is what I was working with:

See?  Not quite big enough, so I had to cut the letters apart.

This picture shows that each letter will fit on the scraps of fabric.  But…

when it comes time to fuse it to the fabric, make sure you iron it to the back side of the fabric, like shown here.  Follow the package directions to know which iron setting to use and how much time is needed to adhere the fusible to the fabric, all brands are a little bit different.

Continue to fuse all letters to the fabric.  After fusing, let them set for awhile so they cool off.

The next step is cutting out the shape on the line.  I like using a pair of small and sharp embroidery scissors for this task.  It makes my life easier.

Here are all the letters cut out and ready to be fused onto the quilt top.  But first, you might want to play around with the placement of the letters on your quilt top or other project.  Quilters love saying “audition” and you should to.  Go ahead, audition different letter placements until you find the perfect layout.

When you have the appliqué arranged how you want, it’s time to peel off the paper backing and fuse the it onto the quilt top (or other project).  Again, follow the fusible product’s instructions for proper iron setting and time requirements.

The final step is to stitch the appliqué shapes into place.  Luckily for you, I wrote a tutorial on this awhile back! =)  Start at step #4 of those directions.

Here’s a closer look at the appliqué stitches, I matched the thread to the fabric.

Now go forth and appliqué!  It’s a great way to personalize a gift!