Creative Solutions with Radiance!

Radiance, Medallion V (26" x 26") created by Machine reverse applique.

A while back my skirt had an accident with a pair of scissors.

I was wearing my new navy blue knit skirt: very cozy and comfy.  It hadn’t even been washed yet.

I was hand stitching, as I do most evenings, in my chair.  After cutting a thread, I put my very sharp Kai scissors in my lap.  Well they must not have been completely closed.  I’m sure you can see where this is going.

It wasn’t until later that I noticed a small snip in my skirt up by my hip.  Being knit, about all I could do was to patch it.  If the patch didn’t work, I would have to throw my new skirt out.

The question was how to patch it and with what?

OOPS! A Creative Opportunity

That’s when I remembered the fused shapes of fabric I had left-over from a machine sample of Radiance, Medallion V.  I was keeping them just in case.

My skirt was now the "Just in case" reason.

 I got the idea of saving what I cut out from an art-quilter friend.  She asked for my cut out scraps from my machine reverse applique pieces to use in some future projects, so I started saving them.  It does mean you have to carefully cut out the pieces.  Now I save them all and put them in bags to organize the pieces.

So, down to my sewing room with my snipped skirt.

Making A Creative Statement

I lay my skirt out flat on my ironing board.

Then I placed the fused fabric shapes along the front of my skirt, being sure to cover the original snip, and making an artistic statement while I was at it.

I made a diagonal, descending sweep down the front of my skirt from right hip, where the "oops" was, to left hem.

Once I had them positioned as I wanted, I peeled the paper off my fused fabric shapes and ironed them down.

I planned to machine applique the pieces to my skirt with a satin stitch. Once stitched, they would be secure and withstand wearing and washing.

As this was a knit skirt, and the fabric was likely to get sucked into the sewing machine, I used a stabilizer on the back side that I picked up from Sew Downtown, one of my local shops.

After conferring with Dana, one of the store's owner, I settled upon Stick-N-Washaway, pressure sensitive and water-soluble stabilizer for Embroidery.  Once appliqued and washed, the stabilizer would disappear.

I positioned the stabilizer on the wrong side of my skirt, being sure to cover the shapes on the front side.

Then I machine appliqued using a satin stitch.

I washed my skirt which removed the stabilizer.

When done, I had a “new”, saved skirt, ready to wear for years to come.