My wife just recently bought the Esante Baby Lock sewing machine in hopes of being able to have the machine sew/stitch appliques onto baby onesies. However, she cannot seem to find an easy way to do this. For anyone familiar with sewing appliques onto clothing, how would you set up the process so the applique stitching does not stitch the onesie together? She has used a hoop to try and achieve this result, but this stretches out the clothing too much and is not acceptable.
Is there something that you can buy to put in between the front and the back of the onesie when sewing the applique on?
And you also need to be able to sew through a single layer of the garment. If you can't get to a single layer, the trick is to put the design on BEFORE sewing the garment pieces together. :)
Is it possible to open a side seam, sew on the appliqué, then serge the seam? Or; does your wife's machine have a free arm, and will the garment fit around it?
Other than that, I don't see a way of doing it on something as tiny as a onesie.
The Esante is an embroidery machine, right? I've done dozens of onesies, usually just embroidery but sometimes appliques. Mark the location of the design with a washable marking pen. Open the onesie at the bottom so you can reach the front. Hoop piece of Polymesh stabilizer nice and taut (I prefer Polymesh for baby clothes because it is very soft). After you have hooped the stabilizer, spray it with 505 adhesive spray (or equivalent). Gently place the single layer of onesie on the sticky side of the stabilizer, being careful not to stretch the onesie. Attach the hoop to the machine, carefully pinning the rest of the onesie so it won't get caught in the stitching. Note that a good rule of thumb is to use a cut-away stabilizer (like Polymesh) when embroidering on a stretchy fabric and a tear-away stabilizer on woven fabrics. After doing the embroidery/applique gently remove the clothing from the hoop and cut away most of the Polymesh. I usually leave
1/4-3/8" all the way around the design for support.
You'll find it easier to use the smallest size of hoop possible. Most of my onesies are made with a 2.5" hoop instead of my regular 4" hoop. It minimizes the amount of fabric I have to manipulate. I usually attach my hoop so that the hook is toward the snaps and just rotate the design in the machine. Also, be careful how big of a design you do. Onesies are pretty small and a big design can make them stiff on the baby.
Also, your sewing machine shop should have provided her with instructions. Make sure when she goes to class she asks these questions too. They may have another entire way to do this that I haven't thought of. If they do, make sure you post it!
Thanks so much for all the responses to the post by my husband! Its very cute to hear him try to describe what I am trying to do. Pam-thanks for all the step by step advice. It really helps. I did try it yesterday before your response using sticky stabilizer-which is pretty much what you described only you used spray adhesive. I kind of turned it inside out when I stuck it on. It worked great! After I applique the design, I add baby's name underneath--do I need to use any stabilizer on the top side for that? I have been using dissolvable stabilizer but maybe I don't need to on top?? Unfortunately the smallest hoop I have right now is 5 X 7 and all the smaller sizes are on backorder and I can't seem to find one online for the esante. It would definitely help having the smaller hoop.
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