Hop To It! Bunny Word Collage Part 2: Appliqué It

Hop To It! Bunny Word Collage Part 2: Appliqué It


In my previous blog, Hop to It! Make a Bunny Word Collage with FTC-U, I showed you how, in Floriani's FTC-U, to create a word collage inside of a bunny shape. I mentioned that I thought it would be a cute bunny appliqué, and want to show you how to "make it so" in FTC-U.  





Convert Artwork to Appliqué





The last step in the blog, Hop to It! Make a Bunny Word Collage with FTC-U, was to convert the bunny outline, which was artwork, to a steil stitch. Now, in order to create an appliqué, we'll remove the steil stitch and create an bunny appliqué. You won't believe how easy it is!





From the opening screen of FTC-U select Open a Design.





Opening screen of FTC-U with open design circled




Open the saved bunny design in the .waf format.





screen shot of windows explorer showing applique bunny file to be opened in FTC-U




Select the bunny outline. From our previous session this should be a steil stitch. If it's not a steil stitch, it doesn't matter, as we're going to convert it to an appliqué anyway.





screen shot of bunny in FTC-u with bunny outline selected in sequence view




With the bunny outline selected, click on the appliqué icon at the bottom of the screen.





screen shot of bunny outline selected and choosing the applique icon in FTC-U




The Bunny Appliqué





When FTC-U creates a appliqué it sets a placement stitch, a tackdown stitch and a finish stitch automatically. You can adjust each of these parameters to your liking in the properties section of the screen under the Appliqué tab.





Screen shot of applique bunny parameters for placement, tackdown and cover stitch in FTC-U




Note: If you don't have a properties section on your screen, go to Toolbars in the menu and place a check mark byProperties.





Screen shot of FTC-U menu for toolbars




Select the type of stitch you want to cover the edge of the bunny appliqué (finish stitch). It can be a satin stitch, a blanket stitch or a motif.





Screen shot of different types of cover stitches available for applique bunny




Select the parameters for the appliqué as desired and described below.





Satin Stitch





  • Appliqué width (mm): The overall width (side to side) of the satin segment.
  • Appliqué density (mm): Stitch density of the segment.
  • Appliqué Inset (%): How the satin stitches are placed relative to the segment outline. The default value is 50%, which means that the stitches will be evenly distributed on either side of the outline.
  • Corner type: Determines the shape of corners in the segment; select either Round, Sharp, or Bevel.
  • Place check marks to create Placement, Tack Down and Finish stitches.




Screen shot of properties for bunny applique with satin stitch




Blanket Stitch





  • Appliqué width (mm): enter the width of the Blanket stitching.
  • Blanket density (mm) : enter the spacing for the Blanket stitching.
  • Place check marks to create Placement, Tack Down and Finish stitches.




Screen shot of properties for bunny applique with satin stitch




Motif Stitch





  • Appliqué type: Select a Motif pattern by clicking on the drop down arrow to select stitch that will be used as the appliqué stitching.
  • Motif stitch length (mm): The length (width) of each motif pattern.
  • Appliqué Inset (%): How the motif stitches are placed relative to the segment outline. The default value is 50%, which means that the stitches will be evenly distributed on either side of the outline.




Screen shot of properties for bunny applique with satin stitch




Appliqué Extra





Click on the Appliqué Extra tab in the properties section to adjust the placement and tack down stitches if desired.




For the Placement stitch:



    • Stitch length (mm): Length of the Placement stitch.

    • Offset (mm): Distance to move Placement stitch from edge of appliqué.


For the Tack Down stitch



    • Type: Select a Run or Zig Zag stitch

    • Stitch length (mm): Length of the Tack Down stitch

    • Offset (mm): Distance from Placement stitch. Negative number results in offset toward the inside of the appliqué and a positive number will result in the offset stitch toward the outside edge of the appliqué.


If you select a Zig Zag stitch for the Tack Down stitch you can select with Width (mm) and Density (mm) of the zig zag stitch. (Greyed out in the picture below since a Run stitch is selected for the Tack Down.)




Screen shot of FTC-U applique extras for adjusting placement and tackdown stitches




Once all parameters are set for the appliqué, click on Apply.





Look at the sewing sequence to see the appliqué steps -- Placement, Tack Down and Finish.





Screen shot and illustration of applique bunny sequence




Save the design as a .waf file for further editing if desired.





Ready to Sew





Save the design in the proper format for your embroidery machine, copy to a USB stick, and place the USB stick in your machine.





Sew out the Placement stitch.





Photo of flowered fabric with placement stitch for applique bunny




Place your fabric over the placement stitch, making sure that it is completely covered.





Sew the Tack Down stitch.





Photo of pink fabric placed over placement stitch with tackdown stitch




Trim around the bunny, removing the excess fabric from outside the appliqué.





Photo of flowered fabric with pink bunny applique




Continue embroidering the rest of the design to complete the bunny appliqué with the word collage.





I sewed the bunny appliqué out with a blanket stitch as the border, and also with a satin stitch as the border. Which do you like better?





Finished word collage bunny applique with blanket stitch border




Finished word collage bunny applique with satin stitch border




Note: I sewed out the blanket stitch version first, and found a few of the words were too small and the word Peeps was repeated. So I edited the text and enlarged some as necessary for the final sew out with the satin stitch border. This is easy to do using the .waf file for the design. I'm pretty happy with the final version.





If you would like the bunny word collage appliqué stitch file to sew out, please email me at rockymountain.blogger@gmail.com. Just let me know what format you need, and I'll send you a copy.





If you have FTC-U, and create a word collage, I'd love to see it! Just post a picture in the comments below. If you don't have FTC-U -- well, you know what Rob would say, "We can do something about that!" Just check with the staff at any of our store locations, and they can fix you right up!





 


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