Blissed out : Appliquéd Sweater

I've had this sweater for ages and although I love the color and style, I don't wear it very often because it's well, a bit revealing! It's fairly tight fitting and low cut - so I always feel too overexposed and dolly Partonesque -not that I can compete size wise but they boobs are just a bit too 'out there' if you know what I mean! (I was going to include a picture of me wearing it at this point but decided against!)

So I originally thought I'd just put a bit of trim at the front to reduce the 'in your face' ness of the whole thing but then I thought it was a bit plain and could maybe do with a bit of a lift. The Broiderie Anglaise was really pretty so I thought I'd make a bit of a flower design using it.

I cut the trim into 9 triangles and placed them on the sweater in a circular shape.

These form the petals of the flower and I pinned them individually so that they would stay in place.

Then I took some Stitch and Tear and placed a piece a bit larger than the flower shape on the underside.

I used the same pins that were holding onto the flower 'petals' to pin it in place (that way, I can see all of the pins and won't be in danger of sewing over them with the machine.)

Stitch and tear is fantastic and I'd say essential if you want to sew into knit or woolen fabric. It holds it all in place so that your sewing machine doesn't stretch or eat the fabric and means that your sweater won't get pulled out of shape and your appliqué or embroidery will stay the shape you intended.

I used the appliqué stitch on my sewing machine but you could use a zig zag just as effectively. I sewed around each petal individually, pivoting the needle on the corners so that you can turn neatly (to pivot, simply leave the needle in the fabric, lift up the presser foot with the needle still in the fabric and turn the fabric so that you're facing a new direction.)

Rather than backstitching, I left long tails on all of the beginnings and ends and tied them in on the wrong side so that it was neat and out of the way.

Then came the fun bit! I love the tearing of the Stitch and Tear - you simply tear away the bits outside of your design to create a neat edge. Because of it's papery texture you should be able to do this quite easily.