November 17, 2011

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who visited during last week’s 100 Block blog hop. I so appreciate all the nice things you said!

Today’s post puts forth a couple of reader questions. I recently received the following:

I would like to know how you put an appliqué on a garment that will not wrinkle when washed or dried. I had appliqués on the uniform for work and they washed and dried w/o ever turning up at the corners or wrinkling , stayed flat wash after wash.

I want to put an appiqué on my hoodie but don’t want it to wrinkle when it is washed. I got NO help from the employees at the two stores I went to :( so thought maybe you could help me please.

Thank you, Susan

A few days later, the following question came along:

I have spent a lot of time researching lately on fabric decorating techniques and came across your All About Applique website. It is full of amazing information and I hardly knew where to begin! Since you apparently have extensive knowledge on this subject, I wanted to ask you a question but first I will briefly explain what I am doing.

I am a designer currently working on some fashion pieces for apparel and home decor. I use a variety of decorating methods from heat-applied vinyls to hand-screen printing (I will try anything!). My project at hand is a line of rugby shirts and jackets which bear strong graphic elements like patches and stripes. I do not manufacture the garments, I use pre-existing blank clothing and apply my designs to that. I wanted to find out if there is a reliable way in which to fuse certain elements to the fabric permanently with no concern about them coming off in wearing or washing?? This comes into play when I want a small textural detail on, maybe, a sleeve or a collar, etc. and may, as well, be used for applying my own screen printed inner tags to the pieces for brand identity.

I have seen products such as fusible web and an adhesive for applying patches specifically, but having no experience with these, I don’t know how they hold up nor what kind of hand feel they give to the fabrics.

I so appreciate any help you can offer, your experience on the subject is certainly obvious!

Lee

Susan and Lee, since wearables are not in my wheelhouse, I’m throwing your questions out to the community. I bet there are lots of readers who know about these things. Please chime in with help for Susan and Lee! Thanks!

Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Comments

One Response to “Help with wearables”

  1. Kim Q on November 17th, 2011 2:53 pm

    If you’re going to applique clothing, keep the fabric contents similar…don’t use a shrinkable cotton on a synthetic garment. I’ve mounted the applique using Heat N Bond, by using a plain old stationery store glue stick, or by using Sulky’s KK2000 spray. The Heat N Bond is permanent, but not my favorite, since it makes that portion of the clothing stiff, just like it does on quilt blocks. If you use one of the other two methods, and it’s a larger sized patch, then you can also use straight pins to anchor it too. Then you’d run a satin or zig zag stitch around the applique.

    If you have any other questions, I’d be happy to help. I’m not an expert, by any means, but I began my sewing life as a kid making her own clothing.