 Re: How does applique work on commercial machine?
You can do it either way. I usually make my die line a different color and don't program the machine for a needle change (leave it at 0) after the die line sews. It stops, I lay my fabric on the die line and hit sew again. Nothing to it. Or you can program a stop into the design as you make it. Or you can even just stop the machine after it sews the die line, put down your fabric and hit sew again. All three work fine. For me, if I have a shape that I want applique in, I insert that shape in my digitizing software. Then I convert to outline , add a column or applique outline to that, and delete the shape. Hope that makes sense. Then I also make a separate file with just the die line that I can send to my cutter. I can cut as many exact shapes as I want then and they will always turn out perfect. And they can also be very intricate. | 
