Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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S P E C I F I C A T I O N
1 This invention relates to the art of appliqueing,
and is more particularly c~ncerned with providing a new
and improved method of and means for combination design
transfer and application of heat reactivatable adhesive
- 5 especially useful for appliquéing.
There are now avialable on the market heat transfer
patterns for embroidery or ball point painting, and the
like. These transfers are printed on paper, and by applying
the printed face of the paper onto a piece of cloth and
10 applying heat as by means of a hot iron, the printed
pattern will transfer to the cloth. Thereafter the pattern
may be used for embroidering or other decorative purposes
in respect to the fabric upon which the pattern has been
transferred.
If desired, of course, the designs which have been
transfereed and embroidered or otherwise treated on the
base cloth may be trimmed out and appliqued to another base
if desired.
Much appliqueing is effected by merely sewing the
20 appliqué pieces to the base material.
On the other hant~ ere ha~ d@velope~l ~ popular form
of appliquéing which comprises interposing heat reactivatable
adhesive in a dry mesh form between the appliqu0 and the
base sheet and effecting adherence of the appliqué to the
25 base sheet by applying heat and pressure to the assembly
whereby the heat reactivatable mesh fuses and then sets and
adhesively bonds the appliqué to the base, and then some-
times sewing the edges of the applique piece.
By the pres~lt invention, a substantial improvement
30 in appliquéing is E ovided by combining applique pattern
design transfers with the heat reactivatable adhesive sheet
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1 material so that the pattern or design can be applied to
the desired applique fabric coincident with fusing and
laminating the adhesive sheet layer to the back of the
applique material. Therafter the applique material may
be cut into appliqué pieces by following the transfer
pattern on the back face of the appliqué fabric, and the
~ pieces assembled with a base, whether a fabric or nonfabric
and to which the appliqué pieces are then adapted to be
bonded by reactivating the adhesive on the back faces of
the pieces.
Pursuant to the principles of the present invention,
there is provided a method of providing means for combination
applique design pattern transfer and adhesive lamination to
appliqué material, comprising supplying a sheet of heat
reactivatable adhesive, and imprinting an applique design
pattern onto the sheet, so that by fusing and laminating
the adhesive sheet with the appliqué design pattern thereon
onto appliqué material the appliqué design pattern will be
transferred to said appliqué material.
The present invention also provides means for com-
bination appliqué design pattern transfer and adhesive
lamination to applique material, comprisincJ a sheet oE
heat reactivatable adh~sive, and an ~p~ ue design pat-tern
imprintecl orrto said sheet, so that by fusing and laminating
said adhesive sheet with said appliqué design pattern
thereon onto appliqué material said appliqu~ design pattern
wi.ll be transferred to said applique material.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention
will be readily apparent from the following description of
a preferred embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with
the accompanying drawing, although variations and modifica-
tions may be effected without departing from the spirit and
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1 scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure, and in
which:
FIG. 1 is a plan view of an applique panel produced
according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a heat reactivatable
adhesive sheet on which has been imprinted design pattern
for the applique pieces which have been assembled in the
article of FIG. l;
FIG. 3 demonstrates a step in the method of applying
the patterned heat reactivatable adhesive to appli~ue
material and concurrently transferring the design patterns
to the material;
FIG. 4 demonstrates a preliminary step in appliquëing
the appliqué pieces to the base panel;
FIG. 5 shows a further step in appliquéing the
article; and
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional detail view taken
substantially along the line VI-VI in FIG. 5.
By way of example, there is depicted in FIG. 1 an
applique article comprising a bas~e panel 10 having appliqued
thereto a multipiece design which may comprise an arrange-
ment of multicolored pieces, in this instance representlll~3
a flower basket, although it will be understood that any
preferred appliqué design may be provided. As shown, the
appliqué design comprises a yellow basket 11 having a
handle 12. In the basket i5 a flower arrangement comprising
a yellow flower 13 having a pink (red) center 1, pink (red)
flowers 15 having yellow centers 17, and an array of green
leaves 18 arranged artistically about the flowers. If
desired some or all of the appliqué pieces may hate their
edges hemstitched as indicated at 19.
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1 According to the present invention patterns for the
appliqué pieces are printed on heat reactivatable adhesive
sheet material 20 (FIG. 2). Adhesive sheet material for
this purpose may be of a kind such as is readily obtainable
in retail establishments catering to the applique trade,
and produced by ~arious manufacturers under ~arious
designations and formulations. One popular brand is known
as Stitch Witchery, which is a trademark of USM Corp. This
material, generally referred to as fusible webbing, is a
mesh structure web supplied as a thin sheet of securely
bonded interlaced thin strands or fibers of the adhesive,
which is a polyamide plastic. It is dry, solid and non-
tacky and is form-retaining at temperatures well above
maximum atmospheric weather temperatures, and will fuse,
that is melt, at about 210F to 250F. whereby to form an
adhesive bond for compatible surfaces, and in particular
most fabric material surfaces, paper, wood, and the like,
and at least those materials which are commonly used for
appliquéing.
A unique aspect of the present invention resides in
that the patterns for the applique pices are imprinted
directly on the adhesive webbin~3 sheek 20. ~s shown,
patterns for the various appli~ue pieces of the completed
article in FIG. 1 are identified by the same reference
numerals with the subscript "a". Thus, the pattern outline
for the b~sket 11 is identified as lla and its handle as
12a, the yellow flower pattern 13a, its center pattern 14a,
the pattern outlines for the pink flowers are 15a, the
outlines for their centers 17a, and the outlines for the
leaf pieces 18a.
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1 Arrangement of the various appliqué pattern outlines
is desirably in designated areas on the sheet 20. For
example, all of the patter~s for green pieces are, as
shown, confined to an area G, the red or pink patterns to
an area R and the yellow patterns to area Y. To facilitate
this segregation of the various patterns, the areas G, R
and Y may be separated by imprinted delineations or
subdivision lines 21 on the sheet 20.
Imprinting the patterns on the adhesive sheet 20
may be effected in any suitable manner by means of colored
lineation as by cornmercial printing techniques, by block
printing, such as by wood blocks or rubber stamps, by
silk screening, by direct outlineing by means of penci;,
crayon, felt or ball point pen; or by impressed lineation
comprising pressing or slotting the pattern lines in the
adhesive sheet; and the like. Thus, while the imprinted
mesh plastic material may be supplied with commercially
imprinted pattern designs, a user may exercise his own
artistic ingenuity in creating his own designs by means of
a preferably ink applying implement, although crayon type
marking pencils and stubby point lead pencils may bc usecl
but are not as easy to use on this ma~erial as th0 ink
applying appliances.
Initially patterns imprinted on the interlaced thin
strands or fibers of the adhesive material appear light,
but distingusihable because of the openings between the
strands and fibers of the adhesive material. After fusing
the pattern to the back side of almost any appliqué
material whether white or black, or heavily patterned, the
ir ?rint becomes more distingusihable, since the pattern
1 Ies, which were interrupted on the original fusible
webbing, are now mostly connected because of the melting
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1 of the fusible webbing.
Furthermore, black lined imprinted patterns are even
distinguishable on black or heavily patterned cloths
because the adhesive acts as a carrier and provides a
lighter and shiny background for the black printed pattern
_ lines.
Transference of the patterns imprinted on the
adhesive mesh or solid sheet or web 20 onto applique
material, which may be any suitable material but generally
fabric is adapted to be effected by fusibly applying the
heat reactivatable adhesive material ~0 to the applique/
material by fusing heat and pressure. This is conveniently
and efficiently effected as demonstrated in FIG. 3, by
placing onto a firm backing surface 22 and underlay pressing
sheet surface 23 which is nonadherent to the fused adhesive,
and then superimposing the imprinted adhesive web 20 on the
underlay pressing sheet surface. The desired applique
material is placed on the adhesive web 20. In order to
attain the shade or color differentiation of the various
applique pieces to be produced, the appliqué material
overlying the areas G, R and Y of the heat reactivatable
adhesive web 20 will conform to the ~.t~erenti~tincJ color
scheme~ Thus, the appli~ué material to overlay the mesh
plastic sheet area G, and identified as ~G, may be green,
the appliqué material overlying the area R, an~ identified
as MR may have the desired pink or red shade, and the
appliqué material overlying the area Y and identified as
MY may have the desired yellow shade.
Transference of the appliqué patterns to the applique
sheets MG, MR and MY, and fusing of the adhesive materia
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1 of the adhesive web 20 to the appliqué material is desir-
ably effected by applying an overlay pressing sheet 23,
which is nonadherent to the fused adhesive, and which may
be a folded over portion of the underlay sheet 23, onto
the assembly of appliqué material and underlying pattern-
carrying heat reactivatable adhesive sheet 20. Then
fusing heat and pressure are adapted to be applied to the
assembly through the overlying pressing sheet 23 as by
means of a pressing iron 24, whereby the adhesive sheet is
fused and, in effect, laminated to the under sides or
surfaces of the sheets of appliquéing material. Then,
when the adhesive material has set onto the applique
material sheets. Removal of the pressing sheet 23, which
strips cleanly from the fused and set adhesive layer,
releases the laminated assembly for further processing.
Material suitable for the pressing sheet 23 comprises
polytetrafluoroethylene film of approximately .001 inch to
.005 inch in thickness, or a parchment like silicone
treated paper of about the same thickness. These materials
are readily available, are nonadherent to at least the
fused polyamide adhesive material, and are free ~rom
deterioration when subject to temperatur~s well above
pressing iron temperatures which may be as high as up to
500F when rapid action is desired.
A number of the laminated assemblies o~ fused heat
reactivatable adhesive and applique material may be stacked
and stored for future use.
For appliqueing, the individually outlines pieces are
adapted to be cut as by means of trimming shears from the
laminated sheet, and each of the a pliqué pieces will carry
on its entire back the laminated 1 yer of fused heat
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1 reactivatable adhesive. The applique pieces are then
adapted to be assembled onto the base panel 10 as shown
in FIGS. 4 and 5.
For example, the basic hasket piece 11 with its
handle 12 may be positioned as desired on the base panel 10
- and fusedly bonded to the base panel 10 by application of
heat and pressure as by means of the heated iron 24. A
plurality of the pieces may be fusedly bonded in place at
the same time if desired such, for example, as the flower
pieces 13 and 15 which interfit with one another and the
basket piece 11 and its handle 12. These pieces are
relatively position supportive with respect to one another.
The applique design may then be completed as indicated in
FIG. 5, by assembling the remaining applique pieces trimmed
from the adhesive-fabric laminate, and applying heat and
pressure to the assembly as by means of the iron 24 to
complete the appliqué design. In this final bonding of
appliqué pieces, the leaf pieces 18 are bondecl to the base
panel 10, and the center pieces 14 and 17 are bonded to
their respective flower patterns.
The resulting applique article wlLl have the variou~
pieces ~ir~ly bonded in the assembly by the heat reactiva-
table adhesive means 20 as best visualized in FIG. 6 where
the appliqué pieces which are in direct face-to-face relation
to the base panel 10 are directly bonded to the base panel
by the adhesive 20 and the pieces superimposed on the thus
bonded pieces, such as the center pieces 17 are bonded by
the adhesive to the appliqué pieces on which they are
superimposed. After all of the applique pieces have been
adhesively ~onded to the base panel 10, the hem stitching
19 may be c)plied if desired.
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1 It will be understood that variations and modifications
may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope
of the novel concepts of this invention.
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