Reverse Appliqué Sweatshirt

Reverse appliqué is basically sewing two layers of fabric together and then cutting a portion of the top layer away to reveal the fabric underneath. There are several variations of this technique. For my sweatshirt, I wanted to have the raw edge visible to pull off the handcrafted vibe I was going for. So that’s what we are going to talk about today.

I began by drawing out my design on my sweatshirt with a water-soluble marker. There are lots of downloadable files on the interwebs, or you can freehand your own design. Once you have your design planned out, you can begin deciding on fabric!

The most simplified version of this technique would be to find one solid piece of fabric that you like and use that as your underlayer (what will show through). I

tend not to do things the simple way ...whoops! It is important to note that your underlayer of fabric should be bigger than your final drawn design by at least 1/2” on all sides.

For my sweatshirt, I decided to hand stitch 1” hexies together. I am a big English Paper Piecing fan, and at the moment of making this, I was not able to do a lot of cutting, sitting at the machine, and pressing because of a back injury. So, having the ability to hand-stitch my pieces together was really nice!

I began by pulling a few scraps of my Tula fabric that I thought would pop against my sweatshirt color. Since my sweatshirt was pink, I leaned toward whites, greens/ teals, and purples. I took my paper hexies and laid them out on top of my sweatshirt design to see how many I was going to need, remembering the 1/2” overage. Then I began glue-basting my fabric to each of the hexies. Once I felt like I had a good arrangement of fabrics, it was time to get sewing!

Once all the hexies are sewn together and the papers removed, I gave it a good press to get those seams nice and flat. I placed the hexie blob (that’s a thing, right?) on top of my design so that everything was covered. I used pins to mark the edges of my hexies. Then, I very carefully flipped my sweatshirt inside out. Since I pinned at the edges of my hexies, I could now use those pins to reposition my hexies on the inside of my sweatshirt, with the right side facing down. This way, I’m certain that my hexies are centered and cover the entire design area.

I have a lot of hexies in my blob, and that means a lot of seams. I was a little bit concerned about how all of these seams and raw edges would hold up to washing and putting my sweatshirt in the laundry. I thought using some interfacing to cover the entire blob on the inside of my sweatshirt might help with this concern. It is also going to act as an adhesive to hold my hexies in place while I stitch. I cut a piece of interfacing larger than my hexie blob and adhered it to my hexies and sweatshirt.

Time to turn my sweatshirt right side out and start stitching! Originally, I thought I was going to use perle cotton to stitch my design. My thinking was that it would look a little cleaner and be a bit easier than a

6-strand embroidery floss. I didn’t end up liking the look of it after stitching a bit, so

I ripped it all out and restarted with some DMC embroidery floss. I used a running stitch to outline each of my letters.

Now, it’s time for the magic to happen. The most satisfying part of this project, the moment of transformation! It’s time to cut away the top layer of your design. I used small, sharp embroidery scissors to carefully snip a small hole inside one of my stitched letters. Once I had a starting hole, I could insert the top of my scissors and carefully cut away the top layer shape. You’ll want to be cautious not to cut into your hexie layer below and also not cut into the stitching. I tried to stay about an eighth inch from the stitches.

I knew once I had my design cutaway that, I wanted to add some additional embroidery around the outside of my design. I waited until the design was cut away so I could see which colors would show through and plan my floss colors to coordinate with the nearby areas. The sky is the limit here. There are so many types of stitches to choose from. I’m still new to embroidery and also wanted to keep it simple, so some cute flowers and french knots were the perfect choice for me.

Overall, reverse appliqué is a fun and rewarding technique that allows you to create unique and personalized designs on your clothing. It's more than just a sweatshirt; it's a canvas for artistic expression, a blend of technique, meditative stitching, and imagination. I hope you will try it out. Find the joy in creating and making something that is unmistakably yours.