Applique fabric selection

Selecting the fabric for the tree was pretty straightforward, but choosing the possum fabrics took a while longer. I really wanted to get the right part of each fabric for each piece, to help make the possum more realistic.

So, out came Possum Magic (my initial design reference) for colour and shading assistance, as well as my drawing. I traced the shapes onto Lite Steam-a-seam2 and trimmed them neatly, then traced second copies onto tracing paper, and cut these out quite roughly. I should add here that I am using the Mont Marte tracing paper I mentioned a while ago, which is very strong and rather like vellum - but still cheap.

I used the tracing paper pieces to selet which part of the fabric would work best for each piece - I'd already done the body (the hole you can see above), and this is the shoulders/arms section. I wanted darker arms, but lighter in the centre, where it should blend with the light body. I pinned the heavily-traced piece in place, then turned it over on the lightbox, using the tracing paper piece to help position the steam-a-seam correctly on the reverse of the fabric. I pressed it on with the palm of my hand to hold it until I could steam it on permanently. Then I just removed and discarded the tracing paper.

Then I went to find a nice red for the strawberry, and remembered this print! The original strawberry on the steam-a-seam is a btu uner 1/2in tall, and the small ones on the fabric will be close enough in size to work - perfect!

The next step is to carefully position and layer all the pieces correctly, then remove the upper layers while I fuse and applique the first ones, and accurately reposition the subsequent layers when I'm ready to add them.