Reverse Applique

I was inspired by InStyle magazine telling me that denim vests are BACK!

Look-there's Jessica Alba wearing a flowey dress with a denim vest!

I went to the thrift store and picked up a denim jacket for $4. I immediately cut off the sleeves. It was a little boxy and made me look ...I don't know a little less Alba and a little more

I went home and went to work. First I took in the side seams to make it more fitted. Then I took some inspiration from this guy:

He's cute, but look at his shirt. SKULL! I found a tutorial online for a reverse applique of a skull and will show you how I used it here:

http://www.lilblueboo.com/2009/04/reverse-applique.html

So the first thing I did was pick fabric from my scrap pile and laid it on the INSIDE of my denim vest.

Then I drew a skull on a piece of paper.

 I didn't have any interfacing on hand so I used muslin for stability. I cut out my paper skull and traced it on to the muslin. 

Then I sewed over the drawing (like tracing it with thread, if you will). It used my free-hand presser foot-there's a name for it that I can't remember. It's for quilting, etc. It definitely takes some practice, so I went back to my regular presser foot. 

Next, I flipped it over and cut right along the stitch lines-very carefully so I only cut the denim and not the fabric underneath. See how it exposes the pretty fabric, yet looks so rockin' at the same time?

It's starting to look like a skull!

I finished by adding two flower eyes from another scrap fabric and now it looks like this! I'll add a better picture when I can. This picture was taken by a 4 year old...