Last time, I showed you how to handle three layers of applique on a pre-purchased placemat. This time, we'll take the same design and stitch it out as cutwork on a matching napkin!

This project was first featured in Volume 106 of Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine. I used the Purple Applique Flower Design from BunnyCup Embroidery and added it to a pre-purchased napkin to match the applique on the placemat.

Where applique adds fabric, sometimes layers of fabric, onto a base fabric, cutwork cuts fabric away. When you have an applique design with satin-stitched edges, you can make the same design and stitch it up as cutwork.

Color stops 1, 3, and 5 are the applique placement stitches. They function as placement stitches for the cutwork as well.

The tackdown stitches for the cutwork technique also show you where to cut fabric. Fabric is cut away around the outside of the tack-down stitching 

but also along the inside for the cutout part. 

The key is to cut through the applique layer and base layer without destroying the fabric-type water-soluble stabilizer below the base fabric.

After everything is trimmed, finish the stitching, rinse away the stabilizer, and you have a gorgeous cutwork napkin.