Skilled needlewomen have long known how to decorate boring clothes and even turn them into works of art. There are many ways to decorate any wardrobe item to your liking. One of them is applique on clothes. You can decorate a blouse or trousers with such a technique by giving it into the hands of a professional or on your own. About how to make an applique for clothes with your own hands, read in our article.
Applique Techniques
Surely, the word “application” for most women who are not familiar with this type of art presents small children's pictures transferred to clothes. Meanwhile, progress has stepped forward a long time ago and today there are plenty of alternatives to how to make unique not only a little thing for children, but also to diversify an adult's wardrobe. So, there are two main ways to fix the applique on clothes: gluing and sewing.
Sticky Applications
One of the simplest and at the same time affordable options to fix a picture on an item of clothing is to stick it. Shops for needlewomen are simply teeming with all kinds of patterns, flowers, animals and other decorative elements on a sticky basis. Therefore, there should be no problems with the choice. Pick the picture you like - and go, for work!
After choosing the right applique for clothes and deciding on the thing on which you would like to place it, prepare an iron and a thin cotton cloth. Then simply lay the applique on the product, lay the fabric on top for better protection and iron it thoroughly with a hot iron for a couple of minutes. Since hot glue is applied to the back of the picture, when heated, it will provide adhesion to the fabric and firmly fix on clothing. For a better fight, we recommend ironing the thing on the wrong side as well.
In such a simple way, you can decorate almost any wardrobe item, as well as rag shoes, a bag and even furniture upholstered in fabric. This application holds well enough, provided that you carefully ironed it at the very beginning. Also, a product decorated in this way lends itself perfectly to washing in a washing machine.
How to make sequin applique
If you wanted not just a pretty pattern, but a real sequin applique on your clothes, you can choose one of the most suitable options. In the case of a thermal image, you will also need a protective cloth and an iron. The gluing technique is exactly the same, the only difference is that the temperature of the iron should be slightly lower, about 160 degrees. Since the application of beads and sequins is heavier than the usual fabric, we recommend that you additionally sew it to the clothes with at least a few stitches on each side.
If you want to make an application of sequins with your own hands, then prepare the following:
- sequins of different colors;
- glue;
- threads.
Having invented the drawing that you want to get, draw a sketch on paper in detail. Pick the right colors. Then draw an outline on the clothes. And start sewing sequins. How to sew them correctly, you can look at the picture below.
To further simplify the work, apply the contour of the appliqué to the clothes and brush it with glue. Next, just glue the sequins on the fabric and press. You can use a ready-made tape from sequins, this will speed up the gluing process.
How to make applique details
If the proposed options for decorating clothes with an applique do not suit you, you can make it yourself. For this you will need fabrics of various textures, threads, glue spider webs, scissors, cardboard.
First, we determine the sketch of the future image. We draw it on paper, highlighting each fragment separately.
We cut out all the details of the application from cardboard.
Using cardboard blanks, transfer the molds to the fabric with an allowance of 0.8 cm and sew over the edges of each manually with simple stitches. The cardboard remains as if inside the fabric with a binder.
Iron well each element so that the fabric “remembers” the shape we need.
After being ironed, we take out the cardboard from the fabric and lay the blanks on the clothes in such a way as they should be fixed.
Cut small pieces from the spider web equal to the dimensions of the fabric parts. It is important that the web does not protrude, i.e. it should be slightly smaller than each of the elements.
Applying every detail with a cobweb to the clothes, we iron it well, forming a drawing or plot.
The last step is to sew appliques on the clothes. Although the cobweb pretty firmly adheres the material between each other, it will not be superfluous to still make additional protection on a sewing machine or manually.
Applique from felt on clothes
The most unpretentious material and the favorite of needlewomen is felt. He is loved for his ease of use, ease of cutting and good durability in wear. Try to make an application of felt, and you too will fall in love with this material.
Using it is pretty simple. For example, consider the option with a felt applique on children's clothing:
1. Take a plain baby bodysuit or t-shirt.
2. Come up with a suitable pattern. For starters, it's better to choose a simpler picture. For example, a small elephant, a bunny or a flower.
3. Cut out the details necessary for the application from felt.
4. For each element from the web, make a slightly smaller similar detail.
5. Attach a felt with a cobweb to clothes and iron through a fabric.
6. Then, using a sewing machine, sew each item around the edge.
7. Small parts in the form of eyes, nose and mouth can be made from beads. Just sew it on top of the felt manually.
Is it possible to wash things with felt appliqué?
Since felt tends to fade during washing, it is better to wash such a product by hand at 30 degrees or in the gentle mode of the washing machine. However, it is believed that felt, made in Korea and having a more rigid structure, tolerates washing well and almost does not fade.
If you can’t get a Korean one, give preference to polyester felt. Such material tolerates washing well even in a washing machine, practically without forming on the surface of the spools. What can not be said about a felt made of wool, which can spoil when washing both the applique and the thing itself.
Try different ways of decorating clothes. We are sure you will find what you prefer.