A is for Applique

I think appliques are a great way of jazzing up a piece of clothing. Take a nice simple piece of clothing and you can totally change the feel of it by adding different pictures made from cloth.

I have been experimenting with different ways of attaching appliques to clothes.

There is the good old blanket stitch - simple, easy quick, and versatile. But it doesn't always go around corners effectively, getting it looking this nice took a bit of practise.

I also often do back stitch. Not as quick as blanket stitch, but has great sharp points.

I also wanted to try versions I can do on the machine. (because it's so much quicker!)

I did a tight zig zag applique, which worked well - it finishes the fabric off beautifully - no chance of fraying. However the last few times I tried this the thread didn't always catch, meaning that there were little gaps in between stitches. Can't work out why that happened.

I read a tutorial about 'free stitching' but I didn't really like it - I can't seem to get the stitches similar lengths. I have heard that a walking foot would improve that. Might look into that.

Any other good appliques people have tried?

(More creative spaces at kootoyoo)