Today Janomegirl offers a very novel way to use our Janome AcuSketch App + other Janome Apps with this great summer project……….just in time for summer. We wanted to show you a high tech method for doing your applique! Of course, you can make the same project using your other favourite method of applique. Ed.
This project is sure to become one of the most used items on your summer travels and leisure activities. Picture this scenario: You’re with your favorite small people, and you decide to head to the spray park to cool off. Everything is great, until you realize that you don’t have a plastic bag to put all the wet swim suits in for the ride home. What are you going to do – lol? Enter this fun and quick wet bag project!!
You’ll need a few basic supplies, plus a preschool themed coloring page (you can download those off the internet for free), a piece of vinyl approximately 26″x16″, a 22″ closed end zipper, your tub of fabric scraps, your AcuSketch app, stylus, AcuSetter and your sewing room. It sounds like a lot, but you probably have all these things tucked away in your stash. Ready? Let’s go!
Step 1: Find your coloring page. I chose one off of Pinterest, of a beach scene with really simple lines. Set it as the background image in Janome AcuSketch. Using your stylus, trace the lines for the background of your applique. Mine were the horizon; the line where the ocean meets the sky; where the sand meets the water; and the bottom of the image. These don’t have to be straight or exactly the same as the colouring book page. The idea is to improvise.
Step 2: Load your hoop (the SQ14 was the most versatile size for this project) with stabilizer and fabric. Dig through your scrap bin, and find scraps of fabric that you like for your picture. You may want to test a few different ones to find just the right colors and textures. Once you have decided upon your background colors, send your first design to the machine with a straight stitch. Go ahead and stitch this out – no need to make any changes to the placement at this time. This first line of stitching will be your placement lines.
Step 3: Place your fabrics down and stitch again over top of your first stitching lines. If you need to overlap some pieces, pay close attention so that you can stop your machine in between lines of stitching. Once your second set of stitches is down, remove your hoop and trim close to the stitching lines, cutting away excess fabric. Re-attach your hoop to your machine.
Step 4: Go back to your iPad, and change the stitches of your design. You can choose a triple stitch, zig-zag stitch or stem stitch. {On my practice one, I tried all of them and decided that the triple stitch was what I liked the best.} Re-send your design with the new stitches and stitch out.
This picture also shows the placement lines for the next layer of the design.
Step 5: Admire how beautiful your first layer looks.
Tack down stitches for second layer.
Repeat steps 1-5 for each layer of your applique design, making sure to stitch out a placement line, a tack down line of stitching, and then your top-stitching. Once you have added all your layers of fabric, proceed to step 6.
Ready to add some details!
Step 6: Take another photo of your finished applique (still in your hoop!!) in the AcuSketch app, and add some detail stitching as desired. You may want to add leaves to trees, rays for sunshine, movement lines for a beach ball etc. Do each set of stitches one by one and position them using Janome AcuSetter App. Stitch out at the embroidery machine.
Step 7: Remove your fabric from your hoop, and trim to be uniform size. Mine ended up being about 6″ square.
Now here’s the fun part! I followed the YouTube tutorial from Erin Schlosser & Janome America to make the vinyl zipper pouch, using my own measurements. One thing to note: Decide on your applique placement and attach to the vinyl BEFORE you make the bag. Ask me how I know -lol. (It was a bit of a pain to attach it after. I made it work using some painters tape to secure the applique to the vinyl).
You may be wondering why I didn’t just do the applique right onto the piece of vinyl. Here’s the answer: Every single little hole you put into vinyl is there permanently. In order for your pouch to be moisture resistant, the less holes the better. Therefore, the holes provided by attaching the applique to the bag will affect how much moisture is contained once wet swim suits are put inside. I figured that putting it on as a patch was the best way to go. You can also attach your appliqued patch by using AcuSketch! Also, be wary of using pins to hold your zipper in place. Sewing clips are much more effective and damage free for the vinyl fabric.
Here’s another little tip which I do this with all of my pouches: I don’t top-stitch my zipper until after the bag is turned right side out! When sewing the sides together, I stop just before the zipper tape and leave the tails of the zipper free. After turning, I fiddle with them and place them exactly where they need to be to have neat, straight corners. After that, I top-stitch and trim the zipper tails. Using the Ultra Glide foot is the best way to top-stitch on vinyl! It keeps it smooth and not “sticky”.
I hope you enjoyed this project! Share your completed Raw Edge Applique Wet Bags on Instagram using #janome #jnaomecanada #janomelife, #janomelifejunePOTM or tag us using @janomecanada.
Until next time,
JanomeGirl
Janome Life 