Gingerbread

You'll love the versatility of choosing whether to use these adorable gingerbreads as a regular applique or as a wonderful stand-alone design,

The stand alone designs can be used in so many ways, so don't limit their uses. Perfect tie-ons for things like packages, on cabinet knobs, around buttons, on a ceiling fan pull, key fob, or zipper pulls. Use them for Christmas ornatments, in those Christmas wreaths, as bookmarks or on any special little gift. Think they're hard to do? Detailed instructions are included, but look at the pictures below and see just how easy and fast to make they really are!

Stand alone designs are shown with ties. Loops can be made at the top, if preferred. These also make wonderful regular appliques!

Gingerbread Girl 2.57"x3.93"

Gingerbread Boy 2.37"x3.93"

Hearts as Shown Left to right:

Heart 4 2.64"x2.17"

Heart 3 2.58"x2.18"

Heart 1 2.65"x2.24"

Heart 2 2.59"x2.22"

	Before you begin, hoop a good quality, medium weight, tear away stabilizer in your hoop. No fabric is hooped for the stand alone designs--only stabilizer.
	1. The ribbon placement line is sewn first Then you hold the ribbon in place and stitch it in down with the tack-down stitching as seen at the top of the picture.
	2. Placement line for gingerbread boy is stitched.
	3. Fabric is first placed under the hoop, right side down, as shown. You also place fabric on top of hoop, right side up, just as you would for the regular appliques.
	4. Here you see the fabric on top of the placement line. Fabric is held in place while tack down stitching is sewn. The fabric under the hoop stays nicely in place as you hold down the fabric on top. Want extra stabilization? Slip an extra piece of tear-away in under the fabric. stitch the tack down line and trim the extra away at the same time you trim away the excess fabric.
	5. The hoop is removed from the sewing machine and the fabric is trimmed close to tack down stitching on both the top and bottom side of the hoop. The trimmed fabric is shown here. Use sharp, curved sewing scissors to trim close to the stitching line.
	6. This procedure is repeated for the hat and vest. Placement line is sewn, fabric placed under and on top of the hoop, tack down line is stitched and then the fabric is trimmed on both on top and bottom side of hoop. It is done exactly the same for the the hat and vest as you did for the gingerbread boy above.
	7. The satin cover stitch is embroidered for the gingerbread boy. 8. Once this step is completed, you will need to change the bobbin thread each time you change to a new color. The bobbin thread should always be the same as the embroidery thread used on top. This is so the back of the design will look like the front when complete. You should wind your bobbins with the matching threads before you begin embroidery. All this is included in detailed instructions.
	9. Complete embroidery as instructed, changing your bobbin thread with each color change. This includes the cover stitching for the hat and vest, face details, bow and buttons. The bobbin changes require only a little extra time and it is well worth it . 10. When the design is completed, you gently remove it from the tear away stabilizer. Seen here is the gingerbread girl being removed. Notice two designs were embroidered in one hooping in a large hoop. You can see the completed gingerbread boy in the background. You can set this up in your own software if you have a large hoop. If you only have the small hoop size, no problem--just do the designs one at a time in the small hoop. It doesn't take any longer.