Minkee Appliques
     Released November 14, 2008

by Barbara Hallum

Editor’s Note:  For those who don’t know what Minkee is, Minkee fabric
is produced by Benartex (site: http://www.benartex.com/)
please visit their site to see the wide variety of Minkee fabrics

Many people have asked me about the best way to embroider applique
animals or flowers for their grandchildren’s quilts. I have completed
quite a few of these designs and would like to share my suggestions
for a successful project.

I always cut all the Minkee at once, to the size of the design or hoop
for the set I am embroidering because Minkee is very flyaway when
cutting so it makes sense to cut it all at one time and avoid extra
clean-up sessions.

A rubber mat cleaner will clean the excess from your cutting mat. I
also wear an apron or a plastic hairdresser’s cape so I don’t get
Minkee all over my clothing.

Also, when the hoop comes off the machine, to make it easier for you
to stitch your satin stitch, trim your Minkee beforehand, then use a
lint roller or roll some packing or masking tape around your hand
(sticky side up) and use that to press lightly on the fabric to remove
Minkee bits, then follow through with your satin stitching.

Moving along, babies and toddlers love to touch the animals and feel
the different textures of the soft Minkee fabric.

Tips for using Minkee for appliques:

1) Choose applique designs with a very wide satin stitch on the edge

2) Stabilize your cotton base fabric with tear away or iron on stabilizer

3) While designs have a placement stitch and a tack down stitch, when
using Minkee for appliques, because it is stretchy, sometimes it is a
good idea to repeat the “tack down” stitch before trimming

4) Before placing the  minkee on the base fabric, spray a tiny bit of
505 spray on the back to guard against shifting

5) Cover the Minkee with a water soluble stabilizer (WSS - the type
used for FSL) ‘after’ stitching the tackdown stitch

6) Hold the WSS in place while the next stitch embroiders (to help,
you can opt to use a tiny bit of green painter’s tape on the edge,
just don’t stitch through the tape). WSS keeps the detail stitches
such as eyes, nose, mouth etc from sinking into the Minkee.

You may need to adjust the method a bit depending on how much detail
is involved in the center of the design.

7) Lastly, this is the sort of project that you do NOT want to walk
away from, therefore . . . never leave your machine when sewing the
design. The reason being because the film or the Minkee will sometimes
get caught in the embroidery foot and jam (ask me how I know LOL)
suffice to say, I just turned my back to get something one day and
that’s what happened.

Hope you find these hints helpful. My quilt was a big success with
little Riley, she loved to touch and feel the soft little animals.