Wash Away Thread Applique

This post is for Donna at Brynwood Needleworks,

who does absolutely bloody gorgeous needlework!

Check out her gallery albums when you have an hour

to spend on enjoying some wonderful eye candy.

I wanted to explain how I used

wash-away thread to get a smooth,

turned under edge for applique on

this little clutch that I made.

The first thing you do is trace your scallops or applique shape onto your fabric.

I was making two sides for this little purse so

I have two pieces of black fabric here but

if you only needed one applique design,

you could trace it onto a used dryer sheet,

which you would then place on the RIGHT side of your fabric

& stitch directly on the traced line

then you would discard the dryer sheet after

turning & dissolving the wash-away thread.

Be careful not to lick your wash-away thread

as you put it through your sewing machine's needle...

Yucky & it will dissolve!

Some people use it in their bobbin instead of on top.

Regular thread is used opposite the wash-away.

Sew along your traced line of the design.

Here I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance

because I had already cut my scallops

per instructions in the magazine article,

but if you were using the dryer sheet on the

RIGHT side of your applique fabric,

you would sew directly ON the traced outline.

Turn your pieces right side out.

To do this in the case of the dryer sheet method,

you would cut a small hole in it &

turn your applique right side out & smooth all the edges first,

clipping curves where necessary.

I turned my two black fabric pieces right side out & used a blunt

tip to poke out the points & get the edges smooth.Press well with a hot, DRY iron!!

Do not use steam until you are happy with your shape

of the applique edges.

After that, you can saturate with starch & steam the heck out of it

to dissolve the wash-away thread!

Don't scooch your iron...you don't want to distort those nicely

pressed seams.

Here you can see how I just pulled apart the two pieces after

dissolving the wash-away thread with steam,

leaving nicely turned under edges.

It will just pop open because you no long have any bobbin thread.

Each piece of the black was then topstitched onto the pale pink fabric

by machine,in this case,

but you could do it by hand if you were working on

a special applique quilt block.

Here are the two completed sides of the purse, with the black sewn in place.

I didn't get great points, as this was my first time trying this method,

but it didn't really matter, since I was going to do hand embroidery on top of them anyway.

If you'd like to try making this little purse,

it is in issue #58 of Inspirations magazine.

They did not use the wash-away thread method

but the embroidery design & purse instructions are in there.

Issue #58 is still available from Country Bumpkin Magazine HERE.


I hope this helped someone understand the wash-away method of applique.

Be sure to remove your bobbin of wash-away thread

& store it, as well as the entire spool

in a plastic bag to keep it dry.

Excess humidity will make it sticky.

I'm back to cooking tomatoes again today.

I'd rather be sewing!!!




fondly,