Weekly Special
Note from Eileen: A big welcome to guest blogger Lorraine Allen! Many of you may remember Lorraine when she worked in customer service here at Designs. Now she’s living in Utah and is definitely missed in Dallas. Since I’m on my honeymoon I thought I’d let Lorraine share an easy t-shirt makeover. It’s so...
Placement Guides, Alignment Marks, Placement Marks, What’s the Difference? No matter what you call them, they are a visual aid to place fabric in a hoop so that the design stitches exactly where planned. Placement Guides A placement guide is usually a running stitch partial outline of an item such as a collar point,...
Let me introduce you to PAL – Perfect Alignment Laser. I use PAL for common machine embroidery tasks: finding the center of a quilt block or pocket, squaring my fabric/design in the hoop and continuous embroidery. First, I’ll show you how easy it is to set up PAL in your sewing room. Once it’s...
A few weeks ago blog reader Dee Bratcher wrote: “Thank you for all the articles, sharing of projects, etc, now I just need to find more time in a day to work on all the things I see – can you help with that? Seriously – quick tips, streamlining processes, shortcuts and things not...
Hmm, why another t-shirt? I must confess, I live in them, I’m always on the prowl for the perfect t-shirt. And recently I found one that I just love – for $6.99. Wore it one day, felt so comfortable I went back and bought 6 more. Well, half of them are for testing embellishment...
Last week we talked about the power of color and what an impact certain combinations make on a finished project. I’ve learned that value is just as important. The value of a color is the amount of white or black that’s been added to its true color. Value is what separates one fabric from another...
Take a look at the new images at the header of this page – they’re all from my new book, Machine Embroidered Quilting and Applique. I had a blast creating this book! I think my favorite part was picking the fabrics. And boy, did I learn a few things along the way that I’d...
1. Find a focal point. Examine the garment to determine if there’s a design detail that could serve as the starting or focal point for the embroidery. On this plain sheath, the slit is the only detail. I can choose to accent it or ignore it. 2. Sketch a few possibilities. You don’t have...
Combining embroidery with patterned fabric is challenging but here are a few tips for a successful outcome. • Add a plain fabric as the base for the embroidery. • Take your color cues from the printed fabric. • Differentiate the scale of the embroidery In this tunic, I selected a base fabric (manufacturer unknown)...
Sometimes I rush through an embroidery project and don’t take the time to think through each step of the process. Often, this is how mistakes are made. Print this checklist and keep it by your machine as a reminder of the 25 little steps you should take to ensure your embroidery comes out beautifully....
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