I learned this method a few years ago~~don’t know where~~but I’ve taught it and passed it on to other people. Now it’s your turn. This is my favourite way to make a circle and applique it onto a background.
1. My background was a four patch for this particular project. If you are doing a background like this I highly recommend after sewing the squares together to open press the seams.
2. Cut your circle fabric on a square of fabric……larger than your unfinished circle. My circle was 9”, so I cut the block 10”. Using whatever you have that makes the circle the size you need trace around it with a marking pen/pencil. I used a Fusion Pen.
3. Lay your fabric onto fusible interfacing, right side of the fabric lying on the sticky side of the interfacing. DO NOT PRESS. Pin in place all the way around. For this circle, I sewed 1/4” inside the line. For another one I may have to sew on the line. Trim away the excess fabric.
4. Snip the interfacing and pull the fabric through so that the sticky side of the interfacing is now on the back and the right side of the fabric is right side out. I run a pointed piece of doweling around the edge on the inside to make sure that the edges are just showing the fabric, not the interfacing. DO NOT PRESS. Lay the circle on your background making sure it is centred. Pin in place and PRESS until the sticky side is “stuck” to the background.
5. For this next step I use the best invisible thread I have ever found. It is made by Superior Threads and its called Mono Poly. It is super fine and when you stitch the applique piece to your background, you cannot see the stitching. As this thread is so fine, I take my marker and colour the end of the thread so I can see it to thread the needle on my machine. It won’t make a difference what marker you use, it will be cut off when you are done.
6. Use a fine zig-zag stitch. I’ll leave it up to you to decide the size you want to use.
a.Make sure your needle is in the down position as you will be lifting the foot occasionally.
b. When I do the stitching I sew with just the outside stitch is just past the edge grabbing the background fabric.
Give it a try on some scrap fabric. I’m sure you will love this method.
Okay why do I press the seams open? There are no ridges underneath. Everything lies very flat and does look a lot better.
