APPLIQUE HEART IN Thred

One example of this - I was digitising a bunny sick in bed, and trying to get his blanket to look 'quilty' trying different fills. The fills just didn't look good. What it needed was a floral applique.

Applique is a wonderful way to use up those small scraps that we cannot bear to throw away.
Each embroidery design is different. Use your creativity with those different fabrics.
How quick the stitching time!

Thred makes applique easy and accessible to all.

HOW TO CREATE THIS APPLIQUE HEART STEP BY STEP

You can print this page or save it for work off-line. To do this Step by Step I assume you can create a form and select it. If not, please go to Celtic Knots. You will need a scrap of fabric approximately 3" square for the applique.

1. Download Heart Bitmap. This is taken from Thred and you can see my form points.

2. Download stitch file cbhrt1st.thr. This is for the clipboard border.

3. Open Thred. If it is already open, left click 'File' (menu bar), left click 'New'.

4. Left Click 'Pref' (menu bar) and set preferences:
   Fill spacing (this is density) 0.3
   Satin border size 3.0 (This is for the applique - 3mm seems a good width to me - you can use 4.0, which will put an underlay under the satin stitches, but for me that is too wide.)
   Applique color 15 (I'll explain that one later.)
   Hoop size small pfaff
   Right Click to make the 'pref' box go away.

5. Left Click 'File' (menu Bar), left click 'Load Bitmap'.
   Open the downloaded bitmap file 'cbapp1.bmp'. If you can't see it then you need to change the bitmap settings - Left click View (menu bar) / Set / Bit Map Color. Change the colour to one that is opposite to your background.

6. Just for fun, lets start working with layers. It is not necessary to use layers, but this is a simple design for you to get the idea.
   Left click 1 (menu bar).
   Create a freehand heart-shaped form over the bit map.
   Right click to select it.
   Left click black on the left side of the color bar at the left side of your screen. You should get a cross in the color square next to black.
   Left click fill (menu bar) / border / applique. (Great short cut instead of this for the more advanced is key 'F' then you can choose all your prefs for the individual form, rather than doing the prefs on the pref menu.)
   The applique border will create a double line of stitching with a different color (the one you specified in prefs) underneath the satin stitch. You can see the two diffent colours on the color ribbon at the right of your screen.

7. Hide the bitmap - File (menu bar) / Hide Bitmap. Move your form points until you are happy with the shape of your heart. (Make sure that your form is not selected when you move form points. I do this all the time and move the whole form instead of just the point. That's what undo on the menu bar is for!)

8. You will now create the form for the clipboard border.
   Make sure the heart form is selected (right click near form point). Now copy the form to layer 2 - left click Edit (menu bar) / Copy to Layer / 2.
   To get Layer 2, left click 2 (menu bar).
   (Another easy way to copy - try it later - is to select the form, press <Ctrl> C, go to the layer, and press <Ctrl> V. Then move the displayed shape to wear you want it and left click.)

9. Now to get the clipboard fill. Run a second copy of Thred - yes you can have several running at once, just don't edit the same design in several at once! Open the downloaded file cbapp1s1.thr. (Those are ones not Ls in the filename!) (This is a stitch I created in thredworks which can also be used as a P memory stitch. You don't have to use this one, you can go into PCD and select a Machine Stitch from there - try it later.)
   Press <Ctrl> A to select all the stitches.
   Press <Ctrl> C to copy them into the clipboard.
   Go back to the original copy of Thred.

10. Now you will create the clipboard border.
    There are several ways of doing this (as there usually are for almost everything), and I don't guarantee that mine is the best!
    I generally find the Clipboard border fill easier to deal with as a line form rather than a freehand form, but it does depend on the stitch I'm using as the fill.
    To change the form to a line, make sure the form is selected (right click near a form point) then press the 'F' key. You will see the properties of the form. Click the word 'Free Hand', and it will change to 'Line'. In the same box 'Border' should show 'None'. Click this, and you get a menu of fills to choose. Select Clipboard, and your clipboard stitches should now go along the line.
    (This is exactly the same as left clicking fill (menu bar) / Border / Clipboard, only quicker.)

    Change the Border Color to '2'.

    Your stitches may be on the inside rather than the outside. To swap them, press edit (menu bar) / flip / order.

11. Leave the form selected, and display all layers - left click 'all' (menu bar).
    You are now displaying the actual applique form from layer 1 and the actual clipboard fill form from layer 2. Any changes you make here will change them on their separate layers.
    You may not see both forms, as they are on top of each other. The form with the box around it is the one you just selected from layer 2.
    [Tip - on the bottom left of your screen Thred tells you which layer the item you have selected is from]

    Drag the corners of the box to resize the form so that the new form lies along the edge of the applique stitches. You may have to rearrange the form points so that the stitches lie along the edge of the applique stitches, and also fill out the form evenly.
    You may need an extra form point where the form was changed to a line from the freehand form. Press 'W' near an existing form point to create one.

12. There, a lacy heart. Finish off by left clicking edit (menu bar) / set / knots.

    Embellishment if you want:

    If the applique fabric is a bit plain, you could embellish this by putting smaller stitches on the fabric, for example small hearts, or small flowers.
    Download cbapp1s2.thr, which is another stitch file. Run a second copy of Thred, open 'cbapp1s2.thr', press <Ctrl> A to select all stitches, press <Ctrl> C to copy to the clipboard.
    Go to the original Thred with your heart design and press <Ctrl> V. Move the square around the heart until it is in place. Then press <Ctrl> V for all the 'stars' you want on your heart. Make sure you unselect the previous form by pressing the <Esc> key before you paste the new star in. These could be stitched out in gold metallic thread.

    To stitch this out, hoop your main fabric, and lay the scrap on top of this. The applique color will stitch out first. Try to keep the fabric smooth, and at the same time keep your fingers from underneath the needle. When the applique colour is finished, remove the hoop from the machine. DO NOT UNHOOP THE FABRIC. Trim the scrap fabric right back to within 1mm of the stitches. Replace the hoop and continue the stitching as normal.

Please send your comments to Caroline

Appliques to Download in Thred format

Click on the image to download

More on Applique

On the Thred pages under 'free designs / design archives / dragon', there is a wonderful dragon done by Shalane Clayton, which I stitched out using gold lamé as the applique fabric and green thread. It doesn't currently decorate anything but his notice board, but my little boy just loves it. Imagine if I had to sew this with gold metallic to get the same effect!

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