Embroidered Applique DIY Adventures

I have been upcycling denim jackets, with various embellishments, for a while. For example, below are some recent ones.

For whatever reason, I have been inspired to embellish another, with an aesthetic that I would describe as abstract medieval. In particular, I like some of the bizarre characters. I also like the organic vine-like backgrounds.

Abstract Faces

Abstract Faces

I wanted my characters to be abstract, with round faces, so I started creating a few faces out of calico, using free-motion thread-sketching. This is where you drop the feed dogs on your machine and set the stitch length to zero and then move your fabric around to ‘sketch.’

Before I cut these out, I first ironed on some applique fusible webbing. I always use this as I like my fabric to stick and not pucker or bubble. For smaller pieces, I sometimes use a glue stick. If I’m going to sew straight away, I use basting spray.

I use a variety of methods to cut out shapes. For small, uncomplicated pieces, I just use scissors. For more complicated cutouts, with more detail, I use a Cricut machine. I also have a laser cutter, but I haven’t gotten around to experimenting with that yet.

In the past, I have just used the zig-zag on my sewing machine, to attach applique. In hard to sew places, like shoulders, I might sew by hand, just using a whip stitch or similar. This time, I decided I would try out my blanket stitch. The images below show the setting on my Bernina 1008 and the outcome. As you can see, its pretty close to an heirloom hand-stitch.

Once all the applique was stitched down, I then set about embellishing further with embroidery. In keeping with medieval embroidery, decided to use quite heavy pearl cotton for most of the embroidery. I found that using a combination of back stitch and split stitch was best for outlining. For fill stitches, I used satin and chain. For nearly all stitches, I also whipped most stitches, except the satin.