Designing the Image

I wanted top to go with my draw string pants I made in class, so I kept some scraps of the green and while polka dotted fabric to do something with.

I got my hands on a book about applicae and thought this would be a good idea (Oh, the folly). Without a serger, I didn't want to attempt a T-shirt, so I picked up a blank one to start with.

I wanted a sleepy owl as my image. I took a piece of paper and folded it in half length-wise. I traced out a picture on paper with a pencil, using the fold as my center guide. I have a habit of getting half of the picture right and the other half lop-sided. So I folded the image back on itself along the fold, splitting the image into half. I picked the side that looked the beck and traced it in thick marker, which bled through to the other side. I used this to make a final image that was two mirrow images of the best half together. This also makes sure that my image was symmetrical.Designing the Image

Assembly

I assembled the appliqué on a thin piece of muslin. I used cotton from Joanne's, which seemed to fray as soon as you cut it. I would cut the pieces out with a piece of iron-on interfacing and iron the pieces to the muslin. I was going to satin stitch over the pieces, so the frayed edges wouldn't show.

The open eyelid was made of a think strip of fraying edge. I used a three-step zig-zag to stabilize the edge against further fraying, and folded it in half and stitched the folded ended under. I only attached this at the stop with a satin stitch.

However, for the tummy and face I wanted to use a blanket stitch to give it more of a "feathers" look. So I cut those pieces out with a quarter inch extra allowance. Then I took a matching thread and did a straight stitch around the allowance. I then cut the edges like I was making a dart around the edge up to the stitch. This allowed me to folded the quarter inch under and the straight stitch kept me from getting little points and puckers.

For the green edges, I used a variegated thread, which I never had a use for before. This created green stripes that went well against the polka dots.

Attaching

I didn't satin stitch any of the external lines. Instead, I cut the muslin back about a quarter of an inch from underneath the top fabric. I then fused the entire thing to the T-shirt. Then I did the edge satin stitches to the T-shirt.

Pompom

What is a night cap without a pompom? Well I could be a drink. I made a small woollen pompom and hand stitched it to the end of the Sleep Owls night cap.