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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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