Australian Homespun — October 2017

separately) onto fusible web. Cut it

out roughly, fuse it to the wrong side

of the red, blue or grey fabric and cut

it out on the traced line.

15

Peel the backing paper from

the shape and fuse it in

position on the traced design.

Stitching and fi nishing

16

Using three strands of Black

(310), backstitch the outlines

and around the edges of the appliqué

shapes. Work French knots for the

eyes and droplets of water on the

elephant design.

17

Trim the fabric 1in by eye

outside the circles drawn

on the wrong side of the fabric.

18

Using a doubled length of

sewing thread, sew a line of

running stitch around the circles

about^1 ⁄ 4 in from the outer edges,

leaving long thread tails. Centre a

cardboard circle on the wrong side of

a stitched circle and pull up the ends

of the thread to gather the fabric over

the back of the cardboard tightly.

Make sure that the cardboard circle

is exactly on the marked circle so the

design is correctly positioned on the

front. Tie off the threads securely.

19

Allison says this is the tricky

part! For the optical illusion to

work so the images seem to combine

into one, you need to have the two

images facing in the opposite

directions – for example, if the

birdcage is the right way up on the

front circle, the bird on the back circle

should be upside down. Place the two

circles, wrong sides together, with one

image at 180 degrees to the other.

Insert pins at the side edges to join

them temporarily and spin them by

hand around the centre pins to

check that the images are correctly

positioned to create the optical illusion.

20

When the two sides are

correctly aligned, use

Steps 16-17 Step 18

ALLISON’S

VARIATION TIPS

Customise the puppet designs to

match your child’s family. Allison

embroidered a dog on the smallest

shape, but provided an alternative

cat design on the Pattern Sheet.

Or if the oldest child is a boy, not

a girl, re-scale the size of the

designs slightly to switch the sizes

of them – you get the idea. These

toys can all be simply embroidered

in one colour, or in various coloured

threads. The appliqué can be

omitted, but it does off er a big

pop of child-friendly colour.

Heart on

th e b a c k

Hand on

the front^01

PROJECT

Homespun 35

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