... and how to cut fabric with your Silhouette!
I wanted something different than the usual wooden letters to hang my son's name on his nursery wall. I ended up using appliqued embroidery hoops, and I love them! The only trouble was that I am not much of a sewer and I don't have any of the seamstress/quilter tools for cutting appliques from fabric. What I do have is a Silhouette. While they have since come out with special fabric/needles to cut fabric on the Silhouette, you don't need them. If you don;t have a Silhouette, you can always cut your appliques by hand.
You'll need:10 inch embroidery hoops
Linen/Muslin (cut into 11-12 inch circles)
Decorative fabric
Fusible webbing
Ribbon
Rickrack
Thread
Spray Starch and iron
Fabric glue
To do:1. If using a Silhouette, choose your font and size in the designs studio software.
If cutting by hand, print out your letters onto tracing paper to make a pattern and cut fabric. Skip down to step number 4.
2. Cut decorative fabric to 8 1/2 by 11 inch squares (one for each letter you'll cut). Lay out your decorative fabric and spray heavily with starch. Iron and repeat. Do this 4 or 5 times until fabric is as stiff as a piece of cardstock.
3. Using a brayer, press fabric sheet onto cutting mat. Run through the Silhouette cutter, using the setting for heavy cardstock. You may have to cut twice. Repeat for each letter.
4. Lay fabric letters onto fusible webbing and peel off the paper backing. Trim excess fusible webbing from around the letters.
5. Iron the letters on to the centers of your muslin/linen circles. Double check the fusible webbing packaging for iron setting information!
6. Stitch by hand or with a machine around the edges of the letters. I used decorative stitching settings on my machine.
7. Place each circle into an embroidery hoop. you may choose to secure them with a bit of glue. Trim any excess fabric.
8. Trim edges with rickrack and add a ribbon to hang.
