Elephant design made from fabric applique using EasyWeed Adhesive and Glitter.

No Sew Iron-On Fabric Appliques with EasyWeed® Adhesive

When typically large objects become tiny I find them exceptionally cute! Maybe that’s what makes this onesie so adorable, or it could be the pretty hot pink glitter, but mostly I think it’s the pink and blue quatrefoil fabric. I’m so excited to share this tutorial today, not only because it’s stinkin’ cute, but because I’m going to show you to use EasyWeed® Adhesive to create a no sew fabric applique!

Onesie with no-sew fabric applique applied.

Iron On Fabric Applique Supplies

After you’ve gathered your supplies, prep the fabric for the adhesive by ironing any wrinkles out. Next, flip the piece of cotton to the back side and place the EasyWeed Adhesive on the fabric with the carrier side up.

Comparison of carrier and adhesive side of EasyWeed Adhesive.

With your iron on the Cotton setting, press firmly over each section for 10-15 seconds until all the adhesive is ironed onto the cotton. I’m using a piece of parchment paper in between my iron and the EasyWeed Adhesive carrier as a heat transfer cover sheet that acts as a heat barrier protecting the fabric.

Carrier on fabric.
Ironing EasyWeed Adhesive onto fabric.

Wait, don’t peel the carrier yet! Now that the fabric is backed with adhesive, it’s sturdy enough to run through your cutter (in this case, the Silhouette Cameo). Place the fabric side up and clear carrier side down on the cutting mat.

Placing fabric carrier-side down onto mat.

My artwork is set up in Silhouette Studio so that the pink outline (that will be cut from Glitter HTV) is a mirror image of the blue elephant (that will be cut from fabric.) I found the Fabric (thick fabric like canvas) pre-set in Silhouette Studio cut the EasyWeed Adhesive backed fabric perfectly.

Artwork set up in Silhouette Studio.

After cutting the fabric, peel away the uncut portions. Next, cut and weed the Glitter HTV using the Siser EasyWeeder to pick out the all the unneeded pieces.

Peeling away uncut portions of fabric.
Weeding Glitter HTV.

If you sell ready made fabric appliques, then you can stop here and start packing things up for shipping. However, if you want to apply the applique, then you’ll use your weeding tool to pierce the clear carrier and peel it off leaving the adhesive behind.

Piercing carrier with EasyWeeder.
Removing carrier from fabric.

The fabric applique is now ready to be ironed on! But, see how the the fabric is curling without the carrier to stabilize it?

Fabric curling without carrier for support.

You could fix this with some heat safe tape, OR you can use my nifty trick. Take the fabric piece and place it on Glitter’s sticky carrier. Now not only is the fabric not curled, but the 2 layers are aligned so I only need to press once!

Fabric placed onto Glitter's sticky carrier.

Before positioning the iron on, set your iron to “Cotton” and pre-press the onesie to remove any wrinkles or lingering moisture. Now place the shiny side of the carrier up on the garment. You should be looking at the front of your Glitter and fabric now. Cover the pieces with parchment paper and press in sections for 15-20 seconds until the whole applique has been applied.

Cover sheet placed on top of applique.
Ironing applique to onesie.

Give the carrier a few moments to cool before peeling it away. When ironing on HTV it’s important that the edges are securely heat applied. In this case it’s especially important since the Glitter outlines seal the cut edges of the fabric to keep it from fraying. Typical appliques usually require machine sewing around the edges, but not EasyWeed Adhesive fabric appliques! To ensure your edges are sealed, re-cover the applied layers and press the edges again for 5-10 seconds.

Peeling carrier from applique after application.

Super cute results! Don’t you agree? I LOVE how easy this was, and I hope it’s inspired you to play with fabric applique and EasyWeed Adhesive!

Think EasyWeed Adhesive is cool enough already? This out of the box use for it is amazing!