How to Make an Applique With Felt Sheets

Add a design to any cloth item with a felt applique.

Appliques add a bit of color and dimension to cloth items, such as pillows, totes, shirts and blankets. You can create an applique with almost any fabric, but soft felt appliques are slightly less-complicated to attach than those fashioned from woven materials such as cotton. You don't have to take special care to conceal the raw edges of a felt applique because felt doesn't fray. So, instead of a zigzag stitch perfectly positioned to fall just off the edge of the fabric, you can use a simple straight stitch around the applique's perimeter.

Things You'll Need

• Felt sheets
• Tailor's chalk
• Scissors
• Basting spray
• Sewing machine

Instructions

1. Draw all the different elements of your applique design on felt sheets. Make all the pieces solid, even if another piece goes over a portion of it. For example, if your design is a smaller heart inside a larger heart. Make the larger heart solid -- don't cut a heart from the center -- even though the center of that heart is covered by another piece.

2. Lay the main background piece of felt face up on your work surface. Spray the back of the second layer piece of felt with basting spray and position it on top of the background piece. Sew around the perimeter of the second layer piece with an 1/8-inch seam allowance to adhere it to the background piece. Continue adding the layers of the applique the same way until the applique is complete.

3. Spray the back of the completed applique with basting spray. Place it on the cloth item in the location you want it. Sew around the outermost perimeter of the felt applique with a 1/8-inch seam allowance.

Tips & Warnings

• You can sew around the perimeter of the felt applique with a short, narrow zigzag stitch that falls just off the edge of the felt like you would for other appliques if you like that look better, but you don't have to because felt doesn't fray like woven fabrics.

• Dry cleaning is the best method for cleaning anything involving felt. You can machine wash felt on the gentle cycle with cold water, detergent and fabric softener. You can also hand wash it in cold water with some detergent. Do not machine dry felt; it will distort.

Resources

• Sew, Mama, Sew!; Little Pink House Tutorial (Wool Felt Applique in Hoop Frame); August 2009
• Lilac Saloon; Tutorial -- Felt Applique Monogram; Megan Van Sipe; November 2010