"Bone Broth For the Little One" Tutorial Series ~ #1 ~ Gathering Materials and Getting Started

Bone Broth For the Little One ~ How To Make This Project

~ Getting Started ~

It is easy to machine applique this design to make this pillow.

This is Part 1 of a series of tutorials on how to make this applique block and pillow. 

I am designing these tutorials to help Baby Yoda Fans 

who may want to have one of these pillows but are not sure where to start. 

The first thing you need is the pattern.

Bone Broth For the Little One by Me & My Girl Designs

It is free for personal use and may be downloaded in the above link.

There are nine sheets in this pattern.

There is a cover photo of the completed pillow project, 

three information sheets, a full color layout sheet,

three printable applique pattern sheets

and a black and white layout sheet numbered in order to fuse the applique pieces. 

When printing this pattern, 

it is very important to set your printer to print to actual size.

Printer settings may say "no scaling" or "print actual size" or a variation of this.

To check that you have printed the applique pieces to actual size,

a 1" square appears on each printable pattern sheet.

Check this with your cutting ruler grid for accuracy

before using pieces. 

You will need a sewing machine with a straight stitch
and either a zig zag or blanket stitch.
You will need basic sewing tools like a cutting mat, cutting ruler,
rotary cutter, sharp scissors and an iron and pressing mat.

Read the fabric requirements on page two and

then gather your fabrics for the entire pillow cover project ... 

and other supplies. 

I used Pellon Fusible Fleece to back my pillow pieces.

This is available wherever fabrics are sold, sometimes on the bolt,

or in packages like this via Amazon.

I also use Heat n Bond EZ Print Lite to print my applique pattern sheets 

with my HP OfficeJet Pro printer. 

I saves having to cut and trace the applique pieces.

This is also available anywhere quilting supplies are sold, including Amazon. 

These are the fabrics I picked from my stash to make the applique block.

It combines solids, prints, wovens and even a metallic print

for adding textural and visual interest to the design.

I always cut my background fabric oversized.
For a 12" finished block, I cut a 14" square.
This allows for easy squaring and cutting down to size
 before sewing into my quilt or project.

Since I designed as I went along on this project
and I knew I wanted a pillow cover for an 18" pillow,
I cut my background to 20" square and centered my applique.

To find the center before fusing my first pieces,
I fold my background square in quarters
and press the center with my iron.
This temporary crease will disappear when I fuse my applique pieces.

These are the fabrics and my printed applique sheets.

I like to leave a paper border around my pieces and cut them to size after I fuse

so that I have a nice clean edge to my applique pieces.

This photo also shows that you must fuse the applique shapes 

to the back of your fabric.

In the case of solids and these solid wovens 

there is no intelligible difference from back to front of the fabric. 

My pink is a solid.

 My green is a printed "shabby" type fabric so it has a front and back.

Fuse by following the manufacturer's recommended settings and directions

for your chosen fusible.

I use a dry iron set to high and press and hold for 10-15 seconds,

starting in the center and slowly moving and holding my iron as I go outward.

I check to make sure all my edges are well fused.

and let my fabrics cool. 

I fused these three large pieces and went to my sewing machine.

I try not to leave my iron in one place for too long so as to not scorch my fabric.
If you are new to this and get a brownish scorch stain, do not get upset.
It happens to everyone sometimes.
You may have to cut new pieces,  but try this first ...

I keep a few of these near my sewing machine.
Put a folded paper towel or scrap fabric under the scorch mark
and wipe with one of these a few times and see if it lifts the stain.
Good cotton quilting fabric is  easy to work with but it is also tough stuff.
Use good quality fabrics, bought from a quilt shop and shop the sales.
You will want your project to last and wash well. 

Before stitching my applique block, 

I always make a "practice" piece for testing my threads and stitches.

I use scrap pieces cut off the edges of my fused applique sheets. 

I use a machine blanket stitch for most of my pieces.
Many quilters prefer a zig zag stitch,
which I use sometimes for smaller pieces.

My machine is a ten year old Janome Memory Craft 6600p

and this is my usual applique setting for cotton fabrics.  

I will set the stitch smaller for the smallest pieces.

This test piece was especially important this time for me because it is the first time I have appliqued a woven fabric, which is thicker and inclined to fray. 

I started by quilting the large robe piece which was a cotton woven,

the kind of soft natural fabric I think a Jedi might wear. 

I stitch very slowly to ease around the curves.

My machine has a speed set and a push button start and stop

 which I love as it makes for very consistent stitching.

For a foot pedal, just ease your foot down to go slow. 

The next applique pieces I fused and stitched were the collar and the bowl.

The arms and eyes are not fused in this photo, but I used them to help
with the placement of the soup bowl. 

This is the end of Part 1 of this how to tutorial series.

If you have any questions please email me 
at scrapatches@gmail.com

For Part 2 ~ The Fine Details of the Applique ~ Click Here

Part 2 shows how I made the eyes and added the stitch details for the head.

My first quilts were made on a very basic sewing machine with a foot pedal
and I learned to quilt them on my small machine myself.
My tutorials show what works for me.
Adapt this info to find what works for you.

If you have foot pedal machine and have never done machine applique before, 

make a few  practice pieces to get used to your eye and hand and foot coordination.

Relax and you will have fun. 

Always follow your own quilty muse in your happy sewing place.

I hope you are enjoying these tutorials.

More Tomorrow ... :)