How-To: Reverse Appliqué

Craft & Design
How-To: Reverse Appliqué

March Mending Month
Torn Shirt = Great Opportunity!
Using reverse appliqué to patch a hole.
By Diane Gilleland

RA_Patch_Complete.jpg
Here’s a decorative way to repair a prominent hole (or stain) in your favorite garment: just turn it into a reverse appliqué embellishment. It’s very easy to do and you can customize your old clothes in no time!
Materials:
Water-soluble fabric marker
Scissors
Patch fabric
Fusible web
Iron
Needle and embroidery floss
Cardstock (optional)


RA_Patch1.jpg
1. Pre-wash your patch fabric and make sure your embroidery floss is color-safe. Then, decide on a design for the reverse appliqué. You can draw one freehand or trace an image from your favorite source. You can size your appliqué any way you like. We’re going to cut this flower shape (and the original hole) out of the garment. Transfer the design to cardstock and cut out your flower template.
RA_Patch2.jpg
2. Place your flower template over the hole in the garment and trace around it with a fabric marker.
For some types of fabrics, it’s a good idea to keep the shape of your appliqué simple. For example, see the petal notches in my flower template above? I found that they were lost when I cut them out of this heavy knit fabric. Therefore, I ended up with rounded petals. In general, woven fabrics will accommodate smaller details.
RA_Patch3.jpg
3. Carefully cut the shape out along your traced lines. This cut edge becomes part of the finished appliqué, so be as precise as possible.
RA_Patch4.jpg
4. Cut out a patch of contrasting fabric. You can absolutely mix woven and knit fabrics. Just make sure your patch is large enough so that there’s at least ½" of fabric on all sides of the appliqué design.
RA_Patch5.jpg
5. Place this patch inside the garment, centering the patch under the cut-out shape. Trace the outer edges of the design onto the patch. (This step will help us with alignment in the next 2 steps.)
RA_Patch6.jpg
6. Cut strips of fusible web to fit around all 4 edges of the patch. Make sure that no fusible web gets into the appliqué design — those lines you traced in the previous step will help. Peel away the backing strips, leaving the strips of fusible web lightly stuck to the fabric.
RA_Patch7.jpg
7. Now move the project to your ironing board. Drape the garment over the end of the board so that you’re pressing only one layer. Place the patch under the cutout again, using those traced lines to recenter it.
Before pressing, remove the fabric marker lines from both layers of fabric. This is as easy as dabbing them with a moistened cotton ball. Once these marks are ironed, though, they become permanent, so make sure they’re gone before you proceed to the next step!
RA_Patch8.jpg
8. Follow the fusible web package directions to fuse the patch to the back of the garment. I’d recommend placing a pressing cloth over the garment before you press it.
RA_Patch9.jpg
9. Lastly, stitch around the edge of the cutout. I’m using embroidery floss and a backstitch here, but there are lots of possibilities. You could also use a blanket stitch, or a chain stitch. Or, you could do this with a sewing machine, using a zig zag or other decorative stitch. Keep your stitches about 1/8" from the edge of the fabric.
A woven fabric will, of course, fray a bit at this exposed edge, but this just adds charm to the appliqué over time.
RA_Patch10.jpg
When I finished this appliqué, it looked a little off-kilter to me — after all, holes don’t always occur in the most picturesque locations on our clothes! So I simply added a smaller appliqué flower to balance out the first one. Now my worn-out polo shirt looks like new!
RA_Patch_Model1.jpg
About the Author:
diane_gilleland_author_image.jpg
Diane Gilleland produces CraftyPod, a blog and bi-weekly podcast about making stuff. Her first book, Kanzashi In Bloom, will be out in July.

18 thoughts on “How-To: Reverse Appliqué

  1. Shawn Connally says:

    So cute! And what a great thing to know how to do. Think of all those fabric scraps just crying out to be used!

  2. Andrea says:

    I have two active little girls. When I found out I was having girls, I envisioned fluffy dresses and tea parties. I never planned on climbing, jumping, crashing little adventurers. What an awesome way to save the clothes that just don’t seem to hold up to all the fun!

  3. Sharon says:

    Thanks for the great idea!!! I was staring at a shirt of my daughters earlier today with a grease smear on it from her father & this is the perfect thing to do to fix it up for the summer!!!
    Thanks!!!

  4. Helen says:

    There’s a much, much easier way to do this.
    1. Trace stitching line on front of main piece.
    2. Reinforce behind area to be removed on main piece with fusible interfacing.
    3. Place appliqué material behind main piece and attach on stitching line.
    4. Carefully trim away main piece fabric within stitching lines to expose appliqué material.
    5. Trim excess appliqué material as desired.
    So basically, you don’t remove the area inside the appliqué until after the appliqué fabric is already attached. This way you don’t have to worry about the cut edges stretching or puckering. Give it a go, it’s easy!

  5. Tânia - De Pato Pta Ganso says:

    Maravilhoso. Beautiful.
    Obrigada. Thank you.
    Amei. I love this.
    Bjs Tânia.

  6. Repurpose Round-Up: A new life for your tired old t-shirt | tortoise & lady grey says:

    […] If your t-shirt has a larger hole, a tear, or a stain, or you just don’t think that you could mend the hole without it being obvious, you can use applique techniques to patch the hole. The trick to this is to find a creative design that you can make a feature of the t-shirt, as a patch will be very obvious on your t-shirt. Here is an example of using reverse applique to mend a torn t-shirt. […]

  7. livehere says:

    livehere

    […]one of our guests lately encouraged the following website[…]

  8. testme says:

    testme

    […]we came across a cool internet site that you just could possibly get pleasure from. Take a look for those who want[…]

  9. testhim says:

    testhim

    […]usually posts some really intriguing stuff like this. If you are new to this site[…]

  10. i need a job london says:

    i need a job london

    […]we like to honor numerous other internet web sites on the internet, even if they aren?t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages really worth checking out[…]

  11. Everything FCA says:

    Everything FCA

    […]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a handful of unrelated information, nonetheless definitely worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got far more problerms at the same time […]

  12. paid book reviews says:

    paid book reviews

    […]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine several unrelated information, nevertheless seriously worth taking a look, whoa did one understand about Mid East has got additional problerms at the same time […]

  13. ghostwriter needed says:

    ghostwriter needed

    […]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not associated to ours, we really feel they’re actually worth a go via, so have a look[…]

  14. Virtual assistant services says:

    Virtual assistant services

    […]we came across a cool website that you just could appreciate. Take a appear when you want[…]

  15. Jeunese compensation says:

    Jeunese compensation

    […]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine some unrelated data, nonetheless seriously worth taking a appear, whoa did one particular learn about Mid East has got extra problerms as well […]

  16. TYTSEO says:

    TYTSEO

    […]check below, are some entirely unrelated internet websites to ours, however, they’re most trustworthy sources that we use[…]

  17. cabarete pproperties for sale and rent says:

    cabarete pproperties for sale and rent

    […]always a massive fan of linking to bloggers that I really like but don?t get quite a bit of link really like from[…]

  18. Two Months ago -> Today. – E J PRICE says:

    […] topic I studied was reverse appliqué, and although I won’t go into extensive detail on said technique, I’ll give you a good idea how to do it. You start with two or more fabrics, you stitch a […]

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

View more articles by Goli Mohammadi

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK