I love hand applique and I am good at it. Be sure that you are only leaving about 1/8" seam allowance or smaller and clip your curves. When appliqueing I will baste the pieces to the background to avoid having to use pins. Then I only work on a small section at a time. I cut a little, sew a little. My big tip to you is to keep a flat toothpick in your mouth as you are sewing. Then I use the wet toothpick to grab the fabric and turn it under. It helps so much with getting a smooth edge because you can manipulate the fabric with the toothpick easily. Try it, I bet you will find it so useful. Good luck! Also, fabric plays a part here. Batiks are hard to applique, not good for it at all (I never use them) and then again some fabrics have a loose weave and they are not good either because they fray easily. The more you applique the more you will see the difference in fabrics.
Last edited by Donnamarie; 09-19-2013 at 05:47 AM.