Free Applique Patterns

What is appliqué, how does one do it, and where can you find free appliqué patterns? Read on to find out.

What is Appliqué?

Appliqué is a method of layering fabrics on each other that involves sewing a shaped piece of fabric on top of another whole piece of fabric.

This other piece of fabric could be a shirt, a quilt block, the front of a pillow, a cover for a photo album or just about anything else you can imagine.

The shaped piece can be stitched on by hand so that none of the stitching lines can be seen or it can be done by machine with a very tight zig-zag stitch that will be visible but leads a kind of country quality to the piece.

You can simply lay one piece of fabric on top of the other and sew them by hand or machine, or you can stabilize the piece by using a fusible interfacing like Wonder Under to turn the fabric into a fusible piece.

To use Wonder Under or a similar product, you use a hot iron to adhere the fusing to the fabric, allow to cool, cut out the shape, peel off the backing, position where you want it and iron again. This will adhere the appliqué to the other fabric and hold it in place while you sew down the edges.

Free Appliqué Patterns

There are many places online where you can find free appliqué patterns to suit your every need. Here are just a few of the places you can look:

• Free Appliqué has many patterns for decorating denim shirts and T-shirts. The patterns are very country cute and include instructions and how and where to place the pattern pieces on your clothing.
• Patch Pieces has some great seasonal appliqués you can use for gifts or holiday decorating. There’s a lovely appliquéd Christmas card here, as well as some flowers and a fall wreath.
• The Pea Patch has a cute little collection of appliqués including a basket of apples, a teddy bear and an angel.
• Quilter’s Cache has many, many quilt patterns of all types, but it also includes these pages that feature simple appliqué shapes like hands, rocking horses, houses, leaves, hearts, holiday shapes and more. Simply print them out, cut them out and use for your appliqué pattern.

Making Your Own Free Appliqué Patterns

If you want, you can also make your own appliqué patterns for free. That last site on the list there gave me some inspiration to think about things around the house you could use to make your own free appliqué patterns to use on quilts, shirts, pillows and more. Here are some of the ideas I came up with:

• Use cookie cutters to trace basic shapes like hearts, stars, flowers, Christmas stockings, whatever you have in the house.
• Look in your crafting books and magazines for images that could be copied and clipped. For instance a line drawing designed to guide the hand sewing of a quilt top might make a perfect design for an appliqué if you printed it out and connected the dots.
• If you have kids, let them draw something for you. In fact, a great craft would be to have each child trace his or her hand (or foot) each year and make a quilt for each child when they leave the house, or have each child make multiple handprints for a quilt or wall hanging that a grandparent would love.
• Look around and see what you have in the house. Knick-knacks, children’s toys, puzzle pieces and your craft stash are all potential sources of inspiration for your own free appliqué patterns.

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