Toni C

I've never done blanket stitch on applique. I googled and found a couple of sites that talk about felt.What I want to know is with material do you turn under just like regular needle turn applique? I do not want to fuse it

Deborahlees

First question, why don't you want to fuse it ????? Lite Heat and Bond works extremely well, you could 'window' the fuse material to make it "less heavy". Second option would been to use Elmers School Glue to keep it in place, works very well and does wash out.....
Are you going to be doing the blanket stitch by hand or by machine (I do all of mine by machine)....
I made a great wall quilt last spring called "Under the Sea" with comical fish and bubbles, all fused and then machine blanet stitched. The fabric was cotton batiks, I used a heavier 30 wt thread (embroidery) and the secret is just go nice and slow so the straight stitch is right next to the raw edge and the other stitch goes into the applique piece. Do a pratice piece till you get a balance you like for how long the vertical stitch is and then the horizonal stitch, that is more a personal choice than anything, and some designs need more and some less. The other issue will be the color of your thread, if you want your stitches to really stand out then use a high contrasting color, I used black, but some times you will want it to blend more. I will see if I can find a picture of my quilt.
But again I would strongly recommend the use of Lite Heat and Bond, that will keep the edge from fraying in the future. IMHO

JanTx

what she said.

sharon b

Will this item be washed heavily ? I just worry about fraying fabric - so I use the heat and bond or Wonder under and do it by machine.

Either way I don't think you are suppose to turn under the edge of the fabric when using the blanket stitch

Prism99

You can turn under the applique edge if you want. It's faster to fuse, but it's not a requirement when using blanket stitch. Old-fashioned applique was often done with turned-under edges and hand blanket stitch; you can simply substitute a machine blanket stitch for the hand stitching.

If using a machine blanket stitch, it helps to use a heavier than normal thread or to treat two regular threads as one, using two spools and then running the threads together through the tensions and needle. Makes the blanket stitch more visible.

I don't know about working with felt unless it is felted wool. The edges of felted wool don't ravel, which is why you don't turn under those edges when doing blanket stitch -- whether by hand or machine.

Neesie

I appliqued a bunch of hearts, using Heat & Bond Lite. I traced the shapes onto the paper side, then ironed it onto my fabric. I then cut around the shape, leaving about 1/4" to turn under. Clipped all curves, then turned the fabric under and pressed the edges, folding against the H&B, as a guide. THEN I removed the paper and just touched the turned edges, with the tip of my iron, to make them stick to the H&B edge. After the edges were neatly turned, I fused the hearts onto the blocks, then used a machine blanket stitch, to secure them.

After washing, the hearts aren't stiff, at all. They just have the feel of being a (very) slightly heavier fabric.

Tartan

It sounds like you want to hand appliqué your fabric shapes to a background square with the hand blanket stitch? I have a hard time doing needle turn appliqué on intricate shapes and can't imagine I would get a good result with blanket stitch. If they were simple shapes, I think I would machine sew a dryer sheet or similar to the wrong side. I would then cut a slit in the dryer sheet to turn the shape right side out and then hand blanket stitch in place.
If you are talking about using wool or felt shapes to appliqué down with a blanket stitch, you do not need to turn under the edges because they don't fray.

sewingladydi

Either use the fusible or the faced method using a light weight iron on interfacing (the method Tartan refers to with the dryer sheet though I don't think it's works well if the piece is intricate). I don't think it would hold up well when laundered if you just blanket stitch the raw edge.