My Best Turned-Edge Appliqué Tips – The Promised Tutorial

A month ago, I was in the “Never! You couldn’t pay me!” camp regarding turned-edge appliqué. Too slow, too fiddly and too unsuccessful. Life is too short! 

But things have changed……

To be honest, you aren’t going to suddenly see stacks of turned-edge appliqué projects suddenly appearing on this blog. The reality is that turned-edge appliqué is still too slow for my everyday use and doesn’t fit a lot of the designs I like to make.

BUT, and it is a big but, I now know a method of turned-edge appliqué that I do find enjoyable and that I like the look of. I can make decent progress on a project using this method. And I can take the required supplies with me on work trips to use in the evenings. I can definitely see some turned-edge appliqué in my future. Likely, one or two special longer term projects.

Would you like to know how I do it? Here’s my method, step by step.

Turned-edge, Machine-stitched Appliqué – What you’ll need

• small short-bristle paint brush

• small plastic cup or similar to hold liquid glue in….. such as the medicine cup that comes with children’s pain medication, or the top off a deodorant roll-on

• Elmer’s Washable School Glue

• washable acid-free glue stick, such as Elmer’s or Bostik. If you like to see where you glue is going, both of these also come in a purple/blue disappearing version. I prefer to not risk extra stains on my quilts, but other people seem to find that the colour disappears reliably.

• freezer paper
• sharp scissors
• parchment paper (in Australia, called baking paper) to work on to protect your ironing board
• appliqué fabric and background fabric (the fabrics shown are from the Island Batik Blue Moon fabric range).
• appliqué templates, reversed
• fine sewing machine needles (I use size 70/10 Titanium-Coated Topstitch needles from Superior on my regular sewing machine and size 80/12 longarm needles from Handi Gadgets on my Sweet Sixteen)
• 100wt polyester thread such as Invisafil from Wonderfil (for this project I bought Shadow Blue)

• mini iron such as the Clover Mini Iron II 

The beautiful Blue Moon fabrics featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik for use in my role as an Island Batik Ambassador. This post also contains affiliate links.  I am proud to show you the tools that I use. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link it will not cost you any extra but I may earn a small commission for the referral. It helps keep the Chameleon on air!

How to prepare your Appliqué shapes

Step 1

Trace your reversed appliqué shapes onto the rough side of your freezer paper. 

Step 2

Don’t cut your shapes out just yet. Lay your freezer paper templates over a second layer of freezer paper (both pieces shiny side down). Use a hot iron to bond the two pieces of paper. Repeat this process with a third layer of freezer paper so that your freezer paper templates are three layers thick and have a shiny surface on the underside.

If you are like me and live somewhere where freezer paper is not a cheap supermarket item, you might cringe at using freezer paper three layers thick at a time….. You can also glue the rough side of freezer paper to some stiff card to get the same effect.

Step 3

Cut out your appliqué templates. Take care to make nice smooth edges on all your curves…. your appliqué shape will only be as smooth as your original template.

Step 4

Iron your templates onto the reverse side of your appliqué fabric.

Step 5

Cut out your appliqué shapes from your fabric. I got the best results when I cut inner curves close to the template and outer curves with more seam allowance. Typically I leave about 3/8″ seam allowance on inner (concave) curves and 1/2″ seam allowance on outer (convex) curves.

Step 6

Clip the seam allowances on inner curves. Also clip just once into the junction of any concave corners. Cut inwards towards the template, but stop just a few threads before you get to the paper. This will minimise fraying.

Step 7

Apply glue stick glue to any concave curves and fold the seam allowances over onto the template. Once you are happy with the smoothness of your curve, dry the glue with a hot dry iron (see previous picture).

Step 8

Squirt a little Elmer’s Washable School Glue into the plastic cup. Add water – about as much water as you have glue. Mix thoroughly. I use the spray bottle I have on hand for ironing to add small amounts of water until I am happy with the mix.

The precise dilution doesn’t matter too much. What you are aiming for is a mixture that is runny and easily brushed onto your fabric, while still causing some stiffness and adherence once dry. If in doubt, test on a scrap of fabric by brushing a little on and drying with your iron. If it doesn’t spread like water, the glue is still too thick. If it doesn’t go stiff when dry, it is too thin. Add more water or glue to your mix to correct if required. You will probably only need to do this experiment once or twice – it is very forgiving and you will easily get a feel for what works well.

Step 9

Brush your diluted Elmer’s glue onto the convex curved seams of your appliqué shape. Turn the edges a little at a time and press with the iron to hold in place. If you have left a wide seam allowance you can do the turning with your fingers without getting burned.

If you are being more economical with your fabric, (or you are clumsy!) use a stiletto, That Purple Thang or bamboo skewer to hold the turned seams as you press them. I use my fingers and the Clover Mini Iron II.

Step 10

Turn any remaining straight edges of your appliqué shape. You can do this either by the glue stick method or the diluted Elmer’s glue method. Your choice.

Step 11

Examine your shape. If you have any edges you’d like to adjust, now is the best time. Just re-wet them with the diluted glue and re-turn them to get a better fit. Small dog ears can sometimes be made to disappear by simply running the edge of the appliqué shape on a hot iron side on.

Step 12

Once you are happy with your shape, press really thoroughly to make sure everything is creased correctly, and the shape is 100% dry.

Step 13

Carefully prise the glue stick-turned edges off the template. I do this by running a pin under the stuck seam allowance and popping the fabric tabs upwards.

Step 14

Gently remove the freezer paper template from within the appliqué shape. Press the shape again to reset the edges. You can reuse the template.

  

Step 15

Trim the excess seam allowances to 3/8″ around the entire shape. Your turned-edge appliqué shape is ready to sew down.

How to Attach your Turned-Edge Appliqué shape

I imagine that these shapes can be successfully sewn down by hand. But I haven’t the time for that at the moment, so I sew mine down by machine. Here is how I get the closest to a hand-sewn look as I am able.

Step 1

Use a couple of dots of full strength Elmer’s white washable glue to position your appliqués. Once in place on your background fabric secure the appliqués by drying the glue dots with a hot iron.

Step 2

Set up your machine for free-motion stitching. I use Invisafil on the top and a fine bobbin fill thread on the bottom. Attach the turned-edge appliqué by stitching just off the edge of the shape, and then every three or so stitches, doing a sideways stitch to catch the appliqué by a few threads.

If you are not confident with free-motion stitching, disregard this step and use the blind-hem stitch on your sewing machine instead.

Step 3

Tie off all loose threads on the back of your work. Layer your appliqué over your batting and backing fabric of choice and quilt around the edge of each shape to accentuate it and disguise the machine hemstitch. Quilt the space around the appliqué shapes as desired.

I personally really like this turned-edge appliqué method and am so pleased to have settled on a technique that works for me. I really hope it works for you too.

If you’d like to read the whole adventure that led to this point, here are the previous posts in this series:

• Turned appliqué experimentation part 1
• The making and decorating of a machine dust cover
• Turned appliqué experimentation part 2

Let me know if you try this method, and how you go. If I have left anything out, or it’s not clear, please comment and I will update the information for everyone.  🙂

If you liked this tutorial, please pin or share on facebook and let others know so they can use it too!

P.S.Sharing on all my favourite linkies. Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Fiber Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Midweek Makers, The Inquiring Quilter, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation 

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