Experimenting with Appliqué

Updated: May 31, 2023

Appliqué is one of those techniques that often gets overlooked, but it can be really fun experimenting with appliqué.

Modern applique sample of daisies for city and guilds hand embroidery level 3

As part of my City and Guilds course I had to try experimenting with appliqué. This was not something I'd really thought about using in hand embroidery. In the past when I'd done machine embroidery appliqué seemed like an obvious technique to try out, but not so much with hand stitching. The first step was to try out traditional techniques before moving on to more experimental ideas.

Traditional Appliqué Techniques

The starting point for me was needle turn appliqué. For this sample I was again using my Rennie Mackintosh inspired tulip design, which gave me some interesting shapes to work with. I chose a variety of fabrics, mostly recycled old clothing to get me started. Using freezer paper as my templates, I got to work stitching my shapes to the background. I have to say it is quite fiddly to get the shapes stitched down without making your stitches seen, but a fine needle definitely helped. The thicker fabrics were also trickier to work with particularly on the sharp corners, but hopefully from a distance no one would notice too much!

Traditional hand applique sample of Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired tulips for city and guilds hand embroidery level 3

Next it was on to reverse appliqué. This was something that I had tried on a sewing machine, but it had never occurred to me to try by hand! I'm not sure why, but that's the idea of doing the course, to get me trying all those things I wouldn't think of doing, or just would never get around to.

So what is reverse appliqué?

So basically you put your appliqué fabrics underneath your background fabric, then cut away your design from your background fabrics to reveal the appliqué fabrics. The design did need to be altered slightly for the different technique but largely I kept to the same design and fabrics as the previous sample. I think this can be really helpful when trying out new techniques, as you can focus more on the technique and it helps when comparing the finished articles.

Traditional hand reverse applique sample inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh tulips for level 3 city and guilds hand embroidery

Again, a fine needle and tiny stitches was vital in order for the stitches to not show too much.

Experimenting with appliqué

When I moved onto the level 4 course, the focus was more on experimenting with the techniques previously learnt. And what better technique to experiment with than appliqué. Appliqué is a French word meaning applied, so the basic idea is simply applying one piece of fabric onto another - so much scope for experimentation.

By this stage I had had the chance to really get into fabric dyeing, so of course this was something I wanted to include in one of my samples. When dyeing I like to throw in extra scraps of fabric and threads, so I had a nice selection to use. So to start the piece off, I layered fabric and lace scraps onto my background and stitched running stitches over the top in the style of Japanese Boro stitching.

Modern applique inspired by Japanese boro stitching using hand dyed fabrics. This is the background for my sample for city and guilds hand embroidery level 4

I didn't want to leave it at that and added some daisy motifs over the top. I decided to leave the edges of the petals raw and simply stitch down the centre of the petals and then add some needle weaving to the flower centres to create extra texture. Overall I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, and thoroughly enjoyed the simple running stitches on the background, so relaxing to do.

Modern applique sample with Japanese boro stitching for the background with white daisies appliqued over the top. The yellow daisy centres are needleweaving.

Using other materials

After this piece I wanted to use some different materials. I'd had a go at working with felt in a previous module, so I thought why not give it a go using it in an appliqué sample. I loved the feel of the wool tops when I had worked with it before, and I thought it would be fun to mix it with some different fabrics. I began with a pre-felt base and had a go at needle-felting a simple flower shape on the background as well as adding some texture to the background with scraps of muslin and wool tops. Once this was done, I got out my shiny and sheer fabrics, layered them over the top and stitched them down.

Modern applique sample of a blue daisy made with wool felt and scraps of fabric including sheer fabrics.

I actually really like the juxtaposition of the wool and the shiny and sheer fabrics. Definitely something to experiment with further in the future. And you can't beat the feel of the wool felt to stitch on.

Have you seen my post about having a go at Goldwork? If not click here to read on: Trying Out Goldwork (claireharveyembroidery.com)