Applique, stems and leaves

I love the Clover bias maker for stems and starch a piece of fabric before I cut the bias strips. You can also see that I use a wave blade in an old rotary cutter to cut the backgrounds to size to prevent any unravelling while working with the block. The long tweezers are invaluable for placing the applique pieces in position under my vinyl overlay. Here's my pattern on the light table with the background fabric over the top. I like to place my stems by putting small dots of basting glue on the background an then placing the stem over the top. If leaf points have to go under the stems, I'll sew those in first then the stem.

Onto leaves and coping with the outer points. These two leaves have to meet in the middle. When a leaf point needs to meet a stem or be placed pretty precisely like these, I will start close to the bottom of the leaf on the right and get that bottom side and point stitched first that way I know it will be placed just where I want it.

Where the two leaves meet in the middle, I sometimes put a connecting stitch back into the first leaf I sewed, at the point.

In this photo you can see where I started stitching as I have just explained. I like to take two stitches to secure the point before I turn it under. Note where the pin is located, putting it there until those two stitches are in means the point won't float off to the left. Remove it as soon as the point is secured.

There's only so much fabric that can fit under that point and I do try to make it as flat as I can.

I fold the leaf back and trim out as much of the excess as I can. If you click on the photo, you can see it better. I am cutting off a little triangle of fabric at an angle.

I never needle turn this point, there's only so many times you get to do this before you get into trouble with fraying so out comes a dampened toothpick. ( put it in your mouth)

Look at where I hold it, I'm going to grab that seam allowance in the middle and sweep it away and under from the point in one movement, I then finger press it in place with the thumb of my left hand.

The second movement with the toothpick is to push the seam allowance into the leaf but not try to push it up into the point. Like I said, there's only so much fabric that will fit under there.

Don't worry about the rest of the leaf at this point. Give alittle tug on the thread to pull out the point and take a couple of stitches down the side and carry on stitching the leaf. The tooth pick is a great tool for turning under the fabric.

The other alternative to the toothpick that I sometimes use, because I still have them in my hand, is the point of the scissors. Its amazing how much control these will give you.

In these photos, see how much seam allowance I have, it's very small, only 1/8" - 3/16" A seam allowance of 1/4" is too hard in my opinion to turn under without getting into trouble with peaks and bulk.

If you are the sort of person who likes to learn visually, , try this DVD from Piece o' Cake. It is very detailed with close up shots and covers just about everything you'll need to know. There is also a book that accompanies it.

I'll show a little reverse applique and small curves next time we meet. Until then, take care.