Shirred Appliqué

The overalls you see on my banner are what I call the "The Lani Overalls - The baby version" (Lani is what we call my sister, and she was the inspiration for them).

See the cute Truck design on the front bodice? Today I am going to show you how to make the design. I call it Shirred Appliqué which is basically the two techniques I used for it. I know - more shirring! But I can't help it, I am hooked!



What you will need:
Strip of lightweight cotton fabric, 5.5 by 30 inches.
Scraps of knit fabric for the appliqué
Fusible interfacing
Elastic thread
4 matching buttons

First iron your knit fabric to the fusible interfacing. The reason I use knit fabric is because it does not fray, so you do not have to worry about the edges.

Then cut out the shape for the applique. Remember it is going to be shirred, so you need to make your design stretched. I have uploaded the truck and the flower template for you here.

Pin the shape to the middle of your long strip of fabric (if you are doing the flowers, have the middle flower be in the middle of you fabric strip, if you are doing the trucks then have the space between the two trucks be the middle. Note that I didn't leave enough space between the two trucks, so make sure you do!).

With matching thread, sew around the edges of the shapes, as close to the edge as possible.

Now shirr the whole strip of fabric (I have a short tutorial for shirring here). Start about half an inch from the top of the strip. Don't forget to press it with steam, so the elastic thread shrinks even more.

Sew on the buttons (either the wheels or the center of the flowers). I also hand stitched on some felt windows, but you could sew those on before the shirring too.

Your shirred appliqué is done and ready to be used in your next outfit….

This cutie pie (my nephew) is my model for the Baby version of the Lani Overalls I made, using the shirred appliqué (the same overalls you see in my banner).

And here is a preview of the Toddler version of the Lani Overalls I made for Littleheart...I will show you how to make them later on this week!

I will be linking up to some of the linky parties on this page .