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How to Keep My Applique From Puckering

Applique is the art of sewing pieces of fabric onto a larger piece of fabric to form a picture or pattern. Applique can be sewn onto quilt blocks, pillows, diapers, clothing, tablecloths, place mats, aprons, and much more. It offers a personalized touch to homemade projects or purchased items. Sometimes the applique and the fabric around it puckers, but there are several steps you can take to create a beautiful work of art that does not suffer from that problem.

Things You'll Need

Stabilizer

Instructions

- 1
  Choose a lightweight fabric for your applique. Be sure that the applique fabric is lighter than the fabric to which it will be sewn. If the applique fabric is heavier than the background fabric, it will pull the background fabric upward, causing it to pucker.
- 2
  Pre-shrink all of your fabrics before cutting or sewing. If the fabrics shrink after they have been sewn together, they will pucker. Wash and dry each piece of fabric two or three times, first.
- 3
  Loosen the thread tension on your machine before you begin sewing. If you are sewing the applique by hand, be sure your stitches are not pulling the fabric out of shape. If your stitches are too tight, the background fabric will compensate for how tightly the applique fabric is being stretched and it will pucker.
- 4
  Use stabilizer behind both your applique fabric and your background fabric. When you are pinning your applique to your background, layer a piece of stabilizer, the background fabric, a piece of stabilizer, and the applique fabric. Use medium-weight cut-away stabilizer. The stabilizer will give your fabric extra weight while it is being sewn to prevent stretching and puckering.

Sewing