Sewing for Belegrim: How to Applique

Short of owning an embroidery machine, applique is one of the easiest ways to add more professional-looking interest to any part of your kit. If you don't know anything about it, it's the process of tacking down an attractive design made of fabric to other fabric to create intricate and beautiful things.

The master of applique in Belegarth right now is definitely Ellie Apland (who also supplies many wonderful pictures for this blog) of Lady Armstrong Designs. If you've never seen it, this is an example her work:

Lotus Tree Tunic for Sit Peter the Quick. Photo © Lady Armstrong Designs.

This short tutorial doesn't cover that level of sophistication, so I highly recommend commissioning her if you're looking for truly impressive garb. We're just going to be applying a bit of heraldry to a squire's tabard.

First off, get the piece you want to applique ready. Thin, non-slippery fabrics like cotton are great for this. In this case, we've done a little quilting to make Sir Torrence's heraldry (author of A Knight's View), and just turned the corners of the crest under to make sure it is the exact size we want. This will also make it easier to avoid stray threads during the applique process.

This isn't completely necessary, but double-sided fusible web like Steam-A-Seam makes applique much easier. It will stiffen the fabric you are appliqueing and help tack it down, so there's less room for air bubbles or slippage.

Trace and cut the fusible web, making it just slightly smaller than whatever you're appliqueing. You want to be sure the sticky web doesn't bleed out onto your iron later.

We'll be applying the web to the back side of the crest. Peel off one of the protective paper layers...

And iron the webbing in place, sticky side down, per the package instructions. Make sure everything is as flat and neat as possible.

Flip your applique piece over, remove the other protective paper from the sticky web, and place it where you'd like it to be tacked down. Iron per the package instructions - it should be attached fairly firmly by the time you're done.

Even though the web should keep the crest in place, I will often add a few pins just to be safe, especially if there are corners that didn't fuse well.

Now, just sew around the edges and you're done! A "satin stitch" is the most traditional method to finishing applique, but you can use almost anything depending on the look you're going for. My machine doesn't have a good satin stitch, so I just tightened up my zig-zag stitch until it looked about right. It isn't as perfect as it would be if my machine was designed for this, but that's hard to tell out on the field.

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Sewing for Belegrim: Double-Sided Tabards

Probably the most versatile and useful piece of garb I know of, the double-sided tabard is something always in my bag. It serves as emergency garb for newbies - just add a belt - and means I will always have marshal yellow on me. Everybody should own one.

That's all good, you think, but I hate working with bias tape on regular tabards and don't want to deal with that weird curve around the neck. Making one will take forever.

Not so! Here's a quick way to get a clean neckline with minimal effort. It looks great and means you'll only have to bias tape the straight outer edges, not the curvy neckline. The example uses a keyhole neckline, one that looks complicated but becomes simple with this method.

First, figure out the shape and length you'd like your tabard to be. We happened to have an old one that fit quite well, so we decided to trace it onto our duck cloth. The size you cut will be the actual size of the tabard. There are NO seam allowances with this method.

Cut out one layer of fabric along your lines. We each layer separately to make the lines more accurate.

Pin down the cut tabard to the other fabric, being sure to line up the fold, and cut the second layer.

If your pattern has shoulders to sew, do so with each type of fabric before this next step. If you don't care about a tapered shoulder, just use the natural fold in the fabric to make the process easier.

Now it's time to draw your neckline on the "wrong" side of your fabric. Like when we were drawing the tabard, there is no seam allowance, so make it true to size. Be sure you draw both the front and back.

Layer the two fabrics together and pin in place around the neckline you drew. If you have any seams, such as for the shoulders, make sure you're putting right sides together as shown above.

Sew along the line you drew, following the entire neckline. In the picture above, we've already begin cutting back the neckhole a little - normally it would be solid white.

Cut out your neckhole close to the seam. As you can see here, our front and back of the neckline are very different, but they're connected by a continuous seam. You'll also want to trim any particularly long loose threads.

If you have any corners in your neckline, be sure to clip them. Basically, cut in close to the corners (be careful not to cut the stitching) so you can turn it inside out more easily. If you need more help, here's a guide with photos.

Pull one layer of fabric through the neckhole. This is how we're going to get the nice clean edges on the outside.

Take your time to push out any corners you have, creating a clean neckline as shown above. Once you are happy with it, you can press the seams.

Check the other side as well. Now all you need to do is add a quick line of bias tape around the edge and you're done!

It doesn't fit! What now?

Don't fret if you find your neckhole is too small on your first attempt. Just flip the tabard so the side with the stitching is out again, and sew a bigger neckhole outside the first. You can even just cut out the first line of stitching, no seam ripping required.

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Sewing for Belegrim: Basic Bias Tape Techniques

One of the most basic things you can do to make your garb look better in Belegarth is bind it with bias tape. It's an easy way to create color combos and finish raw edges without turning them under. You can even make it match your colors perfectly by making it from left over fabric instead of buying it.

Although the basic concept of "wrap and sew" is very simple, many Belegrim don't know enough about bias tape to make sharp corners or finish their piece without having an unfinished bit of bias tape at the end. To make your bias tape experiences a little better, here are a couple of the most important techniques you'll need for a clean, polished look.

 Choosing the right bias tape

Extra wide, double fold is the right stuff. This is what I usually get at my local sewing store. You'll probably see a lot of single fold while you're at the store - don't get it for finishing edges or you'll be in for a huge headache!

Clean Corners 

When I get close to a corner, I like to put a pin in about an inch from the end.  This helps me maneuver through the next steps without the bias tape falling away from the fabric edge.

Note that I've turned the bias tape inside out here because I'm going to be folding down that corner. There are two straight lines you'll want to see: the tacked end of the bias tape should extend straight out as far as it will go, and the free end should lie flush with the edge of the fabric.

When I fold it down, it makes a nice sharp point. You'll probably need to play with the corner a little to get it to lie exactly how you want it, but it should be close.

Make sure you catch the corner when you pin or it will come undone.

After you pin, check the other side to make sure its point looks nice, too. You may need to remove the pin and adjust.

When you sew, try to keep at least 1/8"-1/4" from the unfolded edge of the bias tape to make sure you sew all three layers: the front bias tape, the fabric, and the back bias tape. When you reach the corner, carefully remove the pin and stitch until you just catch the crease in the corner. 

Leave your needle down in the fabric. Most modern machines have a button for this, but you can also crank the needle manually.

Raise your presser foot and rotate your sewing 90 degrees with the needle still down. Once you've realigned, lower the presser foot and finish sewing.

The finished corner, front and back.

Finishing off a bias taped edge

You MUST leave a tail of unstitched bias tape when you start sewing it down to use this technique. I usually try to leave a long-ish tail of a few inches to make things easier.

We're going to pretend I just finished wrapping around an entire tabard and have finally met up with my original tail. I don't want it to be obvious where I started and stopped stitching, so I'm going to use a little trick so there's no excess hanging out.

Unfold the outer layer of bias tape, leaving the center line against the fabric.

Fold the upper corner under, until the raw edge of bias tape is flush with the lower side. It should make a 45 degree angle as shown above. You may want to crease this hard - we're going to be sewing along this line.

Gently slide your hand under where you just folded and grab that corner you along with the lower piece of bias tape (the tail you left at the beginning). You'll be pinching the raw edge of the upper piece of bias tape and the side of the lower piece of bias tape.

Very gently, pull. It will look kind of weird at this stage, but that's okay.  Make sure that you're pinching tightly so neither end of bias tape is able to slip. If it does move, you'll want to go back a few steps and try again. It's very important the bias tape doesn't move too much, so it lays flush in the end.

Lay flat. You'll notice the two pieces of bias tape now sit perpendicular to one another with their folded sides together. You may not be able to see it here, but that top piece still has the crease at a 45 degree angle on it that we're going to stitch along.

Stitching along the line. You can use pins to hold it in place or mark it if you aren't confident you can stitch corner to corner freehand.

Trimming off the excess. You'd normally want to clip the dangling threads here as well.

Flattening it out, we can see that angle we just sewed, now combining the two pieces of bias tape.

A perfect fit and a clean edge.  Just clean up your threads, sew it down, and no one will ever know where you started and stopped your bias tape.

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