hello Michael ting friends Leah day here
with a new quilting basics video today I
want to teach you how to turn a circle
applique how to basically take a square
of fabric and make it circular with a
beautiful perfect turned edge so let's
get started first creating a turning
template together the first step to
creating our circle is to create a
turning template and this is part of the
pattern the flower festival block to
pattern and I printed it out and double
check that that one inch square measures
one edge and I have printed this onto
freezer paper which will make creating
the template much easier so I'm taking a
piece of plain freezer paper and I'm
going to press this waxy side down onto
my pressing board I'm going to double
layer this template and what that's
going to do is just simply make it
thicker it's going to be easier to turn
my fabric and it's going to last I'll be
able to use this multiple times so press
that freezer paper down in place and
then now I'm going to top it with my
second piece of freezer paper and just
give that a good press you want to take
your time pressing this simply because
you don't want it to be wrinkly you
don't want there to be like air bubbles
and stuff trapped in it so take your
time and make sure these two pieces of
freezer paper are pressed really nicely
together and I am always pressing waxy
side down the cool thing about freezer
paper is that you can press it together
like this create a nice strong template
and then you'll still have a waxy side
which will work with your fabric so here
we go it's going to be really hot so be
careful
pull it up carefully and then now I'm
going to cut this out with scissors but
I want to be real careful to cut
smoothly I don't want a jagged edge so
the first thing I do usually is just cut
it out roughly because with all this
paper all around it can be really
challenging and cut smoothly so I'm
going to cut it out roughly and now I'm
going to really take my time and I'm
left-handed so that sometimes makes a
weird angle with my scissors apologize
if you can't see but what I'm doing is
I'm
taking very small steps and trying to be
as smooth as possible because when
you're turning a circular edge when
you're turning any kind of edge and
you're working with freezer paper this
way basically whatever that edge is is
what you're going to get so if you've
got kind of jagged crooked edges then
you're going to end up with a jagged
crooked edge in your fabric because
we're going to be pulling and turning
against this pretty tight so that's why
you can see I'm going really slow I'm
being really careful trying to stay
right on that line and also trying to
make it a smooth cut you know whenever I
open the scissors and bite off a little
bit more I'm trying to make that just a
real smooth transition so there is our
circle cut out you can see that nice
stiff template that we've created the
cool thing is if you're really wanting
to create a template and do lots of
things then you can double triple
quadruple layer freezer paper and make
it super thick and the thicker it is the
longer it lasts I've had turning
templates last through multiple quotes
sometimes so it really does work so I'm
going to take a square of fabric and I'm
just centering up my turning template
right in the middle and I'm just going
to press it's a hot dry iron I'm using
pretty much always use a hot dry iron
unless it's something very weird then
I'm using steam usually as a
manipulation of the fabric unless it's
something really weird like that I'm
always using a hot dry iron so now
that's pressed in place that's the cool
thing why I see side down you can see
that template sticks to the fabric so
it's going to hold in place it's not
going to shift or wiggle and I don't to
pin it it's just sticking in place
nicely and now I can turn those edges
against that template so what i'm doing
here is spraying a little bit of spray
starch my favorite brand of spray starch
and i'm spraying a little bit into a cup
and I'm going to grab a paintbrush I
know these are not your usual tools and
you're stewing
golding area but it really does
work so I just want to be able to
control the amount of starch that I'm
putting on the fabric and I'm only going
to paint on a little amount and I'm
working right on the edge of that
template and just painting on a bit
right there so now I'm going to fold up
the fabric and over the edge of the
template I'm going to grab my iron and
as I hit it with my iron you can see I'm
pulling up the fabric further down so
I'm slowly starting to make that turn
and I'm not worrying I actually want to
have lots of extra fabric out here so I
like it when I have extra you know I
don't even care that it's a square it
doesn't matter but the more fabric I
have the easier this will be to turn
because it really heats up here the
biggest thing that I see whenever
someone is having trouble turning an
applique the main reason is because
they've cut the fabric too short and
they haven't left themselves enough
fabric to actually turn that edge so you
want to leave whenever I cut a circle
out so this is a three inch circle I cut
out a square full inch bigger so this is
a four inch square we've cut here so now
I'm working my way around the edge of
painted-on a little bit more starch and
you can see I pull up the fabric against
it and then hit it with the tip of my
iron now it's interesting my dad has
been playing with this too and he
believes the hottest part of the iron is
back here in the back so he likes to use
the back of the iron I struggle with
that angle because I can't see maybe if
I was standing up I'd be able to see
that ankle better but I like the tip of
the iron because I can see what I'm
doing and make sure I don't burn myself
that too I don't really want to make a
mistake and burn myself so here we go
we're going to paint on a little bit
more starch and I'm just working my way
around this does require a little bit of
patience obviously it's a little slow
there are other methods certainly the
one thing I would say is if you get
impatient please do not go all the way
around with your starch because the
longer that your template Edge is wet
and has
the starch next to it the softer it's
going to become this is paper you know
it might be magical freezer paper but
it's not that magical so you really got
to watch out for how much you paint at
any given time so I only paint about an
inch inch and a half at a time and then
I press it flat and dry and that dries
the edge if you work all the way around
at once then basically that would be
setting and wet and softening up the
whole time that you're working and
probably by the time you got around to
that edge it would be too soft to turn
against you know this depends on the
template being rigid and holding its
shape so that way we can pull and tug
that fabric against it and then get that
nice creased turned edge so a few other
ways a few other methods that you can do
this if you don't like this method or
this just seems a little slow to you and
one method that I know is pretty popular
is to do a big wide basting stitch which
you know you could do that by hand or by
machine and you would then pull the
stitches and kind of tighten them up I
don't like that simply because you know
then I have to sit there and do the
stitches you know for some reason I like
painting starch more than I like that so
that's another method that you could
certainly try you could also just skip
this all together and fuse you know
press some fusible web to your square
fabric and then cut out your three inch
circle and that would be fine too
there's no wrong way to do it and if
there's certainly lots of methods open
to you when it comes to creating circle
appliques so there we go
that is what you're looking for you want
the whole edge nicely turn if you flip
it over you can see beautiful circular
shape that looks great so now I'm going
to take my scissors and I'm going to
trim this down to about a quarter of an
inch I feel a little bit bigger might be
a little smaller I'm not going to take a
ruler to it I'm just trimming it down by
eye and again you want this to be
relatively smooth
take your time no jagged edges okay
there we go and now I'm going to give
this one final press because when you
have all that extra fabric in there it's
sometimes hard to get it totally flat so
I sometimes just drag my iron across it
like that and I'll flip the whole thing
over and give it a press from the right
side now if you're worried about
something going shiny grab a little
piece of fabric you know some scrap
fabric put it over the top and that will
stop it from going shiny okay there we
go and now that's hot
I'm going to peel away that template and
just gently pull that away you can see
how easily it comes out you can
definitely use this again so say that
you could use that again and now I'm
going to turn these edges back inside
and give it another press now that it
has the template out of it it's just the
fabric and the starch holding its shape
and so then I'll flip it over make sure
that everything is laying down nice and
flat and give it one more press so as
you can see this is a method that
creates beautifully turned perfect
circle appliques and you can do this in
all shapes and sizes big circles small
circles it doesn't matter I use freezer
paper double it create a template and
then paint on starch carefully and turn
those edges and you're leaving yourself
a nice wide seam allowance a nice wide
edge around that fabric it'd be super
easy to turn so that's it for this video
I really hope that you enjoyed learning
how to make appliquéd circles with me
today if you have any questions about
this process please ask in the comments
below and if you have a method that you
like that you think works better you can
share that there too I love to know how
you make appliquéd circles if you
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coming out soon until next time let's go
quell