Easy Appliqué

I found the cutest owl fabric a couple of months ago.  For Christmas I decided to try out an appliqué technique on little pink onesies to give as gifts to my two newest nieces.  Oh, who am I kidding.  They were really for my sisters-in-law... the babies were just an excuse.

I decided that each girl would get two onesies, one with the first letter of their name (S for Sadie and M for Megan, and the other with an owl).

First I used the shape of the owl on the fabric to hand draw half an owl onto paper.  I folded the paper in half and traced the other half of the owl, so it would be symmetrical.

To make the monogrammed letters I found two fonts in my word processing program and printed out an S and an M.  The fonts I found had nice thick lines so lots of the fabric would show.  Next time I will use a sans-serif font as the little bits on the ends of the letters were super hard to stitch around.

Next I traced two owls and one of each letter on double sided fusible interfacing.

After reading the directions I tossed my first two letters and re-drew the letters on the OTHER side of the interfacing.  If I had continued with my first attempt the letters would have ironed on backwards!  Typical for me to read the directions half way through a project when I think I know what I'm doing.  The instructions said to use ink, next time I will use pencil since the ink bled onto the fabric during the ironing process.

Once the letters were properly traced I ironed them on to the wrong side of the owl fabric taking care to line up the letters and owls with the pattern of the fabric.  (I tried to put an two owls where the eyes would go and get at least a couple of full owls onto the letter.)

I used the smallest of snips to carefully cut out the letters and owls.  I tried using large, sharp shears but these worked better for all the little details.

It was pretty easy to get the paper backing off of the cut out designs.  Thanks to a tip from one of The Aunts, I just ripped the side of the fabric (being careful not to pull the threads apart) and the paper tore.  That gave me a little bit to pick at and eventually pull the entire paper backing off.  It is much smarter to start on a long flat side of the design than in one of the detailed edges.  It's just too easy to wreck the tiny corners.

After everything was cut out I lined the appliqués up on the onesies and ironed them into place.  It took a lot hotter and steamier of an iron than I had expected but eventually they stuck.

I used the blanket stitch on my machine to hold the ironed-on fabric into place.

The onesies turned out WAY better than I expected and both of my sisters-in-law loved them!  I will definitely be doing this project again.

I don't have any pictures of the babies wearing their onesies because it's FREEZING outside people!