Using a light board for Appliqué is a wonderful idea and makes putting your appliqué together a very simple process.
For this blog we are using our Free Teddy Bear Appliqué set - including our Bear Throwing Flowers & Bear Holding Balloons patterns.
Teddy Bear Appliqué with Flowers or Balloons.
The Light Board we are using is Portable LED Lightbox Tracer.
We start by taping down layout PDF (non mirrored) to the Light Board with Washi Tape.
This PDF is just printed out from our Sew Sweet Pea account after downloading the appliqué and sewing pattern files.
How to Download Sew Sweet Pea Pattern Files
Once you have your Layout in place, tape your fabric on top of the areas you wish to apply your appliqué.
You can see through the fabric, the numbers and the outlines of where the fabric is going to sit with the help of the light box.
All of the appliqué is numbered. So starting in sequence you simply lay down your appliqué over the backing fabric in the order of your layout.
Starting at 1 and moving through your appliqué you'll be able to build your pattern.
If you are not able to see the numbers using the light box, you will have to just print out another sheet or follow your pattern on your computer, laptop or tablet.
The products that we have used on our fabric appliqué is a Steam-a-Seam Lite 2. We simply print our appliqué pattern onto pre-cut printable sheets, and cut these by hand or with our cutting machine.
We like using Steam-a-Seam Lite 2 because it is a light, reposition-able, double sided fusible web. Which is good in case you need to adjust your appliqué after it has been placed easily.
It is also good for when you are having to layer your appliqué and you're unable to see the exact position of the top layer. With this Steam-a-Seam Lite 2 you can simply peel up your appliqué, and have a little peak as to where your appliqué should be positioned and then lay it back down. Like the Teddy's Tummy in our Teddy Bear Appliqué Set.
We do find that when it comes to smaller pieces of appliqué, it is best to have a few spare cut out.
They're quite tricky to handle at times and have a tendency to fray, depending on the fabric and how tricky they are to remove the backing from (if you're using a fusible web like we are).
It is also an option to forgo using your appliqué for tiny areas of your pattern and do some beautiful hand stitching, especially for things like eyes, noses, ears etc.
Personalising your appliqué is all part of the fun.
If you would like to try our Teddy Bear Appliqué set, this is available FREE to members of our online Sewing Community, the discount code is in the 'Announcements' section of our page -
Sew Sweet Pea Sewing Group
We also have lots of wonderful tutorials available on our website -
Sew Sweet Pea Tutorials
It is our passion to create, inspire, teach and learn. We hope you enjoy our appliqué and sewing patterns. We look forward to seeing what you create.
Feel free to share your next project with us on any of our Social Communities -