Because knits don’t fray like wovens, appliqueing with them is really easy! Here are the few things that you need to get started: a fabric that you’d like to applique, a fabric cut to applique on and a lightweight iron-on adhesive product like HeatnBond Lite (you want one that says it’s “sewable”).
Begin by using a washable marker to outline the sections that you’d like to cut out of your applique fabric.
Trim down your applique fabric so you have just a little extra left outside of the actual applique outlines, and cut out a piece of iron-on adhesive the same size as the applique fabric you have left.
Iron the applique fabric to the iron-on adhesive.
Cut out your appliques. (I cut just inside the washable marker.)
Peal the backing off of the iron-on adhesive.
Decide on the position of your appliques keeping the seam allowances in mind. (This is the side panel from the vertical colorblocked Charlie Tee, so it has a 1/2″ seam allowance.) You’ll see here that I decided after laying them out that I needed an additional smaller applique at the top to balance things out.
Iron the applique on to the main fabric. (If you’ll be overlapping them a bit like mine, start with the one on the bottom of the overlapping.)
Now just stitch around the applique. I generally keep my stitching about 1/8″ to 1/4″ from the edge. I intentionally did these a little messy, and I love the look!
Add a few more, if you’d like.
Finish sewing your item and admire your work!
