I saw a red dress on-line this style with a huge Mandela printed on it. “What a great idea”, I thought.

At 26 inches across, the New York Beauty design was the natural choice – a generally round design and made the HNQ (Hoop N’ Quilt) method – it couldn’t be simpler or less risky to put onto my dress.

So, I went about zig zag sewing the NY Beauty pieces together creating this great big appliqué. I was afraid the extra fabric associated with an appliqué this large would be too heavy on the side of this light weight cotton gauze dress. Using wss (water-soluble stabilizer), the appliqué turned out not to be so heavy after all and draped nicely.

Working from my ironing board I pinned, and then hand-basted the appliqué to the dress, working from the center of the design out towards the points.

These two photos to the right show the inside of the dress. The seam you see is the side seam of the dress.

The fabric looks wrinkled under the appliqué but it isn’t It is the unevenness of the fabric dye that gives it the illusion of wrinkles.

I like hand-dyed fabrics because they are visually pleasing when compared to a solid, plain fabric. It also hides body flaws when wearing it. Smiles!

Once basted, I went about permanently stitching it to the dress. I stitched from the inside circular area of the design, out to the points.

I sewed a zig-zag stitch along the lines in the design where the NYB pieces were butted and zig-zagged them together. Finally, I ended with a zig-zag around the whole design.

Once it all was appliquéd (sewn) to the dress, I washed out all the water-soluble stabilizer. Then, hung it up to dry, with a fan set on low positioned under the dress and turned upward on a low setting to blow up the dress. It all dried in no time.

Needing a little ironing, I was thrilled to find that the appliqué became even softer and draped very nicely with the rest of the dress. It feels as silky as the rest of the dress.

I’ve worn it around the house and it is very comfortable, without pulling to the left. I can’t wait to wear it out to our monthly Costco shopping this week. Smiles

Make a giant NY Beauty appliqué for one of your dresses. If you don’t have a plain dress like mine, this is one of my favorite patterns like it – New Look 6352.

Otherwise, sew it onto an already quilted fabric for a quick NY Beauty quilt, plenty large enough for a lap quilt  – it will be a great gift for those in wheelchairs.

If you’re not a fan of the New York Beauty style quilt, consider my Full Size Lone Star design made the same way as the NY Beauty only larger. At 42 inches across, sew it to a large piece of already quilted fabric for a quick quilt ready to bind and give away (or keep for yourself – smiles). Who doesn’t want one of these?

I’ve gotta have my New York Beauty!