Start your holiday baking…

This is “as easy as pie”–pumpkin, custard, key lime–just choose your filling from scraps of fabric. Applique them onto a plate with a little bit of big rickrack for the crust and YUM! You’ve made the cutest piece of pie ever, with absolutely NO calories!

Don’t miss this darling pattern on sale this week for just $2.50 because you know you’ll need to do some holiday baking. What a precious host/hostess gift this would make for Thanksgiving, or make it for your OWN table for that platter of turkey. These “Petites on Point” platter pads are designed to hang as well, so it’s a great little seasonal decoration.

Click here to buy

Slice of PUMPKIN Pie close-up by LJ Christensen

Some people seem to think that applique is difficult and time consuming. Not necessarily. You can always add 1/4″ and hand-turn the Christensen Creations patterns, but they are designed for fusible applique. If you’re not washing/drying them a lot, you can just fuse. It works fine. After a lot of drying, though, sometimes the fusing glue might begin to detach.

That’s why I recommend satin-stitch machine applique for washable items. It’s not hard, especially if you fuse first. Then it doesn’t slip, and you don’t have to pin anything. Here’s the first tip. Fuse the double-sided fusible web (such as Heat’n’Bond or Wonder Under) to the back of the fabric. Leaving the paper on, cut out the pattern pieces. This assures that you get fusible web right into the corners. Let it cool.

Place the applique pieces on the fabric, but do not remove the backing paper until you are ready to fuse. Use a pin or needle to “score” the backing; this allows you to peel it off without picking at the corners and possibly disturbing the threads.

STOP! Note that some pieces may very well overlap others. I suggest placing and stitching the underneath pieces first. You may not need to stitch the entire edge, though, if it’s to be covered. (NOTE: You can even MARK where it’s to be covered, using a Frixion pen that disappears with heat, so the mark disappears when you put the iron down to fuse it! Love these pens–available at regular office supply stores like Office Depot.)

The width of the satin stitching is up to you. It needs to be wide enough to take a “bite” into the applique and also into the background. In fact, as you stitch, you should line up the edge of the applique to the middle of the presser foot. The stitch should be close enough together so that it covers, but not so close as to buckle and bunch up. I like to use embroidery thread, but again, that’s up to you.

STOP! Don’t stitch yet! Not before you put a stabilizer underneath! This is really important. My favorite type these days is an iron-on type that doesn’t slip or need to be pinned, but it really doesn’t matter. You can get tear-away, wash-away, heat-away. My mother even used a roll of 2-3″ paper for an adding machine. Paper is not recommended because it dulls the needle, but for a little bit of applique like this project, it doesn’t really matter. You mainly just need to stabilize because fabric stretches just a bit.

As you stitch, just try not to stop and start much. That jerky motion can cause an uneven row of stitches. If you have to stop, make sure the needle is DOWN. Move slowly and steadily around curves. If you’re unhappy with some of the stitches, it’s easy to pick them out because they’re large! The seam ripper can easily cut through a bunch! It’s better, though to restart from a corner than to try to match the stitch from the middle of a row, but it can be done–trust me, I often have to redo.

When finished and tearing the stabilizer off the back, a pair of tweezers is helpful for any small areas. However, it’ll all be inserted between layers, so don’t worry about leaving the smallest bits–no one will ever see them!

(and I’ll never tell….HA!)

If you don’t like to applique–OK! You might prefer these other PIECDED seasonal patterns: click here for “Pumpkin Time” Platter Pad.