Reverse Appliqué

I’ve been very lazy… I did the work for this chapter (chapter 9) back in August 2010 (!) and have only just put them online.  That’s just shocking…  I’ve done quite a lot of stitched work since for a project which involved some of the techniques I learnt with this chapter and now I review these initial samples I realise that I learnt a lot from doing them! 

So first off I did a simple traditional reverse appliqué sample:

I wasn’t particularly sensible in my choice of fabric and the blue is stretchy.  I think it was once a top!  When I tried to stitch the edges of the blue I got quite a lot of puckering.  I felt frustrated trying to do the corners – I get little fraying right in the corner on even the neatest one.  As you can see there are some terrible edges really.  I didn’t really enjoy this process – I shall have to try again another time with some different fabrics.

Next up were samples that used the sewing machine and a bit of cutting.  The first sample shows the stitch work made on layers from inside out:

The next sample was worked outside in.  I realise that I shouldn’t have used a printed top fabric as it detracts entirely from the reverse appliqué!

Next up is slashed reverse appliqué:

Looking back I could have used some really bright fabrics in the lower layers and they would have given a lovely contrast.

Finally here is my favourite sample which uses layers of different fabrics that have been cut away at each stage of stitching:

I really like the sheer fabric with little gold blobs on it:

I used a mix of two of these samples when I came to create a piece for The Sketchbook Project 2011.  The article entry about it, one of my other blog, can be seen here.

But have a little sneaky peek: