Appliqueing a Shirt

  Okay it's a rainy day here and my babies are all napping so I thought I would take this chance to do a short but step by step tutorial on appliqueing a shirt. My time is very limited right now because one of my babies is terribly sick so I'm going to make this shirt for her to maybe brighten her spirits!

  
   To begin (this is a toddlers Cherokee shirt from Target) I fold down the center and iron to create a seam that I use as a guide line for centering my hoop. I have seen this done several different ways but this is what works for me! Sometimes for different items I will use the chalk outline but for shirts I stick to this. (I'm doing this on my Brother PR 650)

Then I hoop my stabilizer and shirt, this is a Durkee Hoop for the PR series that I use on almost all of my shirts because its bigger than the 5x7 so you can add a name or make your design bigger, you have more room to play without having to rehoop :) This hoop doesn't have markers on the center so I just drew some on which REALLY helped!

Always run a trial run when using one of these hoops to make sure you are within the proper sewing field!

Next step is Heat N Bond Lite, I use it on all my applique material! I have done it with and without and honestly it just makes your applique look so much better in the end it is definitely worth the extra step (and trust me I'm all about saving time in anyway possible) I go ahead and pre cut all my pieces of material I'm going to be using and add the Heat N Bond to them...I try to always cut the heat N Bond a little short because you want it to be smaller than your material rather than bigger because if its bigger, then wherever you are ironing it on at is going to be a sticky mess! I also try to cut my material just the right size I try not to waste anything :) And make sure you are using Heat N Bond Lite..not the Ultra its not good for your machine and its for iron ons anyways.

Next I do the guide line

After the tack down I cut around the tack down.....I know everywhere I had read and researched EVERYONE suggest using the Ginger curved scissors to do this step.....well I did until a friend of mine that lives very  far away sent me a care package with these in them, they are Havels double curved applique scissors. I do ALL my appliqueing with these and nothing but these and this is why, they don't have a sharp point on them which to me is a good thing because since I have been using them (about a year now) I haven't made one boo boo cut, I haven't cut into a shirt or anything..which is good news compared to when I was using the other scissors me making cutting boo boos was a common occurrence so I LOVE these! Maybe they are scissors for Dummies...I don't know but since I am in a hurry most of the time they help me stay boo boo free!

 After I cut I use one of these sticky rolls to get all the extra pieces of material off (I get these from the Dollar Tree)

Then I iron (if my hoop is big enough if not I skip this step) my material just for a few seconds.

Then I finsih stitching

I actually had my shirt pulled to tight in the hoop and its stretched a little on the left side so be sure not to do that!
This was my first tutorial so if I left anything out or you have any questions let me know!!! Just leave a comment or reply!