Appliques and Creativity

I’ve continued to experience with applique, reverse applique and different materials in my bags. There are some very talented SVG artists on Etsy, and it’s been very fun combining and manipulating some of these images!

They take absolutely FOREVER to stitch. For structural bag sewing, I use my Juki2010Q with Tex70 thread, but for applique I usually switch to my regular sewing machine, with a smaller needle and smaller thread, which gives me more control over where the needle is going.

I do use a Cricut, which I’ve found to be absolutely invaluable not only in cutting out very teeny and fussy pieces of vinyl, but also in making sure that when something needs to be absolutely precise - like the small skull-shaped holographic strap connectors in the last photo - I can only recommend not doing it by hand!

It’s been great fun using Cricut’s holographic iron on material as well. The only disappointment was that the colour really changes after it’s heated. I really loved the colour in the roll when I bought it, so having it change so much was kind of ‘meh’. But now I know!