Novelty fabric is often chosen when making quilts, or just purchasing small fabric quantities for crafting. Novelty fabrics, sometimes called conversational prints, are often a cotton or cotton blend and differ from traditional printed cottons with their identifiable themes, licensed sport, college, team images, horses, whimsical sea, safari, tropical animals, cars, and so many more graphic artistic illustrations.

Often printed with back-to-school themes useful for lunch bags, smocks and aprons, with popular iconic superheroes, fanciful fairies, butterflies and bugs, cats and dogs, wilderness and jungle animals, trains, planes, cars, nautical or sports themes and so much more that are great for easy-to-sew totes, or nursery themes for baby items. Colorful seasonal, Christmas and folk themes are popular with appealing vintage designs trendy too. GotFabric.com has a variety of projects suitable for novelty prints.

The novelty prints frequently have easy to cut-out shapes, like balloons, jungle animals, pets, vintage scenes, forest scenes, holiday or seasonal motifs and more all suitable for appliqué. Appliqué is a needlework form in which small pieces of fabric are 'applied' or sewn onto another larger piece of fabric to create interesting designs.

Applied pieces usually have their cut edges folded under and are then sewn on by hand or machine using a straight stitch, overcast stitch, a close zig zag stitch or satin stitch along the very edges of the cut out motif. An easy way to appliqué a design and have neat controlled edges is to place a motif onto a piece of iron-on or regular light-weight interfacing and cut out both together just 1/4" or less outside the motif's outline. Stitch right-sides together, clip edges to the stitching line on outward curves and inward edges, turn, then make a small cut in the interfacing's center and turn inside out. Press. The motif will then have neat edges to sew onto the fabric. If an iron-on interfacing is used be sure, when the motif and interfacing is turned inside out that the fusible side is then facing out. Iron the motif to the fabric and follow with the chosen stitch method.

Free appliqué patterns are available at Free Applique.

There are Fun Projects from Sewing.org suitable for many novelty fabrics.

Free novelty quilt patterns area available at Victoriana Quilt Designs.

Sew happy, sew well.

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