Home >> Hobbies >> Sewing

How to Make Colorfast Appliques

Your new appliqued pillow cover looks amazing on the chair until someone carelessly spills wine on it. You may feel confident about having selected washable fabrics for this home decorating project, but if the fabrics are not colorfast, the pillow cover is doomed. With a little forethought, you can prepare your fabric for appliqued projects to ensure the colors will not run the first time you need to launder one of your crafty creations. Make appliques for your fabric art projects from materials that are suitable for their intended use. If your project will need to be washed in the future, select your fabrics accordingly.

Things You'll Need

Colorfast fabric
Scissors or rotary cutter
Fabric stabilizer
Sewing machine
Matching or contrasting thread

Instructions

- 1
  Make fabric appliques from materials that are labeled as colorfast or machine washable. Prepare the fabric before beginning your project by machine washing in warm water and mild laundry detergent to remove excess dye. Dry and iron the fabric to remove wrinkles.
- 2
  Cut a small piece of fabric and test for additional color bleed by swishing it in hot water and mild detergent for five minutes. If the water remains clear, you can proceed with making appliques from this material.
- 3
  Use cotton-polyester blends to create appliques, as the blended fabric tends to hold dye better than 100 percent cotton and is less likely to bleed. Lightweight polyester fleece is a colorfast material that will not bleed or ravel and is a good choice for appliques on baby blankets or quilts.
- 4
  Cut the desired motif from your fabric with sharp scissors or a rotary cutting tool. To prevent small pieces or lightweight fabrics from slipping under the sewing machine's zipper foot, stabilize the applique by ironing on fusible webbing or lightweight interfacing. Machine stitch around the edges using a small zigzag stitch.
- 5
  Pin the applique and attach it by hand sewing tiny slip stitches all around it, using matching thread. If you prefer, machine stitch the motif in place with another row of small zigzag stitches.

Sewing