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This week we are going to cover Manual Applique, this technique can be reproduced for jobs in production without the use of an inline cutter. All you need is a pair of scissors and some patience. ( This technique is great for those who DO NOT have an i-iline cutter ) Requirements You will need the following to make a design like this. - 13-inch Hoop - some felt - some time - scissors - digitizing software. - Fabric temp adhesive Step 1 Digitizing the design. Load the design into your program, and plan the design from that point. I like to add the black background behind the applique letters, You can exaggerate the black lines as the layered applique will hide them, I would also do all the text at this point as well. Next, I would add the white, I would use either a run tool or a steel tool to track down the white material. Note you will need to make a separate file to cut the material out use the run from the applique to stitch the material out, and then cut it out by hand. I would then digitize the Florida Gator design. I would do the F first with a solid fill and then put the orange over top with a steel border around the F, the green, and then accent it with black. I would add your pull comp and underlay for the lettering and the gator at .01 percent, full lattice under the whole guy, and then a density of 65 spi. For those of you who do not have a digitizing program but would like to sew out this design, I have enclosed the design below. Step 2 Manually cutting the design out When you sew the first run down onto the material take your time with very sharp scissors and stay true to the line as close as possible, any deviations from the line may lead to gaps. Step 3 Hoop your Fabric When hooping the fabric it's tight enough for the fabric and applique. Step 4 Embroidery Start the embroidery the first color is black and then start the second, it should put down a white placement stitch. Use fabric temp adhesive to hold the fabric in place while the top stitches go down. Step 6 Finish the design Here is what my design looked like, I sewed this on an orange t-shirt, with cutaway backing and used felt for the applique material. This technique can be applied to a wide range of designs, but if you had to stitch out this design without the applique for a full sweater you would end up with 80-120 thousand stitches. Large designs can take a long time to sew out, applique can reduce this time as long as you can get the material cut into precise portions. I have recently started using flock cut on my vinyl cutter for applique and I have much-improved speed and consistency. it also allows for seamless conversion, I export the file or use the vector file.