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Combined appliqué

Frequently, an appliqué design will contain two or more appliqué objects. Each object can be assigned its own fabric. Where objects overlap, borders can be removed to avoid doubling-up. Generally you will want to stitch out appliqué elements together rather than object-by-object. For instance, it is more efficient to stitch out all placement lines, tackdown stitching, and cover stitching together. To achieve this you have a choice of breaking apart appliqué objects and resequencing elements as you wish, or allowing the software to resequence elements for you.


Use Appliqué > Remove Overlaps to remove stitches that are covered by the selected objects. Overlap value can be changed in the Overlap tab of Embroidery Settings dialog.

Remove overlaps

Use the Remove Overlaps tool to remove underlying layers of stitching in overlapping objects. This helps to reduce the stitch count and prevent a build-up of stitches where they are not needed. See also Cut & fill holes.


Use Appliqué > Partial Appliqué to remove unwanted cover stitching from underlying appliqué objects.

Partial cover appliqué

Using the Partial Appliqué tool, you can create overlapping appliqué objects with partial cover stitching without doubling-up borders. The lower layers will have partial appliqué applied to them. To create partial cover appliqué...

  • Select the appliqué objects you want to remove partial cover stitching and the overlapping objects.
  • Click the Partial Appliqué tool. Cover stitches are removed where objects overlap, leaving only the secondary objects – tackdown, placement and cutting lines. In the image below, the lower layer has been temporarily moved to better view the partial cover.
  • Note that the cutting object for partial appliqué does not have to be an appliqué object itself.

To remove, redo, or change the partial appliqué back to regular appliqué, select the object and click the Partial Appliqué tool.

When reshaping partial appliqués, removed cover stitching may move and fail to align properly with the other appliqué object. Should this happen, simply reapply partial appliqué.


Use Appliqué > Combine Appliqué to break apart appliqué into component objects and recombine and resequence for efficient stitchout.

Combine appliqué

The Combine Appliqué tool breaks apart multiple appliqué objects into their components – placement lines, cutting lines, tack stitches and cover stitches – and combines and resequences them for efficient stitchout. The end result is that the placement line for all appliqué objects is stitched in a single pass, followed by the tack stitch and then cover stitch. A single frame-out movement occurs after placement line and tack stitch components. A message warns that the appliqué objects will be broken apart. It's a good idea to save a copy of the design before proceeding.

The Combine Appliqué tool is disabled when non-appliqué objects are included in the selection.


Use Edit Objects, Appliqué or Lettering / Monogramming > Break Apart to split composite objects – monograms, appliqués, lettering, etc – into components. Allows each to be edited individually. This tool is also available via Edit menu.

Break apart appliqué

If you want more control when combining appliqué objects, you may prefer to use the Break Apart tool to break apart multiple appliqué objects and resequence manually. This method also allows you to insert non-appliqué objects into the stitching sequence which cannot be done via the Combine Appliqué method.