Chanel Parody Christmas Shirt - How to do a Simple Embroidery Machine Applique

So. . .I had this spare black long-sleeved shirt, and I was trying to think of something to do with it.

I got this idea the other day to do a Chanel parody but with a Christmas theme. 

So. . .Chanel just, like, within the past year, created a new fragrance called "Gabrielle" after it's namesake, Gabrielle Chanel (aka: Coco). Well, that got me started thinking about Gabriel the angel. . .

Then, I started thinking about how most historians believe that Jesus was born sometime between 5B.C. and 1A.D., so. . .I started thinking about the classic Chanel frangrance "Chanel No.5."

Okay, so. . .it's kind of a strange combination, granted, but. . .I kinda like it! It's nerdy, it's Christmas, it's Biblical, it's historical, and. . .it's fashion!

Okay, but this post isn't really about the parody itself. I just wanted to show you how to do an applique with your embroidery machine. They give you instructions online and on YouTube and stuff, but. . .I've discovered a few tricks that I wanted to share.

First of all, (and. . .sorry. . .I don't have pictures of this part. . .but) I chose a square shape, that was pre-loaded on my machine, and blew it up as large as it would go. Then, I ironed a piece of fusible interfacing onto the back of a piece of shiny white satin. Then, I put the fabric into my machine and embroidered a white square using a simple straight stitch. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT! You may think you would want to embroider a black square on the white fabric, but I have learned that you get a better finish if you stick with thread the same color as the fabric. Anyway, keep this in mind, because it will make more sense later.

Okay, after I made the white square, I changed out my thread for black and carefully stitched out the words and numbers that I wanted. This part took a very long time because I am limited in my designs to what will fit in a 4"x4" square, plus, I had to embroider all the words and numbers separately. I had to eyeball where each word would go, and. . .actually, what you see above is my second attempt because the first time didn't work like I wanted. Very laborious. About two hours on this part.

If you are using a pre-made design as your applique, your process will go much faster!

Okay, so. . .then, I took my shirt and turned it inside out and measured the exact middle in two places and then drew a line connecting the two.

Then, I took a piece of tear-away stabilizer and folded in half.

Then, I placed the fold onto the line I drew.

Then, I ironed it in place.

I turned the shirt back right-side out and drew a line down the middle, the same way as before. Then, I took a ruler and held it from armpit to armpit and drew a line across.

Using these lines as guides, I centered the embroidery hoop over them.

Then, using BLACK thread, I stitched the same sized square on the black shirt. (Again, matching the thread to the fabric color is better! Why is it better? Because it makes everything look more professional.)

Then, I cut around the white square leaving about 2mm around the outside. Don't cut right on the line! If you cut too closely to the line or even over the line, you will make your fabric too small for the machine to pick up during the satin stitch step and you will have a gaping hole on the outer edge!

Next, I sprayed the back of the emblem with spray adhesive.

Then, taking the shirt out of the machine, but leaving the shirt in the hoop (really important! Don't unhoop your second square!!!), I matched up the two stitched squares and stuck the emblem on the shirt.

I put the whole thing back into the machine, chose the same sized square, only this time instead of choosing a simple stitch, I chose the thicker satin stitch.

The finished shirt.

Okay, close up like this, you can see why I chose white thread for the white fabric. If I'd chosen black for the original square, that line would have shown through the satin stitch. Also, keeping the satin stitch white helped just in case some of the white fabric decided to stick out from under the stitching. Remember when I did that "reverse applique"? Well, anyway, click that link I just gave you, because I want to show you something. . .Are you there yet?. . .Okay. . .so now scroll down to the second to the last picture. . .See how the red fabric is peeking through the white satin stitching around the circumference of the heart? If I had chosen red thread, you would not have noticed all that mess. So. . .let that be a lesson to you! Do your satin stitch in the same color as your TOP fabric if you want your project to look as professional as possible!

The End!

Refashioning: Moschino Inspired - Adding a Reverse Applique Graphic

Continuing in the Moschino vein...here is a "Moschino Cheap and Chic" shirt that I bought last week.

It's interesting because the graphic heart is actually a stretchy mesh that was frame-embroidered into the shirt, and the shirt part was cut away to make a sort of "peekaboo" situation. That is why I'm calling this "reverse applique." Instead of adding a piece of fabric into an item, the designer subtracted a piece of fabric. Does that make sense?

Studying the back, I saw that the designer had placed the mesh BEHIND the shirt. You can tell this because you can see seam allowance around the heart from the inside of the shirt here:

Okay, so this post isn't going to be so much about a success story as it is a process of learning and trying something new. Hopefully, it will give you an idea or two.

I had this T-Shirt in my "Get Rid Of" pile, so I grabbed it to use for practice.

I wish I had black stretchy lace, but. . .I don't right now. I do have a bunch of this white stretchy lace, though, so I cut a piece to use.

I folded the shirt in half to find the center of the shirt and I drew a line down the center with tailor's chalk.

Then, I ironed some tear away stabilizer to the wrong side of the front of the shirt.

Then, I ironed some stabilizer onto the wrong side of my piece of lace.

This is how the pieces will be set up inside the shirt. The lace will be behind with the right side of the lace touching the back of the shirt. (In this picture, the shirt is inside out.)

Hard to see, but I drew a second line perpendicular to the center line to use as reference in keeping my embroidery hoop straight.

This part took forever. Hooping both the lace and the shirt and making sure everything was straight and even. . .no easy task!

This looks like I centered the shirt wrongly because the line is going slightly diagonally. Actually, the shirt is hooped almost perfectly. The line itself ended up being a little off.

Here is a peek at the back of the hoop inside the shirt. See how the lace is in the back?

I put the hoop into the machine.

This was my first time ever attempting a frame--let alone a reverse applique--so it seemed to me that I should stitch the first round using just a simple once-over straight line, and also making sure that the heart was 9.8cm across. When I would go back over it with a thicker satin stitch, I will have made the heart 10cm across. This was to make sure that the satin stitch would actually pick up both the shirt and the lace and not leave any gaps. (This will make more sense later.)

Okay, so here is my first round: the simple once-over straight stitch.

After that step, I pulled the hoop out of the machine and pulled the red T-Shirt away from its backing stabilizer. Using thread trimming scissors, I cut the heart portion out of the middle. I tried cutting up as closely to the stitch line as possible, but these scissors are not really made for trimming fabric, only thread. I do have some actual "duckbill" applique trimming scissors on order, but. . .I was too impatient to wait for them! (You will see later how I should have waited.)

Okay, so now I programmed my machine to sew a thicker satin stitch heart that was 10cm across.

See how the machine is stitching perfectly over the former straight line? That's why I did the first line at 9.8cm and the satin stitch at 10cm.

Okay, here's the problem: I should have cut a little more closely to the first stitch line because see how much red is sticking out from under the satin stitch? There are three ways to eliminate this:

(1) Use the same color thread as the shirt (in this case, red). That will make the excess red part less noticable.

(2) Set both stitch lines at the same centimeters across (in this case, 10cm). That way, the cut line will be farther into the satin stitch margins. I didn't know where my margins were when going from straight to satin--because I'd never done this before. I had tried to anticipate marginal error by doing the first stitch at 9.8. Next time, I'll try doing them both at 10cm and see what happens.

(3) Use actual trimming scissors. Trimming scissors are curved, which allows a person to cut much more closely to seams without the handle of the scissors getting in the way. "Duckbill" scissors are even better, because they lift the cut fabric out and away from the project so you can get even closer to seams.

Anyways. . .here is the shirt from the inside.

I tore away all the stabilizer.

And cut around the lace (just like was done to the Moschino shirt).

The finished shirt.

You can see my fingers behind the lace. So there you have it! A reverse applique!

Was it a total success? No. This was just a practice. But I learned a lot, so I thought I'd pass it on!

The End!