Originally Posted by
joe'smom
Prism99, thank you for describing your process in detail. Maybe a silly question, but what is the advantage of having a stiffer applique piece? Does it stay in place better?
When you do machine applique it's best to have a stiff background; otherwise you are likely to get tunneling (especially if doing satin stitch) or distortion.
Think about appliqueing around a shape. When you sew on the lengthwise grain, the background fabric stretches very little, if at all. However, when sewing in a circle you will also be sewing on the crosswise grain and on variations of the bias. Fabric is stretchiest on the bias, and you will be sewing on the true bias 4 times going around a shape. In-between sewing on the true bias, you will be sewing on degrees of partial bias as well as on the crosswise grain and lengthwise grain. If the background fabric is not stiff, it will tend to distort a lot on the bias.
One method of stabilizing the background fabric is to use a stabilizer underneath. I eliminate this step by heavily starching the background fabric before cutting.
The first time I did machine applique I discovered the need to stabilize the background fabric. I was doing a large applique, and distortion shows up even more on large applique pieces. I didn't understand why, when I got to the end of my applique, I had a huge tuck in the background fabric and the piece wouldn't lie flat. It's because the background fabric had stretched along the bias directions when I sewed.