Machine applique is continuing in popularity with many quilters but there is a significan drawback: fusible web can make your applique stiff, and if you have many layers on top of each other it’s dowright rigid. Not to mention, it’s tough to sew through and can gum up your needle.

There are two solutions that can help this.

1. Use the lightest web available. Some fusible web is so lightweight it remains drapey.
2. Only apply fusible around the edges of your shape. As the image above shows, trace your shape on the paper back of your fusible and cut away the inside so there is only about a quarter inch around the edge.