Appliqué

Appliqué fills a shape with a piece of fabric instead of thread. The machine sews a line where the fabric goes, stops while you lay it down, stitches it in place, and covers the raw edge with satin.

It works on a closed shape (Oval, Polygon, Star, or a closed Draw path) and on words in a digitized font. Line and Curve cannot hold fabric until you use Convert to Outline. A bought letter alphabet cannot be appliqué, because it sews its own stitches.

Turn it on

Fill has three chips: Off, Thread, and Appliqué.

1. Select a closed shape.
2. Under Fill, click Appliqué.
3. Under Cover, pick the Cover thread. Every step of the appliqué sews in this thread.
4. At the bottom of the fabric settings, pick a Fabric colour so the hoop shows the fabric you will use. It is never sewn.

While Appliqué is on, the Border section becomes Cover. Click Thread to go back to a thread fill. The shape gets back the fill type it had.

What the machine sews

The steps always run in this order:

1. A placement line along the edge.
2. A stop: lay the fabric over the line so it covers it.
3. A tack-down just inside the edge to hold the fabric.
4. A second stop, only with Trim in the hoop: trim the fabric close to the stitching.
5. A satin cover over the edge.
6. The inner line, if you chose one.

In words, every letter shares the same stops. Each stop happens once for the whole word, not once for each letter.

Fabric, cutting, and edge

Setting	Choices	What it does
Fabric	Cotton, Felt, Twill, Vinyl	Cotton and Twill fray, so a zigzag holds the edge before the satin covers it. Felt and Vinyl do not fray, so a running line holds them.
Cutting	Trim in the hoop, Pre-cut pieces	Trim in the hoop stops twice: once to lay the fabric, once to trim it. Pre-cut pieces stops once, to lay a piece you cut beforehand.
Edge	Smoothed, As drawn	Smoothed cleans spurs, slivers, and notches too fine for the cover off the fabric edge. As drawn follows every detail of the outline.

A new appliqué starts as Cotton, Trim in the hoop, and Smoothed.

Cover width and inner line

Cover width is the satin over the fabric edge, 1.5 to 6 mm. The fabric sets it until you change it: 3 mm for Cotton, 3.5 mm for Twill, 2.5 mm for Felt and Vinyl. A wider cover hides more of the raw edge.

1. Drag Cover width toward Narrow or Wide, or type a value in mm in the box.
2. Click Use the fabric's width to go back to the fabric's own width.
3. Under Inner line, choose None, Fine line, Bean, or Satin.
4. Type how far inside the cover the inner line sits, in mm. It starts at 1.5 mm.

The inner line is a second outline inside the cover, sewn last in the cover thread.

If a piece is small for its cover, little fabric shows. The sew order in Simulator shows a note: make the piece larger, or use a thinner cover.

Check it in Simulator

Simulator pauses at each stop, the way the machine will.

1. Click Simulator, then Play.
2. At each stop, read what to do in the Simulator bar.
3. Click Play to go on.

The fabric appears on the hoop once the needle reaches the first stop. More on playback: Simulator.

At the machine

The machine file saves each stop as a change to the same thread, so every format keeps it.

1. After the placement line, lay the fabric over it so it covers the line, then start the machine.
2. After the tack-down, take the hoop off without unhooping the fabric, trim close to the stitching, put the hoop back, and start the machine.
3. With Pre-cut pieces, there is only one stop: lay your piece on the placement line, then start the machine.

Keep the same thread in at each stop. The cover and inner line sew in it too.

Cut file for a cutting machine

When the design has appliqué, Export adds an Appliqué cut file: a true-size SVG of the fabric pieces for Cricut, ScanNCut, and other cutting machines, with Mirror for fusible web. Steps are in Export to a USB stick.

Notes

• Underlay and Stitch order path do not change an appliqué. The placement line and tack-down hold the fabric, and the steps always sew in the order above.
• Where the appliqué falls in the whole design is set in The Objects list.
• For appliqué letters, use a digitized font: Lettering.