Cute Cottage Door Hanger Tutorial + How to use applique templates.

So today I have a 2-in-1 project for you ... a tutorial to make the cute door hanger shown above + how to make your own applique using templates.  As you know my tea time mug rug tutorial PDF comes with applique templates, and I have been meaning to post a detailed tutorial on how to use those templates, just in case you do not know how.

The steps below are also the same method I have outlined in my  Patriotic Stars Hand Towel project as well .. but I do not have any pictures in that tutorial with how to make the applique, so if you are a visual learner hopefully this tutorial will help. 

As a bonus this project also uses osnaburg, which I blogged about yesterday.

Let's get started!

Cute Cottage Door Hanger Tutorial + How To Make Applique

Supplies:

• House Applique Template HERE
• Scraps of quilting weight cotton
• Heat n' bond lite
• 2 pieces of osnaburg cut to 7" each
• 1 Piece of ribbon that measures around 12" long (width is not that important)
• Polyfill stuffing
• Marker or pen (to trace template)
• Scissors to cut applique (or a rotary cutter)
• An Iron
• Basic sewing supplies

Optional: Other embellishments like buttons, or embroidery floss.
Note: 1" = 2.54cm

Directions:

1. Print out your house applique template with the printer scaling set to "none".

2. Take your heat and bond lite, and place it over your house template with the paper side up, and trace the template with a marker or pen.  If you need additional light, you can place the template and heat and bond lite over a light source (such as a light box, door wall, piece of glass with light under neath, etc).  Make sure you leave space between the designs.

My tracing was rather poor, but I knew that I would be using a rotary cutter to cut out most of these pieces, and knew I could use a ruler to straighten the sides up.  If you are not using a rotary cutter, and had too much caffeine like I did (thus producing a shaky hand), I would suggest tracing the template using a ruler.

3. Roughly cut out each design.  You will cut through the paper layer, and the fusible layer at the same time.  Leave around 1/4"-1/2" around each design.

4. Get out your cotton scraps.  Place the fusible (adhesive side down) against the WS of a fabric scrap, and fuse the heat and bond lite to the fabric using an iron.  The directions on the heat and bond lite will tell you to use an iron setting of  "silk", but I have found the "cotton setting" to be more effective when fusing heat and bond lite to cotton or linen.   Allow to cool.

As you can see, I used 5 different prints, but feel free to use more or less.

5. Cut out all of your pieces of applique using a pair of sharp scissors (THESE are my fave) or a rotary cutter along your traced lines.

The fabrics I used are as follows: Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 for the roof, Annies Farm Stand for the house, Tanya Whelan Delilah for the door, and DS Quilts picnic for the windows.

6. Get out your piece of osnaburg. Remove the paper backing from the house piece, and the roof piece.  Place the fusible side down, and fuse using your iron.

7. Layer the other pieces on top of the house ... the windows, the door and the chimney following the same method as above ... remove the backing, lay the fusible side down and press.  Pay special attention to the chimney ... see how it ended up being a reverse of what was on the printed out template?  If you are using a template for something like a letter, you will want to reverse it before you trace it so that it will appear to be going the right way in your finished project. 

8. Because heat and bond lite is not a permanent fusible, we will now need to sew our applique pieces in place to make the bond permanent.  There are a lot of choices here in terms of what stitch you can use .... you can use a satin stitch, a tight zig zag stitch, a blanket stitch ... or just a simple straight stitch.  The regular straight stitch on my machine is what I use most for applique.  I like the look of the exposed raw edges, and with the combination of using a short stitch setting, the fusible underneath, and applique designs that are mostly cut off grain, I have not found excessive fraying to be a problem.   So go ahead, and choose the stitch you like best, and sew around each applique piece.  I try and sew as close to the edge as possible ... but just do what you are most comfortable with, and take your time.  Press to set the stitches.

Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end.

9. Add some embellishments if you want.  Because the heat and bond lite is in fact light (and not heavy as a permanent fusible would be), it is not difficult to sew through.  So this little house is perfect to add on hand embroidery, buttons, etc. Get creative.  I just drew on some swirls by the chimney (using a water soluble marker), and stitched over them using a running stitch.  I then sewed on a shell button for the door knob, and washed off the water soluble marker. 

10. Take your ribbon and fold it in half.  Center the ribbon along the top raw edge of the osnaburg, and allow the raw edges of the ribbon to hang past the osnaburg a bit.  Sew in place using a 1/8-1/4" seam.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo of this step, but see below for my rough sketch of this step.

11.  Place your two pieces of osnaburg RST (with the ribbon sandwiched between the two pieces), and sew around all four sides using a 3/8" seam.  Leave a 4" opening along the bottom. Press your seams to set the stitches.

12. Turn right side out, and use some sort of a pointy object to push the corners out.  Press again.  Stuff  with polyfill (do not overstuff, as this will distort the cottage image, and also make the next step more difficult).

13. Now close the opening ... you can slip stitch the opening shut, or do like I did and topstitch it closed.  I top stitched it closed by first pinning the opening shut, then I top stitched around all 4 sides using a 1/8"-1/4" seam.  As you sew around all 4 sides, you can just push the polyfill  away from the presser foot to make this step easier.

All done!  This project is versatile in that you can use it as a door hanger, a decoration that you hang up, an ornament ... or leave off the ribbon and use it as a drawer sachet filled with potpourri.  You can also use the house applique template on other projects like pillows or place mats.   If you don't have time to make your own cute cottage door hanger, you can find my sample listed in my shop.

Enjoy!

P.S. I thought of some other creative ideas for this project ... you could use spooky colors to make this a Halloween decoration, or other holiday inspired colors to celebrate any other holidays that are coming up.  I also thought this would be a cute decoration in a little girls's room, although depending on the age, I might make the ribbon a bit shorter. 


UPDATE: Looking for more applique tips?  Check out my post HERE.