Would fabric glue on t-shirts or hand stitch survive washing?

[samsonara]

I've shop bought a basic cotton t-shirt and now want to attach shapes cut out fabric like felt and cotton to make a customised present for dd's birthday. I don't have a sewing machine but can do basic sewing. Do you know if the applique pieces will survive the washing machine if I use a strong fabric glue or should I do a tiny handstitch all around the edge of the applique? Or will it only work with machine zig zag? Thanks in advance.

Hand stitching would last better than fabric glue IME.

You could do both?

The only thing with felt is that it can shrink very easily and I would say the glue might not survive with it.

Can you do blanket stitch?

sewing on by hand should work fine - it' show nametapes stay in, after all!

I might wash the fabric to be appliqued on first, else it may shrink and distort the tshirt. And felt often runs.

Thanks for the tips re washing the fabric for applique first I hadn't thought about that. I will try out some blanket stitching. I've got an invisible clear nylon thread, but think that coloured wool might look nicer but would that case problems with shrinkage or maybe the shrinking will help it hold better?

Yes, I ruined a customised t-shirt (bought, not home-made, the shame) when the colour ran in the wash. Be careful what you use for the applique!

Hand sewing should be fine and if you use blanket stitch it can become part of the design.

funnily enough I was thinking of starting this exact thread - snap, samsonara!

my q was, do you need to put stiffener/backing on fabric to be appliqued? I dunno what the material is called, some thin cotton, a bit like sheets, that I was going to put on a t-shirt.

Thanks for mentioning that as a good warning. I'm planning to cut out a letter 2 out of another old cotton dress with a floral print which I know won't run, but it probably can shrink in the dryer, and was thinking some ballon shapes from felt, but maybe now will use other material. The wool or embroidery thread or clear nylon to use on the edge to think about now.

Great minds ehh..? Good point phdlife, the shop bought applique ones always have a backing dont they?

don't know, never done anything like this before - strictly a cross-stitch gal!

If you want to cheat make the whole thing stronger, you could attach the applique to the t-shirt with wondabond (available from any sewing shop), which will also stiffen it a bit. You could then add decorative stitching. It might be quite hard to sew onto a t-shirt with wool because of the thickness, but embroidery thread looks good.

oh thanks MadBad,

now all I've got to do is locate a sewing shop...

That's a good point MadBadandWieldingAnAxe about it being hard to sew if it's stiff and ofcourse now looking at the needle for the wool, its very thick ended, so would not make a hole through the cotton, so I will stick with embroidery thread and unbacked material for the applique as I think it will be easier for me.

Locating the sewing shop may be the trickiest part! Several near me have closed in recent years. I've never looked, but I guess there must now be online shops.