Tuesday 24 March 2015

Appliqué - Sew First, Cut Last


This illustration is in another of my old books, Dressmaking and Needlework by Catherine A. Place, published in 1953.  I bought it a few months ago, readily parting with a very small amount of cash when I saw how excellent the diagrams are, line drawings with red detail.

It was only yesterday that I spotted these illustrations, showing the method of appliqué recommended for adding decoration to clothes.  In brief, place the material to be applied on top of the background material, transfer the design onto the material (it doesn't say how), then stitch the two layers together, as shown in red above. 


Once all the stitching is completed, trim away the excess from around the stitching.

This all sounds strangely familiar.  It must be about four years ago that I thought long and hard about how best to do appliqué using a straight stitch sewing machine, and came up with the method I dubbed Vintage Sewing Machine Appliqué.  This is the first book that I have seen that shows a sew first, cut last method.  I knew the end result had a vintage look to it.  Having found these illustrations I feel somehow vindicated (the posh word for smug).

Linking up to Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

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