Denim Jacket With Alien Appliqué Tutorial

I found this denim jacket in a secondhand shop ages ago, and I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of a way to decorate it. It’s got this cute little alien patch on the front, so after watching the movie ‘Aliens’ the other day, I decided to put one of cinema’s most famous aliens on the back!
I’ll be using appliqué to attach the alien, a process of attaching pieces of fabric onto a larger piece of fabric to form a pattern. It’s a pretty simple process that can be done even by beginners and/or those without a sewing machine!

- Jacket (one made from non-stretch fabric will work best)
- Fabric
- Adhesive web (or freezer paper)
- Iron and ironing board
- Sewing machine (optional)
- Basic sewing supplies (scissors, thread, pins etc.)
- Exacto knife and cutting mat (optional)
- Fabric glue (optional)
- Embroidery hoop or frame (optional)

The very first step is to find or create a design to put on your jacket. If this is your first time doing something like this I recommend choosing a simple one without too many small pieces.
As I said in the intro, I decided to put an alien on my jacket, and instead of trying to design something myself (not my strong suit!), I just purchased one from a seller on Etsy. (https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/975577046/alien-svg-cut-file-for-cricut-silhouette?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=xenomorph+svg&ref=sc_gallery-1-3&plkey=896d0e1d8fec5df85f1e0a04f6c06489b29543d8%3A975577046)

Now that you’ve got your design ready, it’s time to choose your fabric.
I recommend matching the type of material to the material your jacket is made of (i.e. woven fabric for a woven jacket, stretchy fabric for a stretchy jacket).
I also wouldn’t recommend using a fabric that is heavier than your jacket for your appliqué. For example, if you’re using a satin bomber jacket, don’t use denim for the appliqué. (Keep in mind these are just suggestions, and there’s technically no wrong way to do this!)
Once you’ve picked your fabric, it’s time to prepare it. This is done by washing and ironing it (A general rule of thumb is to pre-wash your fabric as you would wash the finished garment).

Next, you need to transfer your design to some adhesive web (or freezer paper).
First, print out (or draw) two copies of your design. Once you have your design in front of you, trace it onto the papery side of your adhesive web. My printer was acting up, so I just laid my adhesive web over my computer screen and traced it that way, but that was pretty difficult so I wouldn’t recommend it!
At this point you should have 2 copies of your design, one on the adhesive web and one on regular paper.

NOTE: If you’re using adhesive web, there will eventually be some adhesive on one side of your fabric. If you want your design to face a certain way (like if you have words on it), you will need to mirror it before printing and tracing it, otherwise the adhesive will end up on the wrong side). You do not need to mirror the second copy of your design, or anything at all if you’re using freezer paper, or a design where orientation doesn’t matter.

For this step you’ll be putting the adhesive web aside and just working with the regular paper.
This copy of your design will become your template, to help you when you need to lay out your fabric on your jacket.
To make this all you need to do is cut out your design, but only the inside of the shape/s. You can do this with scissors or an exacto knife. (Please be careful when using sharp objects!)

NOTE: I forgot to take a picture of my template by itself, but there is a picture of it in the fuse fabric to jacket step (Sorry!)

The next step is cutting your design from your fabric.
To start, use an iron to adhere the adhesive web/freezer paper to your fabric. Make sure the papery side is facing the iron.
Once you’ve fused them together, cut around your design.
At this point, you should have your design cut from fabric, and a template cut from paper.

It’s now time to stick your design to your fabric in preparation for the sewing!
To do this, there’s a good way, and a bad way. Wanna guess how I know that?

First, I’ll explain what I did (and what you SHOULDN’T do!)
I started by ironing my jacket where I was putting my design, finding and marking the middle of both my jacket and the template, and then laying the template down.
So far so good, right?
However, my mistake came when I ironed the pieces of my design to the jacket while the template was still in place. Because I ironed them while the paper was still there, some of the glue adhered to the paper template as well as the jacket, and it tore some of the threads out when I removed the paper later, making it fray around the edges.
Thankfully, this wasn’t the end of the world, I was able to just cut away some of the frayed sections and it still worked out.
In hindsight, I definitely should have realised this would happen, but oh well, at least you can learn from my mistakes!

If I were to do this again, I would’ve placed the template down in the same way, but after placing each piece, I would’ve carefully lifted the template away (without shifting the piece) before ironing it down. This is what you should do!
To help with this, you can use pins to attach two corners (along the same edge) of the template to the fabric, that way you can lift it up and down while making sure it returns to the same place.
You might also use something like chopsticks to hold each piece down while you lift the template.

NOTE: Remember to remove the paper backing from your pieces before putting them on the jacket.
Also, if you’re using freezer paper, your pieces won’t have any adhesive on them to keep them in place, so you can use hand basting (long stitches made by hand to temporarily hold fabric in place), pins or some fabric glue to keep them down (doesn’t need to be slathered on, just a few dots around the piece should be fine, but not too close to the edge!)

Finally, it’s time to sew! This is a pretty straightforward process.
You just want to stitch all around the edge of your pieces using a zigzag stitch, with the needle landing on both the jacket and the applique fabric (remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of each piece so it doesn’t unravel!).
It can be a little fiddly, especially if you have particularly small pieces, or sharp angles, but as long as you just take it slow, you should be fine.
Another thing you can do to make smaller bits more manageable is to finish them off by hand. Just sew the big pieces/sections with the machine, then stop at smaller sections and complete them later with some hand sewing.
Once you finish all your sewing, you can snip any loose threads you have. Or, if you’re paranoid like me, you can thread them through to the back and tie them off for good measure!

NOTE: If you do decide to do part (or all) of this project by hand, I recommend using an embroidery hoop/frame to keep the fabric taut while you work on it, so your hands don’t get too sore!

You’re finished! Yay! Now you can strut around town in your very own one-of-a-kind jacket that you created with your own two hands! Enjoy!