Embroider as You Sew

If you are making a garment, quilt, hat, bag, curtains or whatever, embroider first, then cut and sew. You will achieve better placement and the finished item will not be distorted by the embroidery. If stitching the embroidery design becomes an irrevocable disaster, you will likely have enough fabric to stitch it on a new piece, and your finished item will still be perfect.

Lay out the pattern pieces as if to cut the fabric. Leave an extra inch around any piece that will be embroidered. Rough-cut the piece to be embroidered with an extra margin of at least 1 inch all around. Press the fabric to remove any wrinkles. Use tailor's chalk to draw the pattern shape.

From your embroidery software, print the design in actual size to create a paper template. Mark the center and top center of the design (your software may do this for you) by folding the paper. Unfold. trim around the design. Place the template on your fabric, playing with different positions and angles until you like what you see.

Mark where the center of the embroidery design will go. A little sticker left over from a CD label or the sticky edge of a Post-It Note can be used to mark the center (put a dot on the label to mark the exact center, with an arrow pointing toward the top of the design). Or use two crossed straight pins, with one pin pointing toward the top of the design and the other pointing toward the right, and the center of the design is where the two pins cross. Or you can tape the paper pattern to the fabric.

If the fabric piece is too small to hoop, pin or baste it to stabilizer. When hooping, pay attention to the arrow on the sticker (or the direction of the pins or the fold lines on the paper template) so that the design will stitch at the intended angle. Move the hoop so the design is centered over the dot on the sticker (or the crossed pins or the center of the paper template). Remove the sticker (or pins or paper), then embroider. Press the fabric again to remove any hoop marks. Now cut the pattern piece and sew.

Next issue: adapting a design

from Mary Jane Allen of Perfect Little Stitches

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Masterpiece
Neutral Bobbin Sets

Neutral colors are the most popular
when it comes to bobbin thread.
We now have two new assortment
sets. Neutrals Light contain four light
MasterPiece colors (3 bobbins each). Neutrals Dark contain four darker
MasterPiece colors (3 bobbins each).

These same color sets are also
available in regular spool sets
(not prewound bobbins).

Animal Slippers



Assorted animal faces on slippers to fit baby dolls through toddler size 2.
Made in the hoop with minimal sewing. Cute!