By Clarrisa Gossett, Floriani Educator 1
Supplies Needed: Preparation of the flowers: *A pre made placemat *A few stems or a bush of silk flowers keep in mind that you will be stitching around the edges so don t choose something with too many curves or details. *One sheet of Appli Kay Wonder or a piece about 8 x 10 *Floriani 40 weight Embroidery Thread to coordinate with colors of the flowers and stems *Walt s Pressing Cloth *Teflon Pressing Sheet *Small buttons for center of the flowers (optional) 1. Remove all plastic and wire stems, veins and centers of the silk flowers. You may need to remove the plastic veins that have been adhered to the back of the flowers or leaves by gently peeling them off. If you choose to make you own linen placemat you will also need the following: *1/2 yard of loosely woven, heavier weight linen or a blend of linen, cotton or rayon If the fabric is 58 60 wide it will make 3 placemats *One piece of Dream Weave Ultra 13 x17 *RNK Micro 60 weight thread *Wing needle *1 wide Wet n Gone Tacky Tape *BLUE water erasable fabric marker *Floriani Applique Scissors 2. Some dark colored leaves or petals may be over dyed. That means they may bleed if applied to another fabric. I like to test and prep all leaves and petals by placing them in a sink or bowl of cool water and swish them around until the color runs clear. You may need to change out the water a couple of times if the water becomes colored. If and when there is no color you re good to use the pieces. 3. Place all leaves and petals on a paper towel and let them dry. 2
4. When everything is dried you will need to press everything to flatten them. Set your iron to a wool setting, no steam. Place all leaves and petals on your ironing surface with Walt s Pressing Cloth on top. Press (this means keep your iron still) all of the leaves and petals until they are flat. There may be some wrinkles left that were embossed onto the leaves or petals. That s OK. 5. Place the sheet of Appli Kay Wonder on the pressing surface, shiny side up paper side down. Arrange all the leaves and petals on the Appli Kay Wonder, making sure they don t overlap. Make sure the leaves and petals are facing right side up. Place the Teflon Pressing Sheet on top. 3
6. With Iron now on Cotton setting and no steam, PRESS the leaves and petals to the Appli Kay Wonder. 7. Let the leaves, petals and pressing cool for a minute. 8. Peel back the Teflon Pressing Sheet. If some of the leaves or petals are not entirely fused to the Appli Kay Wonder, replace the Teflon Pressing Sheet and press that area again. 9. Once again cool the leaves, petals and Teflon pressing sheet. Peel back and remove the pressing sheet. 10. Cut out all of the leaves and petals. If any of the edges are rough or a little too detailed to applique you can cut the edges off and smooth out the edges. 4
Applique: 1. At this point you can decide to either make a quick linen placemat or use a premade placemat or place your applique on any surface you choose. The instructions for making the linen placemat are below. The instructions for the applique will continue here. 2. Peel the paper from the back of the leaves and petals. You ll need to plan your placement at this point. 3. The beauty of Appli Kay Wonder is that the adhesive on the back of your applique pieces is very sticky. This allows you to reposition until the desired appearance is achieved. The bond will not be permanent until it is ironed again. 4. Place the leaves first. If you are doing a placemat, placement is best in the top left corner. After you ve arranged the leaves, place the petals on top. Keep in mind the order they were on the original stems. Move the leaves and petals around until you are pleased with their placement. Keep the placement in mind or take a photo if you need to remember as you will need to remove the petals to applique the leaves first. 5. If you ve chosen to applique the pieces to a premade placemat you will most likely have enough stability to stitch the applique pieces down. Suggestion if you choose to applique your petals to a base or material that may not have enough stability you should fuse Wet N Gone Fusible or Stitch N Wash Fusible to the back of the area you choose to applique your petals to. This stabilizer will give the base enough body to support the applique stitches but is easy to remove. 5
6. With the leaves placed correctly, choose a Floriani embroidery thread to coordinate with you leaves and choose a stitch to use to applique. You can use numerous stitches. A zigzag, satin stitch or blanket stitch all work well. You can choose others but keep in mind they need to be a smaller scale stitch so it can be completed before you need to turn a corner. 7. Stitch the leaves down and then place the first layer of petals. 8. Change the thread to coordinate with the petals. Stitch the first layer of petals down using the same stitch or change to another stitch if you choose. Keep in mind that you may not need to go around the entire shape because if you put the next layer of petals on top it may cover part of the first layer. Try to leave out the stitching that would go underneath the next layer. 6
9. Place the next layer of petals and stitch as in step 16. Depending on the type of flower you have you may have quite a few layers or just a couple. 10. When you have completed layering and stitching the petals you may choose to place a button in the center where the original petal attached to the stem or do some round satin stitches or smaller satins stitches. 11. Beautiful.Appliques. done and easy! Linen Placemat Instructions 1. If you are working with Linen you always need to cut it on the straight of grain. To get the grain straight you will need to pull a thread across the entire width of the fabric and cut on that thread. Measure from that straight edge 15 and pull another thread across. If the thread breaks just cut to where the thread breaks and pull again. Do your best at pulling and cutting. It doesn t need to be perfect but it s the only way to get it close to being straight. Once you have your 15 wide strip divide that into 19 sections, pull a thread across and cut. You should get 3 pieces from your 15 strip. 2. You should now have 3 pieces 15 x19. We ll be working with one piece. Using a BLUE water soluble fabric marker, mark 1 from all edges of the placemat. 7
3. Press the Dream Weave Ultra to the Linen within the marked lines. Make sure you use your Walt s Pressing Cloth and follow the pressing instructions that came with the Dream Weave Ultra. 4. Press again from the Fabric side. 5. Fold and press the marked 1 hem to the back (the side with the Dream Weave Ultra) on both 19 sides. Hold the hems in place with strips of Wet n Gone Tacky tape. 8
6. Center two additional pieces of Wet n Tacky tape along the marked 1 lines on the 13 ends. (The ends were 15 before the hems were folded) 7. Thread your machine and bobbin with the 60 weight thread. Change your needle to the wing needle. Choose a hem stitch or entredeaux stitch. If your machine doesn t have any heirloom type stitches you can use something as simple as a zig zag but it needs to be shortened and narrowed. A stitch length of about 2mm and a stitch width of about 2mm would work well. 8. From the front, stitch using the zig zag or heirloom stitch just inside the marked lines at each of the 13 ends. The stitching needs to barely catch the Dream Weave Ultra underneath. 9
9. Stitch ¾ from the folded edge along the 19 side using the same stitch as above but begin and end this stitching where the two ends of stitching intersect the side stitching. This will allow you to fringe the ends. 10. Peel the Wet n Gone Tack tape away from the 1 stitched ends and trim close to the stitching. This will remove the tape in the area you will fray. 10
11. Peel the Wet n Gone Tacky tape away from the top and bottom hem area and trim the hem allowance close to the stitching using your Floriani Applique Scissors. 12. Remove the threads in the 1 area at the ends to create a fringe. Now you ve got a beautiful Linen Placemat! I hope you have enjoyed my floral applique technique. Clarrisa 11