Friday, December 20, 2013

Machine Embroidery the up hill learning curve

Last Christmas my lovely husband bought me a new sewing/embroidery machine. He thought I would like it and have fun. I was flattered by such a generous gift. Little did I realize what a can of worms he was opening up.
I am the kind of person that really likes the challenge of sewing complicated patterns or complicated or difficult to work with materials. I have to say as a result many of my finished products go in the trash. This is because even though I enjoyed the process the end result is not what I want to wear. Sometimes I come up with an item I really like. I rarely make the same thing twice.
Using the embroidery part of the machine was the easy part. Learning about the software and how to tweak the designs, using the correct stabilizer, using the different types of threads and needles, getting the fabrics to hoop correctly has been a tedious pain in the neck.. I am also in danger of buying too many designs as well.
towel set for mom

dish towel for me

dish towel for mom
The other part of this has been taking two classes that were not local so that I could learn from an expert on the machine I had been given. When I had been given this machine I had no prior experience with embroidery machines. Another issue is when I tried discussing my issues some of my acquaintances would turn up their nose to the brand my husband bought me and they would say, Oh he should have bought you a "blank-brand". After one year of futzing with this machine I have finally been getting some great results. I can tell you that doing machine embroidery is very time consuming until you know what you are doing. I have so many failures it isn't funny but you know I feel a sense of accomplishment at this point. I have only done half of the types of things one can do with an embroidery machine. So that is a long explanation of why I have been neglecting my blog. I am going to take photos of my projects so you can see what I have been up to.
One of the things I wanted to be able to do was monogram a set of towels. Well here are the first set.
stand alone butterfly and flower

stacked flowers
The second thing I wanted to be able to do was make stand alone lace or flowers that could be used to embellish things.
purse embellishment

The last thing I most recently wanted to do was embroider on scarves. This one did not come out well the fabric tore... don't know why. I guess it was a cheap scarf.

The final project was not done on the embroidery machine. It was a purse project that I wanted to make to use up some of my African fabric and some batik fabric I had on hand, It is a kaleidoscope of fabrics and very hippish if I do say so myself.