Applique!

Sweetie helped me with the next step for the cape on Wednesday evening: a layered applique. It's not beautiful but it's not horrendous either. It will still look fantastic flying through the living room and I highly doubt our 3 yr old nephew will pay any attention to the detail, right?

As I was cutting the pieces I wanted last week, Sweetie kept saying "You don't want to do that many layers. You need to just stick with the one piece for this." But I was adamant. That lightning bolt was going to have layers! And if she wasn't going to show me how then I'd just figure it out.

The first step was actually using stitch witch to hold the corners down but I didn't take a picture. Next, I placed some backing behind the purple fabric, laid the 3 layered lightning bolt down, and "pinned the hell out of it." Sweetie chuckled when she saw that I took her instructions quite literally.

Sweetie's instructions: "Pin the hell out of it"

You can see in the next pic what I thought my finished lighting bolt would look like. Sweetie showed me what changes to make on the machine to create a super close zig zag stitch which would hold down the edges and hide the fraying. I had been wondering all week how this would work. I thought I'd have to hem each layer and then sew along the hem line to attach them together. This was ridiculously easier, LOL

Start in the middle

The corners were touch & go for my learning curve. Sweetie had me practice on scrap pieces first and I did fine but apparently I was lucky. There were some corners where I'd turn and go and the stitching seemed to continue normally. Other times it left a huge gap. The closer I got to the outer edges, the more the fabric wanted to pull inward, leaving less and less of the outside border.

The (unfortunate) finished result

I learned some tips for next time. I didn't know to leave extra allowance so there are parts where the stitching hides the fabric. Oh well. I'm glad Sweetie still helped me in the end but I stand by my stubbornness for this one.

The next warning/dispute: Tie strings vs. Velcro.

Stay tuned for the results of that one!