Applique Pillow Set Placement

When you download the design, you will find multiple files. Some are embroidery files, and others are dielines files marked with DL that we will use later. Pillow pairs are made of up of 2-4 embroidery designs. One is a feature design that is often placed in the center and the others are designs meant to embroider around the feature design.

This tutorial will walk you through using templates of the designs to make a fully embroidered pillow. A template, or printout, of a design is an excellent tool to help with placement. Print a template of the design using an embroidery software. Some designs may need to be mirrored or rotated to fit around the design.

We recommend Wilcom's Hatch software which comes in different levels depending on what you'd like to use the software for. Hatch Organizer works well to view your designs, print dielines and templates, change design colors, and create basic design layouts. (This is an affiliate link. We may earn commission on purchased made through this link.

To start, determine which size of pillow blank you will be using. In this example ours is 18" by 18". This will help determine the size of the pillow pair embroidery designs you can use. 

Use a fabric marking tool to draw a box on the right side of the fabric indicating the edges of your pillow cover's front piece. Ours will be 20" by 20" to account for the fullness of the 18" pillow form. Our measurement also includes seam allowance.

Pillow pair placement is easiest when starting with the feature design. If it will be in the center of the pillow, find the placement for the feature design by dividing the box in half vertically and horizontally. Use a quilting ruler to draw the crosshair.

If you do not want the feature design to be centered, position the template on the fabric & mark the axis lines on the fabric. Then extend the axis lines to make a crosshair.

After drawing the crosshair for the featured design, cut a piece of stabilizer larger than your hoop. Spray the stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive and smooth in place on the wrong side of the fabric behind where the design will sew. Using a separate piece of stabilizer for each of the designs helps to limit the amount of puckering. 

Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together matching the drawn crosshairs up with the marks on the hoop. Make sure everything is hooped tightly and that there are no wrinkles or puckers in the fabric.

Dieline files (marked with the letters DL) are used to cut the fabric to the correct shape and size for applique pieces. Open each dieline file using an embroidery software, and print them out.

To make the applique pieces, spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive. Smooth the stabilizer onto the wrong side of the fabric piece. Also spray the wrong side of the paper dieline with temporary spray adhesive, and smooth it onto the right side of the fabric.

Cut the dieline shape out of the layered fabric and stabilizer. Then remove the paper dieline.

Repeat to cut out the other applique pieces in the designs. For best results, cut every piece out of both fabric and stabilizer.

Attach the hoop to the embroidery machine and load the design on to the machine. Using the machine's controls, move the needle until is it right above the center of the drawn crosshair. Then begin to embroider the design.

For some embroidery files, some embroidered details may sew first. Follow the color change sheet and stop after embroidering the "dieline" (or outlines stitch) for the applique piece. This dieline marks the area where the applique piece will be placed.

After the dieline has sewn, remove the hoop from the machine, but do not unhoop the fabric. Spray the wrong side of the applique piece with temporary adhesive. Place the applique on the hooped fabric inside of the sewn dieline shape.

Then place the hoop back on the machine, and embroider the tackdown for the applique piece that was just placed. A tackdown holds the fabric piece in place for the remainder of the design.

Embroider the rest of the design. If the design has multiple applique pieces, repeat the steps above to sew the dielines, place the fabric piece, and embroider the tackdown.

After the design has finished embroidering, remove the hoop from the machine. Unhoop the design and carefully trim away the excess stabilizer. 

To determine the layout for the other embroidery designs, arrange the printed templates around the feature design until you like their placement. You can play with how close to the feature design they are to fill more or less of the pillow.

For best results, we recommend printing a template of every additional design even if they are duplicates. That way you can see how all the designs fit together on your chosen pillow size. Some designs may need to be mirrored or rotated to fit around the design.

Once you've decided where you would like these designs to be, use the fabric marking tool to mark the horizontal and vertical axis line of one of the designs, and use a quilters ruler to extend and connect the crosshairs for the first corner design.

Be careful not to bump or move any of the other paper templates.

Repeat the previous step to mark the vertical and horizontal axis lines of all the remaining designs. Then use a ruler to extend them into crosshairs.

Decide which designs you would like to embroider next. Spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive and smooth on the wrong side of your fabric behind where it will embroider. Make sure to rotate or mirror designs as needed.

Then the fabric and stabilizer together matching the drawn crosshairs up with the marks on the hoop.

Attach the hoop onto the machine, load the design, center the needle over the center of the crosshairs. Then repeat the embroidery steps above to embroider all details and applique pieces.

When the design has finished embroidering, remove from the machine and unhoop the design. Trim away the excess stabilizer. 

Repeat to embroider the rest of the designs. Make sure to rotate or mirror designs as needed.

Now that all the embroidery is complete, cut out the pillow's front piece along the drawn square.

Press the designs as needed using a pressing cloth. Then follow the marking tool's directions to remove the drawn markings.

Create a back piece and finish the pillow cover in your preferred method. 

This completes the applique pillow pair! Create beautiful pillows, decor, or other projects using these fun design sets. They make great decor for your home, and lovely gifts for friends and family.