Make Your Own Appliques
Article by KarensVariety.com

You can decorate plain clothing using appliques you make yourself. Clothing with logos or appliques usually cost more. If you purchase plain clothing and decorate yourself with appliques, you not only save money but you can personalize the article of clothing by choosing pictures, fabric and colours you like and which complement your wardrobe. Decorate T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters, pockets, pant legs and more. Use appliques as patches to hide small holes or tears in clothing.

Old magazines have many pictures you can use. Find pictures with outlines that you can easily cut out. Once you choose a picture, copy it to the size you wish either using a copier or using graph paper. You may wish one large picture or several smaller pictures groups into a theme or to reflect things the wearer likes. Cut an outline pattern from paper or cardboard; this will be your pattern.

Decide on the colours you wish to use; choose true colours such as green for a frog or be creative and use variegated or contrasting colours. You can cut your applique into pieces if you wish to use different fabrics for different parts of the applique. Your appliques can have a 3D appearance by using fuzzy fabrics, using more than one fabric, or adding a small amount of batting under the applique for a puffy look.

Some fabrics such as felt do not unravel. If the fabric unravels you will have to fold under or bind the edges. You can sew your appliques to the clothing in different ways.

Read this article to see how to fold under fabric edges and different ways to sew the applique to the clothing.