My mother has asked for a sweatshirt appliqued with leaves (like this one I made years ago). I haven't found a sweatshirt small enough for her, so I'm currently doing a practice run on an extra sweatshirt I have right now. So far I'm having mixed results.
The leaves on the original sweatshirt were raw-edged applique that I glued then zig-zag stitched to the sweatshirt. This was great for the the spiky leaves and sharp corners. However, I set the zig-zag stitch too narrow and most of the leaves have partially peeled off (this photo was right after I completed it). Given that the sweatshirt has been heavily used in the last 15 years, it still did pretty well.
My recent applique projects have all been needle-turned with freezer paper and starch. I iron them on, then hand-stitch the edges. For my revised leaf sweatshirt, I wanted to enlarge the leaves and needle-turn them. That way I'd be more comfortable overlapping them a bit, too and avoid wrestling the sweatshirt under the sewing machine to zig-zag them.
I found a few larger leaf patterns that I liked and picked a few leaves off our trees to trace. However, I'm struggling to turn the edges. I'm losing irregularity of the edges and some of the sharp points. I haven't been happy with the ones I've done so far. Should I just give up and go back to the raw edge approach?
But now as I pause and look at my finished leaves in the photo, they don't look so bad. I guess I may have to turn over a few more before I make up my mind.
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Love Laugh Quilt - Making Monday
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle & Thread Thursday
I've only done a little bit of needle-turn applique, and the pointy parts of the shapes are always the hardest part for me. I think your leaves look great, though! It's got to be easier than wrestling the sweatshirt every which under the sewing machine needle. I love the pretty brights against the dark blue shirt!
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