When we are doing our Trace, Baste, Snip & Stitch method for hand reverse applique some times its tricky to separate your top fabric away from your background fabric, and the inevitable Boo-boo happens: You cut your background fabric my mistake. Over the years of making boo-boos I’ve developed 3 ways to repair my background fabric and save my piece.

• Repair #1: Fusible patch

• Repair #2: Bonash

• Repair #3: Fabric patch

Repair #1

Here’s Repair #1: Fusible patch, the first, and simplest way, to repair a small cut in the background fabric.

I used Soft Fuse iron-on fusible to make my patch for my repair. We sell it in two sizes in our shop: 18” wide x 3 - 1 yard pieces, or 37” x 3 yards.

The pattern I’m working on in the video is Victorian Urn, the first table runner I designed for the business. It’s now 50% off.

Repair #2

Repair #2 uses Bonash. I first found this product at a quilt show. I’m no expert using it, but even still it has saved my pieces several times when a fusible patch wasn’t appropriate. Take, for example, the Forget-Me-Not in the little video tutorial.

I don’t sell Bonash in our shop, but it is available at many quilt stores, quilt shows and on Amazon. Just google it to find the best deal.

The Forget-Me-Not pattern is flower 5 of 9 in our Victorian Flower Garden Quilt series.

Repair #3

Repair #3 is a Fabric Patch. I demonstrate making a small fabric patch, but you can do quite large fabric patches if necessary. This is also the way I repair any boo-boos I make in silk reverse applique pieces.

When I made this red silk Rose 2 of 9 pillow I cut the background fabric of one of the petal shapes. I then did a fabric patch repair thereby saving my piece. I always use this repair method for silk because it frays as soon as a boo-boo cut occurs. The other repair methods don’t work because of the fraying..

Cutting the background fabric out by mistake

This repair method works great to save a piece when you simply forget to turn your piece over to the right side when its time to trim out. Your fabric patch might be a bit bigger, but the process is the same. Most of the time you catch your mistake after making a cut or two. (Only once did I cut so much that I had to start over. I really just should have gone to bed, that night.)

Invariably when I’m teaching a hand reverse applique workshop one student forgets to turn their piece over to the right side when its time to cut away the top fabric. As a result they cut away the background fabric by mistake. They are embarrassed, but they’ve actually given the class a gift: a teaching moment. And because its a teaching moment I do most of the repair for them as I’m demonstrating to the class, and assure them that I’ve done it many times myself.

So now you have three ways to repair a boo-boo in your background fabric. So you see, there’s no need to panic1

Happy Quilting!