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Appliqué:
Reverse Appliqué (25.01.2009)

Occasionally some parts of an appliqué motif need to be placed behind all others. That is when you use reverse appliqué.

Example: bird house entry hole:

Have a look at the drawing. It is obvious - the black circle lies behind the wall of the bird house. If the circle were placed on top, it wouldn't be a hole, but a kind of protruding button. Not so great for the tit.

Therefore, proceed as follows:

1. Mark the hole on the bird house fabric. Cut it out, adding a seam allowance on the inside, as shown above.		2. Put a piece of black fabric behind the hole and appliqué the wall onto the hole.

Advanced Version

For an even more three-dimensional appearance we can add a moon shape on the left. In reality, it is closer to you than the darkness therefore it is placed on top of the black shape.

1. On the fabric for the moon mark only the line that will later be visible through the hole. Extend the line a little and cut out adding seam allowance.		2. Appliqué the moon only along the inner curve of to a piece of black fabric. 3. On the resulting piece lightly mark the complete circle for the bird house entrance and position it carefully behind the hole in the wall fabric.		4. Appliqué and you are done.

Appliqué the wall and roof, decorate and you are done. The tit may move in.

Of course you can use this method also when appliquéing by machine.
In principle you can also reverse appliqué the entrance hole after you have already sewn the bird house wall onto the background fabric.

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