8 simple steps for free motion fusible applique

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I used the Dreamweaver XE to stitch out some festive words on my background fabrics.

Now that the words are all stitched, today I’ll show you 8 simple steps to do free motion fusible applique!

Step 1 – assemble your fabrics

If you’re making Christmas projects with this technique, find any Christmas-themed fabric scraps that you have on hand as put them together. You won’t need big pieces of fabric for this technique, and if you don’t have Christmas fabric, then just find some red, green and gold scraps and use them!

Step 2 – trace your shapes

We’ll use fusible HeatnBond Lite to stick the fabric shapes to the background fabric. Trace your shapes onto the paper side of the fusible web.

Here are the shapes I used for all of these projects:

Step 3 – iron to back of fabric

Cut the shapes loosely around the lines and then iron these to the back of the chosen fabrics. For this first project, I’m just cutting a rectangle from the fabric, so I didn’t actually draw anything on the fusible web.

Step 4 – cut out and peel of paper

After cutting out the shape, peel the paper backing off of the HeatnBond Lite.

Step 5 – fuse to background

Arrange your shape(s) right side up on the background fabric and then use a hot iron to fuse them in place. Always follow the manufacturer’s directions for the type of fusible web product that you are using.

Step 6 – select your stitch

First select the “sewing” key on the home page screen of the Dreamweaver XE.

Now you want to select the “free motion mode” key.

Step 7 – attach free motion foot

After selecting the free motion stitching key, the display will show you that you need to attach the free motion open toe quilting foot “O”. This foot can be used to do any free motion stitching with the Dreamweaver XE.

Step 8 – start stitching

Now you’re ready to start stitching!! Here’s a little video that I made to show you how it’s done:

Take your time and relax! Maybe have a little practice piece that you can work on first – especially if you are new to free motion work.

I found this technique to be super fun and rewarding!! I do a lot of free motion quilting, but really liked how you just follow the edges of the applique pieces and not worry too much about getting it “perfect”. I love how it looks like a colored in sketch when you’re finished. The large extension table on the Dreamweaver XE made it so easy to do this type of stitching!

Have fun making up your little applique/embroideries. Tomorrow and Friday I’ll show you a few ways to finish them into different Christmas items.