Pages

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Applique Semi-Fail

I started to sew again recently, and I'm using a book to help me stay focused and re-build my skills. More on the book later. Anyway, one of the "mini-projects" at the beginning of the book is to do an applique. I chose to use an old tank top, in case I screwed up. I didn't want to spend money on something just to ruin it. I took an old scrap of fabric and cut a heart shape out of it. The heart shape was what they did in the book as the example, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I used a darker, reddish thread to make the border. I should have used a tighter zig-zag stitch, but I was experimenting with a wider one (see the spaces between stitches?). Turns out you have to do this very slowly to make it look good. Too bad I was impatient and messed mine up.


So, I'm calling this a semi-fail, because the heart-shaped fabric is definitely attached to the shirt, fulfilling the objective, but it doesn't look respectable enough to wear in public (unless it is worn under another shirt).
Lessons Learned
  • Try a permanent stabilizer (I just used the kind you pin on and it bunched up a bit).
  • Go slower.
  • Use the smallest zigzag stitch available if you want the "satin" look.

 Oh, well. I'll post when I sew something else.

No comments:

Post a Comment