Merrie Halloween BOM Support Tutorial

Published November 2023

Join Jen as she demonstrates the applique process and reviews hand embroidery techniques for this spooktacular Merrie Halloween BOM. She'll share how to use her favorite tools and provide helpful tips along the way!

In this video, you'll learn:

• How to read a layout diagram’s numbers and dashed lines to know exactly what goes down first and what tucks behind what.
• Why you leave your background fabric oversized until every stitch — machine applique and hand embroidery both — is finished.
• How a tacky applique pressing mat lets you merge overlapping layers into one unit before it ever touches your background fabric.
• Three simple embroidery stitches — back stitch, French knots, and a fly stitch — and how each one is worked.
• When to use a heat-erasable marking pen versus a permanent micron pen for the lines you’ll be stitching over.

Check the links for everything you need.

Introduction

This is a supplemental video for the Merrie Halloween block of the month, a popular vintage-styled series designed by Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin. Each month’s block combines pre-fused, laser-cut applique with a bit of hand embroidery, and this video walks through both processes in detail — the applique assembly technique and the hand-stitching will be the same for every block you receive throughout the series.

Leave your background fabric bigger than the pattern calls for. It’s tempting to cut your background exactly to size, but every layer of machine applique stitching and hand embroidery you add will draw the fabric up slightly — sometimes by as much as an eighth of an inch by the time a block is finished. Cut it a bit oversized, do all of your stitching, and trim it to the exact size only at the very end.

Reading Your Layout Diagram

Every month’s kit includes a layout diagram, and understanding how to read it is what makes the pre-assembly process below make sense.

• The numbers printed on each shape tell you the stacking order — piece one goes down first, followed by piece two, then three, and so on, in the order they’re numbered.
• A dashed line on a shape means that edge tucks behind another piece that lies on top of it. Seeing where a dashed line runs helps you understand the sequencing at a glance, especially once several small shapes start to overlap.

Lay everything out and photograph it before you start fusing. Once your applique pressing mat is in place over the diagram, it starts to obscure your view of the layout underneath. Lay every piece out in its correct position first, confirm you have every single piece the pattern calls for (small pieces are easy to miss and easy to lose track of), and take a photo with your phone before you begin — then you have a clear reference even once the mat is covering the diagram.

Pre-Assembling Layered Applique

Anywhere multiple applique shapes overlap — a layered figure, a shape sitting behind another — it’s easier to merge them into one finished unit on a tacky applique pressing mat before that unit ever touches your background fabric.

1. Choose the applique mat sized to what you’re working on — there’s no need to reach for a large mat for a small motif.
2. Set your iron to a medium heat. Whenever you’re doing applique, dial your iron back from the higher heat you’d use for regular patchwork.
3. Working from your layout diagram (through the mat, or under a light box), place your shapes onto the tacky mat in stacking order, starting with the lowest-numbered piece.
4. Don’t be afraid to press the very first pieces down firmly — the mat’s tackiness holds anything in direct contact with it securely, so a bump to your work surface won’t send pieces flying.
5. Continue building the unit piece by piece, in numbered order, pressing each layer as you go. If a design has a lot of moving parts, it’s fine to build a portion of it, iron that down, then come back and continue — you don’t have to place every single piece before you press.
6. Once the unit is fully assembled, hold your iron in place for five to six seconds with no lateral movement — sliding the iron at this stage is what disturbs a carefully positioned layout.
7. Let the merged unit cool completely before lifting it from the mat, so all the layers have time to bond into one solid piece.

A piece with nothing overlapping it doesn’t need the mat at all. A shape that sits entirely on its own — nothing layered on top of it or underneath it — can be fused straight onto the background near the end of the process. There’s no benefit to pre-assembling something that was never going to overlap anything else.

Applique mats also have a mind of their own when it comes to storage. If yours loses its tackiness over time, running it through a cycle in your dishwasher restores it.

Bringing the Units to Your Background

Once your pre-assembled units have cooled, transfer them (and any single, non-overlapping pieces) to your background fabric.

1. Since you cannot iron directly on a light box or light pad without damaging its surface, you’ll need to move your positioned pieces onto a proper wool pressing mat or ironing board before applying heat — use the light box only to see through the background fabric and confirm placement first.
2. With the room lights dimmed, the illumination from underneath makes even a faint printed placement line easy to see through your background fabric.
3. Position each unit or single piece in place, then press to fuse, holding for four to five seconds per section with no lateral movement, the same way you fused the layered units.

Simple Hand Embroidery, Three Stitches

What gives this series its distinctly vintage look is a bit of hand embroidery layered over the applique. Despite how detailed the finished blocks look, the entire series only uses three stitches: back stitch, French knots, and a fly stitch. None of them are complicated.

Choose your marking pen based on whether the line is temporary or permanent. A heat-erasable marking pen (a Frixion-style pen) is for a line you plan to stitch over and then remove with heat — use it for guide lines like a spiderweb that’s easier to draw at a light box than to stitch freehand. A permanent micron pen is for a line meant to stay as part of the finished design, like a simple drawn smile or whiskers. Don’t worry about drawing those lines perfectly straight or smooth — a bit of wobble is part of what makes the finished piece look genuinely handmade.

Back Stitch

Back stitch is an old, reliable stitch used for most of the drawn detail lines throughout the series.

1. Knot two to three strands of embroidery floss (more strands for a denser look) and thread a size 4 embroidery needle.
2. Bring the needle up on your drawn line, then take a stitch forward and bring it back down, splitting the line as precisely as you can.
3. Come back up further along the line, then go back down into the end of the previous stitch, again splitting the line.
4. Continue this rhythm — up, forward, down, splitting the previous stitch’s end — along the entire line.
5. To finish, turn your work over, weave the thread through a few stitches on the back (never coming through to the front), and tie off twice as insurance before trimming.

French Knots

French knots add small dot details, like a kitty’s eyes.

1. Bring your threaded needle up at the point where you want the knot.
2. With the floss held taut to one side, wrap it around the needle once or twice — more wraps, or more strands of floss, make a bigger knot.
3. Keeping tension on the floss the entire time, pivot the needle and take it back down right where it came up (or a hair’s width away).
4. Hold the wrapped floss firmly against the fabric as you pull the needle through to the back — don’t let go of that tension until the very last moment, or the knot will loosen before it sets.

Fly Stitch

This decorative stitch covers ground quickly and is a favorite throughout the series for filler details like a spiderweb or vine.

1. Come up at one point, then down and slightly across, catching the floss under the needle to form a small V or triangle shape as you pull through.
2. Come up again a short distance down the line, repeating the same catching motion, pivoting the angle slightly to follow your drawn line or design.
3. Continue this repeating triangle motion down the length of the design — it’s worked more by eye and feel than by precise measuring, glancing at your reference photo as you go.
4. To end, especially when finishing on top of an applique shape, take your last stitch shallow and stay behind the applique rather than crossing over open background fabric, so the thread doesn’t shadow through once batting is added. Tie off twice on the back, as with the other stitches.

Stitching Down the Applique and Adding Embellishments

Machine-stitching your applique in place is straightforward: load a 50-weight thread on top in any color you like (even matching your bobbin thread, if your tension is set correctly), and stitch a simple straight stitch all the way around each shape — or, if you’d like more personality, a blanket stitch or another decorative stitch instead.

Save any button embellishments, like eyes, for the very last step, after the quilt has been longarm quilted. Adding them before quilting risks the longarm needle running into a button and breaking.

Save some of the hand embroidery for after your blocks are fused down. Some makers stitch each month’s embroidery as soon as that block’s applique is fused; others wait until every block for the whole series is fused down, then load a single embroidery floss color and stitch all the matching details across every block in one pass. Either approach works — go with whichever keeps the project fun for you.

None of the individual techniques here are difficult on their own — a tacky mat that merges layers before they ever touch your background, and three simple hand stitches — but together they’re what give this series its distinctly vintage, hand-finished look, month after month.

Pick up your Merrie Halloween block kit, the coordinating thread set while supplies last, and any embroidery notions you need to get started.

For personal use only, not for commercial production. No part of this pattern may be reproduced, shared, or distributed in any form unless given express written consent by Shabby Fabrics. Not to be used with any online classes or video tutorials other than the official Shabby Fabrics tutorial. All designs, photographs, and images are protected by federal copyright law. All rights reserved.