Blanket Stitch Applique

Machine embroidered applique comes in a variety of styles ... but there's nothing quite like the quirky handcrafted charm of blanket stitch applique! Borrowing from a popular method of hand-stitching applique, these designs surround fabric accents securely with cute, visible stitches. Cozy and textural, they'll help you create projects sure to make a crafty impression!

To stitch your blanket stitch applique embroidery designs, you'll need a few things. Firstly, you'll want to download your embroidery design, and use embroidery software on your computer to print out your dieline template(s) -- the files that have DL in the filename.

You'll also need fabric for your applique pieces (we used quilters cotton), some fabric to stitch on, medium weight cutaway stabilizer, and temporary spray adhesive.

First things first, let's cut out our applique pieces. Spray a piece of medium weight cutaway stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive, and smooth it onto the back of your fabric. Then lightly spray the back of your paper template with adhesive, and smooth it onto the front of your fabric.

Cut exactly along the dieline to get your applique shape.

When you're done, gently peel the paper template off of your fabric, leaving just the fabric/stabilizer stuck together.

Got all your pieces ready? Great. Time to get stitching!

Hoop up your fabric together with an appropriate stabilizer -- with this sweater knit, we're using a medium weight cutaway.

Load up the design file on your embroidery machine...

And start the machine! One of the first things to stitch will be a dieline file. (In this case, the owl's feet stitched too.)

After the dieline stitches, lay down your applique pieces inside the shapes. It's important to do this precisely! Then a tackdown will stitch to hold the fabric in place. (In the case of this owl, there are a few rounds of dieline/fabric/tackdown to assemble all the pieces, and some raw edge applique in the design too.)

Then any remaining decorative details will stitch, to finish off the design!

This little owl design has one more step -- hand-sewing on buttons for the eyes!

Annnnd you're done! Use your adorably embellished fabric to craft whatever your heart desires -- like this chic Button Buddy Beanie!