Be honest. We all know the perfect person for the “Perfect Man” apron and that person may be either male or female! I’ve also stitched this on sweatshirts without the doily and every time I give one, I hear a chorus of “will you make me one too?”
Shown here, the project can be sewn in a 5x7” hoop with three hoopings. If you have a larger hoop, you can consolidate a few hoopings.
The doily is not embroidered, it is simply a purchased one that I’ve zigzag stitched with my sewing machine using invisible thread. To keep the project moving along quickly, I used a purchased apron, which you can find easily on-line.
There are four variations on the appliqué gingerbread guy design and there are variations of the lettering to include “The Perfect Woman.” Also, there is a version of the phrase that uses the word “grief” instead of “crap” for those sensitive to the latter word. (What can I say? I’m not…)
Skill Level
Basic embroidery skills.
What You’ll Learn
- How to plan and layout a multi-placement design project.
- How to appliqué using templates.
- What order to sew combined designs.
- Why you should avoid color sorting. Supplies
- Gingery Christmas design collection by Lindee G Embroidery
- Purchased or pre-made apron
- Purchased doily (can be any shape desired; mine is square). The large gingerman is about 4.5” tall so find one the size you like.
- Temporary embroidery spray adhesive (TESA)
- Scissors, sharp double curve embroidery scissors best
- Embroidery threads as desired for designs
- Mono filament thread to stitch doily to apron
- Fusible web product for appliqué (I prefer double-stick pressure-sensitive products like Pellon Easy Steam or Steam-A-Seam II)
- Printed templates from collection for selected appliqués
- Appliqué tacking iron
- Ruler
- Stabilizers: Tearaway (I used washaway tearaway because it isn’t as crisp so it rehoops better), fusible tearaway for template printing
- Chalk marker or other tool for temporary marking
- Embroidery software to print designs for placement
- Cellophane tap
General Instructions
These instructions assume you already know how to appliqué using the template method. If you’ve never done machine embroidered appliqué using precut pieces instead of stitching down a larger piece of fabric and then trimming it away (what I call the “blob” method), please read the included Appliqué Basics first! Applique Basics will cover how to prepare your appliqué pieces for use in this project as well as explain the full process for machne embroidered appliqué.
Project Instructions
1. Select designs and prepare.
Start your project by selecting the designs you’ll be using.
Print your embroidery designs from your software with cross hairs for placement. I printed mine in gray scale on a laser printer; you don’t need color for this step. Cut them out so they can be used for placement planning.
Print the appliqué template and prepare and cut out your appliqué design
2. Mark vertical center on apron.
Using your chalk marker and ruler, draw a line down the vertical center of your apron. I like chalk because it is fine enough, visible enough, and temporarily permanent enough for staying visible no matter how long it takes to complete the project while being easily removable when the time comes. Also, pressing with an iron does not impact its removability.
3. Plan placement and mark horizontal guides.
Arrange your cut out embroidery patterns along with your doily on your apron using the vertical line as a guide. You may wish to tape the templates temporarily at this point to keep them from shifting during the next step
Notice in the photo that the horizontal center of my ginger guy aligns with the horizontal center of the doily. Don’t be surprised if your doily is not perfectly symmetrical!
While you can combine designs in your software if you have a large enough hoop, I didn’t. I simply sewed each design individually as you’ll see in the next few steps. (It’s actually easier!)
4. Mark horizontal guides.
Using the cross hairs on the printed design patterns, draw horizontal lines with your ruler and chalk. Remove the pieces from your apron and connect the lines through the center.
5. Prepare the apron for embroidery.
Baste a large piece of stabilizer to the back of the apron using your sewing machine. This piece should be large enough to fully hoop with the apron and accommodate all the designs.
I used tearaway for easy removal. Although there is quite a bit of stitching, it is spread out over a wide area and there is no dense stitching. Also, purchased aprons are quite stable. If you are stitching on another fabric that may not be as stable, consider a different stabilizer.
6. Attach doily to apron.
There are several ways to attach the doily to the apron. I first fused the doily in place using fusible web and hen I zigzagged around the outer edge with my sewing machine using invisible thread in the needle. This gives the best of both worlds and keeps the doily looking sharp over laundering without eventually peeling off. You may choose to do one or the other, however, the fusible web may not fully secure the crocheted edges of the doily.
7. Position designs for this hooping.
Replace the templates you removed earlier and tape them into place, only using the ones that will fit your hoop. I have a fairly large hoop shown below and have arranged the top lettering and the ginger guy. The bottom lettering will be sewn in the next hooping and I’ll position that when ready.
If you have a 5x7 hoop, you’ll need to plan 3 hoopings and rotate the hoop for the center appliqué
8. Hoop for first stitching.
Center your hoop over the center of the design and hoop making sure the apron guides align with the center marks on your hoop.
To keep the ties from getting caught in the stitching. I’ve tied them up. You may also want to tape or pin them out of the way.
9. Turn on your appliqué tacking iron.
You’ll need your mini iron in just a few minutes. Turn it on now to make sure it is hot when you are ready to fuse the appliqué
10. Align needle over design center.
Load the ginger guy design and using the arrows on your machine’s control panel, move the hoop until the needle is over the center of the intersection. You can manually drop the needle and sink it into the paper to be sure.
Remove the ginger guy template before stitching!
11. Sew first color.
The first color in all of the gingerbread appliqués in this collection is the placement line, which is simply a running stitch to define where to put your pre-cut fabric. Notice in the photo below that the top lettering paper template is still in place
12. Place appliqué.
Remove printed template from front of appliqué piece and back protective sheet from fusible web. Carefully and precisely align the precut appliqué within the stitched guides.
13. Fuse the appliqué in place.
With your tacking iron, lightly fuse the appliqué into place to prevent it from shifting during the tack down stitching. I fuse the center areas more firmly and the outer edges lightly enough to be able to peel up in case I need to trim off any excess.
14. Continue sewing the tack down then stop machine.
I prefer to slow my machine down during this step in case there is any fabric slippage. The tack down stitch is a zigzag, which I feel secures the fabric better while avoiding any pleats and puckers that are more likely to occur with a straight running stitch tack down.
Manually stop the machine when the tack down has completed a full pass around the design.
15. Inspect your design.
Now is the time to check for any fibers that may have raveled off or for any fabric that extends beyond the outside edge of the zigzag stitching. Trim those off now for a professional result when the satin cover sews later. It is nearly impossible to cleanly trim them close enough later.
16. Align needle for lettering.
When the first design is finished, load the design for the top lettering and align the needle over the cross hairs on the paper template. Remove the template and sew the design.
17. Prepare second hooping.
Remove your project from the hoop and tape the template for the bottom lettering into place. Rehoop aligning the apron’s guide marks with your hoop’s center marks. Position the needle and sew the final design.
Because I have a large hoop, I was able to place the hoop so that the top was between my two areas of stitching rather than over previous stitching. Although the ideal position for sewing is the center of the hoop, I was not concerned about registration issues on the letter so chose this position to protect previous stitching.
If you watch the lettering sew, you’ll see that one line goes from left to right while the next goes back from right to left. Keyboard lettering does not do that but you can certainly digitize letters that way!
18. Embroidery is complete
Tips & Cautions
1. Do not color sort!
If you are combining designs in software or at your machine, you’ll get the best results if you sew each design individually. There are some machines that will automatically “color sort” designs for you at the machine and this “feature” cannot be overridden.
Color-sorting will look through your designs and combine repeated colors where it thinks it’s a smart thing to do. In my opinion as a digitizer, color sorting is seldom a smart thing to do because it can often increase registration problems while reducing finished quality. I’d rather spend a few extra minutes changing colors than end up with a project that I’m not happy with!
2. Sew larger designs first and lettering last.
Larger more intense designs put more distortion on the fabric and can pull the fabric out of square. If you sew lettering first, the baselines may end up crooked from all the pushing and pulling from the dense stitching. Although that’s not an issue in this project, it’s a good thing to know.
3. Sew from the center out.
You may already know this from quilting or other crafts. Working from the center of the project to the outside tends to reduce puckering. If you followed these instruction, you’ll notice we started with the ginger guy, who not only is in the center but is the largest element in the design. Again, not a big deal in this project but a useful tip in other ones with more intense designs.