How to Make a Shamrock Applique
Appliqué is a fun, inexpensive way to reinvent and customize pieces in your wardrobe by selecting your own fabrics and shapes. Making a shamrock appliqué is a good way to enjoy shamrocks all year round and add an extra touch of style to any closet.
Things You'll Need
- Fabric
- Thread
- Fusible webbing
- Pencil
- Iron
- Sewing machine
- Item of clothing
Instructions
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Find or draw a shamrock for your appliqué. If drawing is not for you, look online for shamrock shapes to use as your appliqué pattern. This gives you a variety of sizes to choose from and lets you mix and match three- and four-leaf shamrock shapes.
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2
Cut out the shape to use as your pattern piece, once you have your shamrock shape on paper. Take your shamrock pattern and use a pencil to track it onto the paper side of your fusible webbing.
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3
Prewash and iron the fabric you will make your appliqué with. Place the fusible webbing paper side up onto the wrong side of your fabric and iron. Let your fabric cool, then cut out the shamrock with scissors.
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4
Peel away the paper from the shamrock to show the fusible iron-on webbing. Take your shamrock appliqué with the right side facing up and position it on your garment. Iron the appliqué onto your garment for a few seconds in each area. Keep your iron moving and be sure to iron the appliqué edges well.
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Let the fabric cool when you have finished ironing. Use a narrow zig-zag stitch to sew around the edge of the appliqué to further secure it to the garment.
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Tips & Warnings
Appliqués work best when done with woven fabrics such as cotton or linen.
Use patterned fabric to make the shamrock appliqué stand out
Using a contrasting colored thread to sew the edges of the appliqué is another way to add a decorative touch.
Online children’s coloring book pages are a good way to find shamrock shapes for your appliqué pattern.
The scraps from this project can be used to create appliquéd designs for other garments or accessories.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
