Cutting Leaves for Applique
 

I'm new to applique. I'm going to try the dryer sheet, cut slit, turn method.

Should I trace and sew leaves on the bias, or does it matter with this method?

It shouldn’t matter. You could tilt them a little as you trace them. Having no idea what kind of leaves you are tracing it’s really hard to know if it would make a difference.

Thanks for your reply. The leaves are only 1.5 inch wide by 2 inch tall finished.

Dryer sheets aren't woven, so they don't have a bias. The dryer sheet acts as a stabilizer, so it shouldn't matter which way the leaves are placed on your fabric.

When I did this, I layered a whole dryer sheet and the fabric cut the same size.

Then I traced the leaves in all directions to get the most I could on the fabric, making sure to leave a little space around each leaf, then sewed around each leaf before cutting them apart. (The dryer sheet and fabric were stacked, so sewn together and cut apart at the same time. I hope this makes sense).

I used lots of different colored fabrics and lots of dryer sheets for different colored leaves. I did this with non-woven stabilizer before I did it with the dryer sheets. They both worked pretty much the same.

I have a scan n cut, so my next experiment will be to use the cutter with this method.

Thanks, mindless, very helpful info.

I wasn't familiar with using dryer sheets for applique. I think I'll try it. Thank you for mentioning this.