What is Applique?

Applique is a textile technique in which smaller pieces of fabric are sewn or adhered to a larger piece of fabric to create a pattern, picture or similar.

Applique is ideal for using up small snippets of fabric, to personalise textiles and as a creative repair or visible mending technique.

There are many types of applique including reverse, raw edge, smooth edge and needle turn applique. This blog post covers how to create raw edge applique and smooth edge applique. This refers to how the edges of the applique fabric look when the work is completed. Raw edge applique has some fraying whereas smooth edge applique is smooth and looks almost sealed.

We'll look at raw edge applique first.

Raw edge applique is quicker than smooth edge applique as there are less processes involved. You will need:

snippets of fabric

a base piece of fabric

scissors

hand sewing needles or a sewing machine

thread

pins

For raw edge applique you simply cut your desired shapes out of the snippets of fabric, you may prefer to draw the shapes on the reverse of the fabric first. The edges of the fabric will fray, which is the why the technique is called raw edge.

Build the picture or pattern up on the base fabric and pin in place. You then stitch down the edges of the applique pieces using either hand stitches or using the sewing machine. Extra details can be added in embroidery stitches if you would like to.

That's all there is to it.

Now we'll look at Smooth Edge Applique

You will need

snippets of fabric

a base piece of fabric

scissors

hand sewing needles or a sewing machine

thread

pins

an iron

baking paper

ironing pad

bondaweb

Bondaweb is used to stop the edges of the fabric from fraying, creating the smooth effect that is required for this technique. Bondaweb is essentially a sheet of glue that is activated by heat. It has two sides; one that is a removeable paper and the other that is glue. Make sure you know which is which before you start - the glue side will feel more textured and if you hold the bondaweb up to the light you will be able to see the glue.

Cut the Bondaweb a little larger than the shape you would like and the fabric a little larger than the bondaweb. Place the bondaweb on the back of the fabric glue side down.

Cover with baking parchment to protect your iron from the glue on the bondaweb. Iron the bondaweb to the fabric through the baking parchment. Instead of moving the iron side to side as you would with a garment, place it down on top of the baking parchment and leave for 10 seconds. Move the iron slightly further along, hold for 10 seconds and repeat until the whole of the bondaweb has been adhered to the fabric.

Draw the shape you would like on the bondaweb. However as this is the back of the fabric you may need to reverse certain shapes such as letters so that they are the correct way around.

Cut out the shape and carefully remove the paper backing - you can see the glue part of the bondaweb on the red leaf shape in the image above.

Place the fabric shape glue side down on to the base fabric where you would like it to be and place baking paper on top of this. Iron as before.

Keep building up your pattern or picture and then stitch down using hand or machine embroidery as with raw edge applique. Some people like to completely seal the edges of the applique pieces with a satin hand embroidery stitch or a very close zig zag stitch on the machine.

Both raw edge and smooth edge applique can be very detailed as above and the very first image or less detailed as the image below.

Applique is such a versatile textile technique, ideal for many projects. I'm always happy to answer questions about all things textile so feel free to email with your applique related questions.

I hope that has inspired you to use applique - let me know in the comments below if you've done any applique.