Thread: mixing hand and machine appliqué on fusible raw edge?

Hi people, I am currently constructing a church banner that will be about 6 x 9 feet in size. The base fabric is an array of rays that converge under the center of a celtic cross. I have constructed two portions that will make up the right sided corners, and I have also applied letters and a celtic spiral braid that are on the interior of the rectangle of the banner. I am using a fusible-web raw edge technique as too many of the curves were too sharp to used a bias tape. My question is this: I have used a machine blanket stitch around the edges of the flowers and thistles that make up the larger corner pieces, but as I have stitched these separate pieces that will be appliqued to the banner, I am realizing that I will not be able to do a neat job on the lettering and spiral and other portions of the banner. I think I will need to hand stitch the raw edges down due to the large size and mass of the banner. Will this be ok to use both machine stitching and hand stitching that is visible to the viewer? I think I will be fighting the mass of the banner in turning tiny curves around and around, as in the letters, and I think it will look far messier than if I hand stitch them down. I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks! Carolyn

Whether or not you can hand stitch through the fusible probably depends on the brand and type of fusible you have used. You may want to do a test swatch and see if you can hand stitch through it.