Custom Embroidered Monogram for the Singer Featherweight Carrying Bag

Custom Monogram Embroidery for My Featherweight Bag

Before starting another paper pieced pineapple block or making more sawtooth star blocks for the bear paw quilt, I had one more bit of machine embroidered itch to scratch.  I am SO happy with the way this monogram came out on my Singer Featherweight carrying bag!

Both of my vintage Singer 221 Featherweight machines came with their original carrying cases, but I don't use them because: 1. They are made of wood, so they are heavy.  2. They are old and stinky.  3. They have no padding.  I spent a LOT of time looking for a cute, stylish soft carrying case for my Featherweights, and the best I could find was this plain black padded nylon bag from Allbrands for $45.  (It also comes in red, but it's not the perfect Singer red you want it to be -- it's more like McDonald's ketchup red).  So I got the black bag, and it fits a little Featherweight machine with its power cord, foot pedal, a little case of accessories, and maybe a little bit of fabric.  Functionally it was exactly what I wanted, but there was nothing exciting about it.

So today I spent a great deal of time playing in my embroidery software, looking through all of my monogram designs and experimenting with different combinations until I came up with this:


Monogram Design Image from Bernina Sofware

The gold medallion motif was custom digitized for me several years ago for an interior design client's project by Richards Jarden, the professional digitizer behind the gorgeous designs of Embroidery Arts.  (You can read about the original project we used this design for here).  Richards does such amazing work -- I highly recommend his retail designs as well as his custom digitizing services.  The medallion motif, based on an historical textile from the Hearst Castle, reminded me of the ornate gold decals on my early model Singer Featherweight machines.  I think I ended up selecting one of my True Type fonts to digitize within my Bernina v6 Designer Plus embroidery software for my initials.  The thread color is that iconic Singer red like the vintage Singer logo, the red felt spool pad, and the funky red and black houndstooth reproduction cloth cord that my husband used to rewire my 1935 Featherweight's original foot pedal:


Bette, my 1935 Singer Featherweight, with Red Reproduction Cloth Covered Cords

Of course, as great a machine as the Featherweight is for piecing quilts and for teaching kids to sew, she does NOT do machine embroidery.  That was a job for 'Nina, the Bernina 750 QE.

The hardest part about this project was getting this wood bottomed, bulky padded canvas bag secured and supported properly for stitching.  For me, the bag was inexpensive and ugly enough plain for it to be worth the risk of ruining it, but I would NOT recommend my methods for your favorite designer handbag!  I tried using that adhesive stabilizer stuff that everyone recommends but this bag was so heavy that it popped apart from the stabilizer while I was attaching the bag to the machine.  I had marked the center of where I wanted the design in chalk beforehand and I ended up just eyeballing that it was straight and holding the bag out of the way while my machine basted around the hoop perimeter, securing the bag to the hooped stabilizer.  I got really lucky -- I think it looks pretty darned good.

Holding the Bag Out of the Way During Stitching

See?  I stitched my design sideways, and I used large safety pins (diaper pin size) to pin up anything that might get caught while the embroidery module was moving.  Also, because my bag was so heavy, I held the weight of it up by the strap with my arm resting on top of the sewing machine throughout the entire 35 minutes of stitching.  (As you can also see, I'm wounded from crashing my bike into a post last weekend, but that's another story for another day).

Finished Embroidery

I really could not be more pleased with how my bag came out -- this is a great example of what a huge impact machine embroidery can make.  Note that I probably spent at least four hours working on the design (thinking about what I wanted, researching, playing around with different options that I ended up discarding), another hour or so fretting about how I was going to get that bag in the hoop and complaining about how come all of my ideas have to be so complicated, and then about 35 minutes of holding that bag up by its handle while my sewing machine stitched out the design.  So no, I am not going to monogram your purse/laptop bag/backpack/floormats in your car for you.  Don't even ask.

I did manage to get this done for Anders, though:

Personalized Bible Cover for Anders

Anders starts confirmation classes this year, and he will be presented with a new study bible at church tomorrow morning.  The kids carry their bibles back and forth in these zippered covers.  Again, this project was more of a pain than you would imagine -- I used one of the built in alphabet font stitches on the 'Nina 750, but the strap of this readymade bible cover doesn't have a lot of slack and it was dicey getting the feed dogs to work properly with the strap wrapped so snugly around the free arm of the machine.

I had a fleeting thought of monogramming the kids' backpacks as well, but I'm all embroidered out for awhile.  Tomorrow, I'm going back to quilting!

UPDATED 7/19/2016: I'm linking this post with Val's Featherweight-themed Archives Linky Party today!  Be sure to check out Val's post for links to even more Featherweight inspiration.

Bring On the Bling! 750 QE Sewing Machine Cover, Part Deux

Almost Finished: Sewing Machine Cover for my Bernina 750 QE

So, this is what my in-progress sewing machine cover looks like today.  I think it looks like a mailbox.  Anyway, if you missed my Part One post about this project, you can catch up with that here.  Moving right along...

After spending a good chunk of eternity free-motion quilting my Kaffe Fassett Millefiore fabric, I used the muslin mockup pieces as a pattern to cut the sewing machine cover pieces out of my quilted yardage, like so:

If I hadn't needed to precisely position a cutout at the back of the cover for my thread stand, I probably could have skipped that whole muslin mockup.  It took WAY too long to custom-quilt my project fabric for me to risk messing it up with a cutting error, so it was worth the extra effort in this situation. See how much quilting I did to get the stiffness I wanted?

Quilted Yardage, Back Side View

I had some leftover covered cording lying around that I had made for my master bedroom throw pillows last month, and I decided to use it up on my sewing machine cover:

The cord fabric is F. Schumacher's pattern 62613 Betwixt in Peacock/Seaglass, a VERY loosely woven, 100% cotton fabric that is flexible and soft, but bulky and thick.  The piping is 5/32" diameter, the largest size that I can make on the serger, which allowed me to contain the fraying fabric edges and maintain a perfectly even seam allowance.  Making the cording on the serger like this has the added benefit of compressing and flattening the seam allowance, which makes the cording as easy to use in the project as a readymade lip cord trim.  The fabric strips were cut on the bias to follow the weave pattern.

As you can see in the photos, I offset the piping from the edge of the red fabric pieces by about 1/8" -- that's because the widest setting on my serger was still not quite 1/2" and my sewing machine cover would have finished too big if I had just attached the piping with raw edges and serged edges aligned.  I used my 4D zipper foot with dual feed engaged to attach the piping on my 750 QE sewing machine. 

To finish off the raw edges of my sewing machine cover along the bottom edge and around the thread stand cutout, I wanted to bind it in the same Schumacher fabric, but it was way too bulky to double up and wrap it around the way you would do with a lightweight cotton quilt binding.  What I ended up doing is this: I measured and cut bias fabric strips that were wide enough to be doubled on the front side of the machine cover, but only a single thickness wraps around to the inside.  I overcast one raw edge of the fabric strip on the serger first, then serged the other raw edge of the contrast fabric strip directly to the right side of my sewing machine cover (lots of fun driving around the inside of the cutout shape on the serger, let me tell you, but I managed!):

Binding Fabric Serged to Right Side of Machine Cover Along Bottom, Top Edge is Free

Now I had both raveling raw edges controlled and the binding strip was attached to the right side of the machine cover with an approximately 1/4" serged seam.  I then wrapped the loose binding edge to the inside and pinned it in place, making sure I covered the serged stitching with the binding fabric:

Pinning the Binding Prior to Stitching

Then I used Edgestitch Foot #10 to stitch in the ditch next to the binding from the right side of the project, and that secured the loose binding neatly to the inside of the cover.

After finishing the binding, I popped the cover over my sewing machine, and it was not exciting enough.  It needed something...  a monogram!  I briefly considered embroidering "Bernina 750 QE" on the machine, but then I decided that it's MY machine, MY dust cover, and it should be MY initials.

I chose the Gothic 4 monogram style from Embroidery Arts, my hands-down, all-time favorite source for machine embroidered monogram designs.  This monogram collection includes one fat and one skinny version of each letter, designed to be stacked rather than side by side.  My first and last initials are both R, and I thought that stacking two different R designs would be more interesting than positioning two identical Rs side by side.  I combined and enlarged the two monogram designs in my Bernina v6 Designer Plus embroidery digitizing software until it just filled the maximum stitching area of my medium embroidery hoop, experimented with thread colors a bit, and came up with this:

Pretty cool, right?  Then I stitched out a sample of the altered embroidery design onto a leftover unquilted scrap of Millefiore fabric, layered with batting and muslin backing to approximate my project fabric as closely as possible.  I got this:

Sample Stitch Out of Altered Design on Project Fabric

See why they tell you to always do that sample stitch out, especially when you're using a design from a new supplier or after you've done extensive editing to the design?  The first thing I decided from my sample stitch out was that the fat R needed to be a darker thread color to stand out better against the busy background fabric.  But then I noticed additional issues upon closer inspection:


My satin stitches aren't close enough together to give good coverage.  Also, when I stretched, distorted, and resized the monogram letters in my embroidery software, evidently the software did not recognize that the outline stitching was in fact outline stitching -- since I stretched the letters to be taller, all of the vertical outline stitches just got longer instead of the software adding more stitches to maintain a consistent stitch length.  If you look at the stitches that go horizontally and around the small curves, those stitches are all much shorter.  So I went back into my design software and ungrouped the design so that I had four separate elements: the fat R, the outline of the fat R, the skinny R, and the outline of the skinny R.  Then I selected each satin stitched letter, went into Object Properties, and changed satin stitch spacing from Manual to Automatic.  That increased the number of total stitches in the combined monogram from about 10,000 to about 12,000.  Then I selected each outline and clicked on "Outline Stitch" at the bottom of my screen, which automatically redigitized those stitches so that they would be nice and even.  I COULD have done another sample stitch out at that point to make sure I was happy with the results, but I am impatient so I hooped up my sewing machine cover instead.  I like to live dangerously:

Still loving all of the extra throat space on this machine, by the way.  Even though I'm using the medium embroidery hoop, the stiffly quilted sewing machine cover is bulky and takes up a lot of space.  On a smaller sewing machine, all of that bulk might have interfered with the operation of the embroidery module.  I drew chalk lines to help me position the monogram so that it was perfectly straight and centered on one of the red circle blobs of my fabric print.  Ta da:

Now, if I HAD stitched this as a second test drive sample, I would have seen that I like having those outline stitches evenly spaced, but that the stitching showed up better when they were longer -- and I would have gone back into my digitizing software to change that before proceeding.  But I didn't, so this is what I've got.  I'm happy with the thread colors I chose for both letters, but I'm a little sad that I don't see the contrasting outline thread as much as I wanted to.  Also, the positioning of the monogram is kind of high on the sewing machine cover, the lettering is still disappearing into the busy quilted background more than I wanted it to, and I'm not in love with it yet. 

Monogram Embroidered, Still Not in Love

So I asked my husband, "Bernie, do you think this needs some beads?"

And he answered, "No-it-does-not-need-beads" the way he would rattle off a phone number or the make and model of some hot rod we passed on the interstate.  And this is how I knew that it DEFINITELY needed beads.

This is not the first time I have added hand stitched beads to machine embroidery.  I've done it with decorative machine stitches, too -- it gives the machine stitching more of an individualized, hand crafted look.  It's much easier to execute than hand embroidery, too, because you can use the perfectly-spaced machine stitching as a guide for perfectly spacing your beads.  In this case, I decided to place one seed bead every two outline stitches around each of the monogram letters.  It didn't take as long as it would have taken to embroider the monogram by hand (assuming I had the skill and ability to do that, which I don't).  But, as with most of my bright ideas, it took much, MUCH LONGER THAN I EXPECTED IT TO!  :-)

Machine Embroidery Plus Beads

After I had blinged up the monogram with seed beads, I had to outline the red circle with alternating iridescent peacock colored bugle beads and cobalt blue seed beads.  As you can see, that beaded circle is a bit wobbly in places, because I followed the fabric print and the circle was designed a little wobbly.  I think it's okay.  And then, finally, I put the cover on my sewing machine and felt like it looked done.

Enough Beads?

I had a fleeting temptation to decorate the rest of the cover with an assortment of beads and/or sequins to embellish and play up the fabric print, but then I remembered that this was supposed to be a QUICK AND EASY project and I do want to get back to the quilts I'm working on.  I can always add more beads later if I decide it needs more.

This cover may or may not be finished at this point for one more reason.  The cutout for the thread stand could probably use a button or two:

Does It Need Buttons?  Hooks and Eyes?

It wants to sag down at the opening, which makes for a less-than-tidy fit.  However, if I put buttons or ribbon ties or whatever, that will just be annoying when I take the cover on and off.  If I do decide to add buttons, I'd love to make some turquoise Chinese ball knot buttons or maybe add a funky frog closure...

[At this point, Rebecca opens up another browser window and pokes around on Etsy...]

-- Eureka!  Check out this vintage 1950s frog closure that I just found on Etsy from seller Duchess General!  Doesn't that just look like it was MADE for my sewing machine cover?  It's the exact blues and greens that I used for my monogram, and I scored it for only $7.49 including shipping.  Perfection!

Vintage Frog Closure, Coming Soon to My Mailbox

So when that comes in the mail, I'll figure out how to attach it and THEN my sewing machine cover will FINALLY be done!

I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, and with Esther's WOW WIP Wednesday linky party.  I'm also linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday which is hosted by Quilting Mod this week.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been working on this week! 

And the Quilt Goes On... Tips for Embroidery Repair and Perfect Patchwork Seams

Quilt Top is Complete!

I finished up the Dresden plate quilt top for my niece's birthday yesterday -- Yay!  Of course her birthday is TOMORROW and I still have to layer, baste, quilt, and bind this before I can ship it out, but at least the end is in sight.  I figure that as long as Sarah gets her gift before her brother James gets his (their birthdays are 6 days apart), I'll be okay.

Embroidering the Monogram Label with the Jumbo Hoop

I embroidered the monogram block on Thursday with my new Jumbo hoop.  This monogram/quilt label is approximately 7 1/2" wide by 8" tall, so it would have been impossible to embroider this on my old 200E/730E.  (If I had an 830 E machine, I could have made this design even bigger, up to 10" wide, but as you can see on my sewing machine's screen, the 7 Series machines cannot embroider in the leftmost 2" of the Jumbo Hoop because there isn't enough space in the harp area for the hoop).  Can I just tell you how much I LOVE this hoop?  It has an entirely different closing mechanism than the smaller hoops; it clicks into closed position and distributes the tension more evenly across the entire hoop rather than just at the location of the screw, if that makes sense.  After my recent research on machine embroidery best practices, I opted to fuse a layer of Polymesh to the cotton quilt fabric, and then floated a layer of midweight Clean and Tear stabilizer under the hoop.  My design stitched beautifully with NO puckering or distortion. 

Thread Loops (Circled) Due to Dull or Damaged Needle

The first color to stitch in this design was the blue scrollwork, and I noticed some little thread loops as this was stitching out.  My books say that thread loops are caused by a dull or defective needle.  This made sense, as I had the same embroidery needle in my machine that I had used for all of the blanket stitch applique to attach my plates to their background squares.  I switched to a brand new 80/12 Titanium plated Organ embroidery needle, and the remainder of the design stitched out perfectly with no more loopies. 

[Updated April 2013: Thread loops can also be caused by using a ballpoint needle rather than a sharp point needle on woven fabrics, or by using a needle that is too SMALL to allow thread to pass smoothly through the hole in the fabric while forming that satin stitch.  Next time I do a design like this on quilting cotton fabric, I'm going to use a size 90/14 Organ Embroidery SHARP needle, a 90/14 Topstitching Needle, or a 90/14 Microtex needle.  Using a thread net on slippery embroidery thread spools helps to eliminate the loops as well.]

However, what to do about those loops that were in the scrollwork?  I did NOT want to start over again, because it took about an hour and a half to sew out the design.  If I just trimmed the loops off with a scissor, the rest of the embroidery design would be compromised.  So, after unhooping my fabric, I used a snag repair tool to pull the loops to the back side.  It worked like magic. 

After removing the tearaway stabilizer and trimming the polymesh to within about 1/2" of the embroidery design, I pressed my embroidered fabric and then cut it into a 13 1/2" square for my center block.  I did not cut out the block prior to embroidery because the block was smaller than the size of the hoop.  I sewed the blocks together with the sashing and posts yesterday afternoon, and finally added 3" borders to the quilt (I'm planning to use 2" wide satin binding on the edges, so only 1" of my border will show on the finished quilt.  I have one more quick tip to share: You may already know this, but I had sewn on Berninas for years and it was still news to me when Kaye England told us in class how to get a perfect 1/4" patchwork seam on a Bernina machine. 

For a Perfect 1/4" Seam, Look at the Line on the Stitch Plate, NOT the Presser Foot

First of all, you should have a straight stitch plate on your sewing machine, especially if you have a 9 mm machine like my 750 QE.  Kaye recommends regular 80/12 Universal needles for patchwork pieceing and 50 weight Aurifil Mako cotton thread, so that's what I'm using here.  I have my #37 D Patchwork foot on my machine (the D indicates Dual Feed, so I have that little Dual Feed footsie engaged -- I really feel like it helps feed the fabric evenly, especially with the little 1/4" seam where the right feed dog is not in contact with the fabric).  Now, I've always used a #37 foot for piecing, and I've always used a straight stitch plate.  But I used to watch the presser foot when I was sewing, trying to keep the fabric edge even with the edge of the foot.  Kaye pointed out that there is a little groove line on my stitch plate for a 1/4" seam, and that you can get a perfect 1/4" seam by lining up your fabric edge with that little line on your stitch plate.  As long as your fabric is right next to that line, but not covering it, you'll get a perfect 1/4" seam every time.  I can't believe no one ever told me that before!

Borders Attached, Ready for Quilting

Now that the quilt top is assembled, I've decided to trim away the backing fabric behind each plate.  As usual, I did some internet research before coming to this conclusion, and found that removing the bulk of the backing fabric is strongly recommended for hand quilters, and optional for machine quilters.  My concern is that the extra layer of fabric behind each Dresden plate is making the quilt top feel too firm and stiff to me.  I want the finished quilt to be very fluid and snuggly, so I think trimming the backing fabric is the way to go. 

After that, it's time for my least favorite part of the quilting process -- layering and basting.  Since the Minky fabric I chose for my backing has stretch in one direction, it's especially important to do a good job of stabilizing it prior to quilting.  My internet research indicates that most quilters who are successful with Minky use a temporary adhesive spray for basting, and some even spray-baste first and then add pins for additional security.  Most quilters who spray baste seem to prefer 505 Spray and Fix Temporary Fabric Adhesive spray, which is what I use for embroidery so I already have a can of that upstairs.  I may or may not already have a good thread for the actual quilting in my hoarde, but even if I have the basting spray and quilting thread I will still have to run out to JoAnn Fabrics at some point over the weekend to purchase satin binding for the quilt edges.

The boys have piano lessons this afternoon and they each have some homework that I'll need to supervise, but I'm optimistic that I will be able to wrap this project up by Monday at the latest.  Wish me luck!

Monogram Quilt Label for Princess Petunia

Monogram Quilt Label Design for Sarah

Well, after spending an entire day trying to decide which floral print fabric I should use for the center of my niece's Dresden plate quilt, I've finally realized that the center block needs to be the tone on tone red chevron fabric.  I need someplace to embroider my niece's monogram and quilt label.  I'm not putting this on the back of the quilt because I'm using minky, so it has to go on the front and the center block is the only place it can go.  It just won't show up on a print, no matter which thread colors I choose -- and believe me, I tried out A LOT of them!



Print Fabric Rejected!

 Yuck, right?  So, no print fabric for the center block.

By the way, both of the images in this post are screen shots from my Bernina Designer Plus embroidery software, version 6.  I imported fabric photos into my design software so I could "preview" the embroidered label in different thread colors against the print background.  That's a very handy feature!

Here's what the design looks like with a plain white grid background:

I purchased the Tween monogram design from Embroidery Arts, including the circular scroll design, and then I stretched, rotated and aligned the monogram letters in my software program.  The "stitched with love" lettering is a True Type font from my PC that my software automatically converts to embroidery.  This design is going to be my first time using the Jumbo Hoop for my new sewing machine.

Hopefully I can embroider the center block this evening, assemble the blocks with sashing and add borders tomorrow, and then layer and quilt it on Friday.  Then the last step is to serge the outer edges of the quilt and finish it off with satin binding, and that will be either Friday or Saturday.  Talk about down to the wire -- the birthday is SUNDAY, and I still have to wrap and ship this quilt to New Jersey!

Monogram Magic: Playing with Embroidery Software

My New Monogram: Destined for my Sewing Machine Dust Covers

Since I had nothing better to do this afternoon (shh!), I've been playing in my Bernina embroidery software, and this is what I've come up with to decorate a dust cover for my new sewbaby.  Isn't that fun?  It's big; the design measures approximately 7 1/2" wide by 8 1/2" tall, and it has over 50,000 stitches.  It will be the first embroidery design that I stitch out with the Jumbo Hoop I bought for my B 750 QE sewbaby.


Original Bernina Design for the 830 LE

I didn't digitize this from scratch -- I started with a Bernina embroidery design for the 830 LE machine that you can download here for free, and then I deleted the "830," copied and pasted a few swirlies and deleted a few others, and then combined the Bernina design with an enlarged "R" monogram from Embroidery Arts' Gothic 10 collection, which you can purchase here.  I think this particular late nineteenth century leaf and vine monogram style is perfect, because the little satin-stitched leaves on the inside of the monogram look almost exactly like the little satin-stitched leaves in the upper right section of the Bernina design.  I wanted my new design to look just as seamless as the original, as though the monogram and the swirly background graphics had been digitized together.

Gothic 10 Monogram Collection from Embroidery Arts, here

I used my software to remove overlapping stitches, to change the flower at top right from black to red, and to resequence the order of stitching to my liking, and then I printed out a full-size template of the design that I'll be able to use for placement. 

I have some other sewing that I've committed to finish up by the end of this week, plus I've got the carpool tag mini quilt and Princess Petunia's Dresden Plate quilt vying for my attention, so I won't be starting this new project right away.  At least I've got my design modified and ready to stitch out.

Seriously, I have LOTS that I should be doing right now.  I can't believe it's after 3 o'clock already. 

Enjoy what's left of your weekend!

In Which Otto, My Rottweiler, Teaches Machine-Embroidered Applique on the Bernina 750QE



Otto Supervises Embroidery on the Bernina 750QE

So my Rottweiler has been doing a bit of embroidery with my new Bernina 750QE...  :-)  Otto was fascinated by the noises and movement of the embroidery module.  It was very cute.

 

I came up with an Inaugural Project to help me get to know the new sewbaby.  It's going to be a mini quilt, smaller than a place mat, with our last name appliqued in large capital letters. It's the I'm Too Cool for School Carpool Tag to replace the boring, laminated name tags that were distributed to us by the school.  After I do the machine-embroidered applique I'll add some borders, layer it with batting and backing so I can test out the BSR function with some free-motion quilting (maybe can incorporate one of the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenges that I still need to complete).  Finally, I'll test out the dual feed feature when I attach the binding.  By the time it's finished, I should be pretty comfortable with my new sewing machine.

Applique 4 Alphabet from Embroidery Arts

I selected the Applique 4 monogram font from Embroidery Arts, and I combined the letters in my Artista Designer Embroidery Software, sizing the letters to completely fill the Mega Hoop (which I have owned for at least 7 years and have never taken out of the box!) and using the vertical alignment tool to fine-tune the spacing. 

Disclaimer: I am not what you'd call a frequent machine embroiderer.  In the past, my embroidery module has only come out every 6 months or so, for quilting "in the hoop" or a monogrammed baby blanket gift.  The actual embroidery process is very easy -- all you have to do is thread the machine, press the start button, and then clip the thread and rethread with the next color when prompted by your machine.  The tricky part of machine embroidery is getting your fabric into the hoop properly so that it is taught, but not stretched, correctly stabilized to support the density of your chosen embroidery design, and positioned in your hoop so that your design can stitch out exactly where you want it to go. 

See that pesky puckering?

I hooped my solid black, quilting weight cotton fabric with one layer of lightweight tearaway stabilizer, and noticed puckering around the very first letter as the design began to sew out.  Grr!  The puckering didn't look too severe, and I figured I could probably steam it out with the iron later, so I kept going.  I floated an additional layer of the tearaway stabilizer under the hoop for the last 3 letters of our name, and that almost completely eliminated the issue.  Yay!

Completed design.  Additional stabilizer was used with the "MPF" to eliminate puckering.  Not bad, right?

...Except, NOT yay.  It turns out that inadequate stabilizing was only part of the problem.  I must have stretched the snot out of my fabric when I hooped it, because once the embroidery was complete and I removed the hoop, the fabric relaxed and even MORE puckering appeared!  I was able to steam most of it away around the letters that had the additional layer of stabilizer, but the first two letters look pretty bad. 

Stretched In the Hoop -- See all those awful wrinkly puckers now that the hoop is removed?!

Could I "quilt this out?"  Maybe -- but the point of this whole project was supposed to be a learning exercise, so I'm decided to start over.  I'm not wild about how severe the lettering looks against the black background, anyway.  Puckers aside, I'm just not loving the combination of fabrics, thread color and font style.  I chose those fabrics based on the need for the name to be visible and legible from a distance, viewed through the windshield of my car -- but I think it ended up looking like a neon sign at night.  I didn't realize how heavy that satin-stitched edge was going to be.  The letters looked really cute in that fabric when I cut them out:

Pre-Cut Applique Letters, Prior to Stitching

So the next day, I tried again.  This time, I hooped my fabric along with TWO layers of OESD Clean and Tear tearaway stabilizer, and tried to be more careful about stretching.  I chose a red Eiffel Tower print for the background and a black and white stripe for the lettering.  This particular alphabet was inspired by the Art Nouveau artistic style that was very influential in Paris around the time when the Eiffel Tower was conceived and constructed for the 1889 and 1900 World Fairs, so it felt appropriate to pair them together. 

Second Attempt with 2 layers of OESD Clean & Tear

Still not perfect, but much better, don't you think?  I was really careful to keep my towers straight.  Also, I should mention that I printed out full-size templates of each applique letter from my embroidery software, then traced them (upside down!) to Wonder Under fusible web.  I cut each letter out as a rough square, fused that piece to a scrap of striped fabric -- carefully aligning the stripes -- and THEN carefully cut out each letter with a small, sharp scissors prior to starting the machine embroidered applique.  I took some photos of this process with the original applique fabric:

Lettering Traced BACKWARDS onto Fusible Web, then Fused to WS of Applique Fabric

That way, after the machine has sewn the placement line, I carefully remove the hoop from my machine, place it on my ironing board, positioned my pre-cut letter inside the stitched outline, and fuse it in place with my mini iron.  Once the letter has been fused in place precisely where it belongs, I reattach the hoop and the machine is ready to do the tackdown, underlay, and satin stitches with no additional fabric trimming required. 

The directions for machine embroidered applique designs usually call for putting an oversized scrap of fabric down over that placement line and trimming the excess fabric away in between the tackdown stitch and the satin stitch, but I think it would be a nightmare to try to cut these letters after they were already stitched down in the hoop.

See, I still have a bit of a wave at the edge of this piece, but it's much better than the first attempt and I think I can work with it.  I really, REALLY love the way the fabrics and font style work together.

Mega Hoop has TWO screws, not just one!

I should mention at this point that, when I was packing away my Mega Hoop, I noticed that it has TWO adjustment screws -- the one at the top left that I had been loosening and tightening to hoop my fabric (near the R), and ANOTHER adjustment screw at the lower right corner that I hadn't even noticed.  Did I mention that I've never used this hoop before?  Now I'm thinking that, if I had loosened BOTH screws the way I was supposed to, it would have been much easier to get the fabric into the hoop smooth and taut WITHOUT stretching it.  Note to self: the Mega Hoop has TWO SCREWS!

So, to sum things up: today I learned (again!) that I probably need more stabilizer for embroidery than I think I do, especially when I'm working with light weight fabrics and heavy satin-stitched designs.  I also learned that I need to loosen the outer hoop more (with BOTH screws) before I cram the inner hoop, fabric, and stabilizer into it so the fabric isn't stretched and distorted in the hooping process.  In fact, since I'm planning to quilt this piece anyway, I probably should have layered a thin cotton quilt batting between the fabric and stabilizers prior to hooping it -- the batting would have provided even more support for my embroidery design.

Next time I show you my Too Cool For School Carpool Tag, I'll probably be adding borders of some sort.  I haven't decided what I want them to look like yet.


Trepidation, Terror & Triumph: Test Monogram of the Lee Jofa Cut Velvet Fabric

Even the most seasoned sewists -- a group which does not, by the way, include me -- have occasional stage fright when it comes time to cut into expensive fabric. When my mother made my sisters' wedding gowns, she spread the fabric out on the dining room table and left it there for weeks before she did anything with it. Each day, she'd go into the dining room, circle around the table and just look at the fabric, picking anxiously at her fingers and wondering what on Earth made her think she could tackle a project of such magnitude... But eventually she mustered up the courage to cut into that fabric and sew two beautiful gowns.


I'm not sewing any bridal gowns, but I've been procrastinating a bit on a monogram project for a client. I designed a 20" square monogram pillow as part of a client's custom bedding ensemble, and although I don't typically sew for clients anymore, this particular pillow is a new-and-improved version of one I did for the client a couple of years ago and since I monogrammed the fabric myself last time, I figured I should do it again this time. I still had the Victorian 12 "M" design from Embroidery Arts that I had enlarged and saved in the correct format for my Bernina Artista sewing machine on my hard drive. All I had to do was stitch it out again on the new fabric, with the new thread color. Piece of cake, right?

WRONG! The new fabric, Penzance Velvet in Brass from Lee Jofa, costs close to $400 per yard. I have only one yard to work with, and two 20" pillow squares need to be cut out of that piece of fabric. There's not much room for error. Since I don't have much in the way of extra fabric for experimentation, I decided to practice on the memo sample I checked out of the showroom. Shhh... don't tell anyone! This fabulous, yummy fabric is going to be a challenge to embroider for a couple of reasons. First, it's a velvet -- that means I can't hoop it, or I'll have a permanent oval shaped "hoop burn" indentation in the finished project. Plus, similar to a terry cloth bath towel, the velvet pile is going to have a tendency to want to poke up through my embroidery stitches, particularly since my design uses long satin stitches. I'm also concerned about the uneven surface of this cut velvet fabric, since the flat areas between the velvet pile squiggles are like little valleys in the fabric.

So here's the plan: I hooped a single layer of OESD Clean and Tear stabilizer, which I then sprayed with 505 Temporary Spray Adhesive so I could stick my velvet fabric down without actually hooping it. I then laid a sheet of a pretty thick clear topper (don't know what it is exactly, since the label is missing off the roll and I've had it a long time). It's not a water-soluble stabilizer like Sulky Solvy, though; I need something permanent that will remain beneath the embroidery stitches to keep the velvet pile under control indefinitely. I didn't risk using spray adhesive to secure the clear topper either, because I had a bad experience doing that once with a plush terry pile -- when I tore off the topper after embroidering, little clumps of fuzz were ripped off the towel with it and the poor little towel looked like it had mange.

So I decided to try a basting stitch just inside the hoop to hold down the topper and secure all three layers in the hoop: stabilizer, fabric, and topper, crossing my fingers in hopes that the basting stitch wouldn't leave a line in the fabric once I pulled out the thread.
This is my finished sample. The topper and stabilizer combo worked well, and thankfully, I was able to fluff the velvet pile back into place with my fingernail to "erase" the line from the basting stitches after I pulled them out. I am about 90% satisfied with the way this test stitched out.


...Here's the 10% Room For Improvement factor. Even with the topper trapping the velvet pile, I still don't have a clean enough edge to the embroidered areas. See how it looks a bit feathered up close? So I opened the design up in my embroidery software again, changed the fabric settings, and increased the stitch density of the design. Whereas this test sample had a total of 8052 stitches, the tweaked design is going to have 8559 stitches. Hopefully that will fill the design in better without creating so much thread buildup that I get giant thread nests and broken needles. If the denser design still has sparse areas here and there, I'll thread up a hand needle and fine-tune the embroidery by hand after the machine work is done. Another change I'm making is to increase the basting stitch length from 2.0 mm to 3.0 mm. That should still hold the layers together nicely, but will be easier to pick out after the embroidery is finished.
So now, it's 9:30 PM. I really want to bring this embroidered fabric to my drapery workroom tomorrow morning with a batch of other fabrics I'm dropping off, and I don't want to be up all night. I still have work orders to write, too. Do I stitch another test sample to see how my changes affect the way the design stitches out, or am I going to be a gambling woman and just go for it? Keep in mind that I don't do machine embroidery very often, and I haven't really used my embroidery software at all since I upgraded to the newest version and took the mastery classes. It's entirely possible that I screwed something up (which is why I saved the revised design under a new file name and retained the original). I wonder if I have enough of the real fabric to do one more test and still have enough for the front and back of the pillow? I guess I'll find out when I get upstairs to my studio. Wish me luck!