What are all those pre-loaded stitches for?

In my recent review of the Janome MC8900 I mentioned that it came pre-loaded with over 250 decorative and utility stitches. So what in the world are they good for? Many things, actually. If you're a beginning sewist you'll probably decide you don't really need them and you're good with just a basic machine that has basic utility stitches (ie., straight lines, satin stitches, zigzags, etc.) and you'll be right. However, if you do invest in a machine like the 8900, you'll see that it has all of these fancy stitches and start thinking about putting them on dresses for little girls, shirts for boys, edgings on jeans and shorts, along curtain bottoms and insets in panels, table runners, pillowcases and on and on and on.

If you're a quilter, your mind will probably start to wander toward art quilts. Craftsy has a great class on how to use these stitches for your quilts to create fabulous works of art that are original and beautiful! The class is called Stupendous Stitching and I have recently enrolled in it, as art quilts are on my bucket list. And for the remainder of the day, this class is on sale for $19.99 - $10 off the original price.

I don't get in to hand embroidery much, but I do a lot of machine embroidery using my Brother SE400. The designs for them are fantastic and numerous, but I'm really limited on what I can do with a hoop and a pre-made design. I don't have design software, so I use what I find on the internet - mostly at Embroidery Library or Urban Threads. So the ability to combine stitches and make visual interest in quilts and other items is an attractive option. Janome also has a circular sewing attachment that lets you make these stitches in circular patterns. They even have a video about it. With only a 4" x 4" space available in my hooped embroidery machine, 10" seems like a big deal! Oh, imagine the possibilities: Framing a picture transferred to fabric, designing intricate circular motifs, creating quilted patterns, and probably more than I can think of!

The projects that have shown up through this Craftsy course are fantastic. I wish I had permission to show them, but you'll just have to follow the link to see. These folks let their imaginations run wild and created visually interesting and useful items. So take a look, enroll in a course, try out those stitches, and discover what you can do today!!!!

Embroidering Neoprene Can Koozies with Plastic Overlay

Can Koozies are fun to embroider. They require a small design, are quick, and sew up fast when finished. I saw a tutorial for them on Embroidery Library: Kenny's Korner and I immediately set about ordering some of the blanks from The SewPhisticated Stitcher. I later found some that are slightly less expensive on Allstitch, but the customer service from Sewphisticated is above and beyond great! I was very excited when I got them AND my box of new Madeira embroidery thread. I ordered the regular can blanks and some wraps. As you can see, some of the wraps have some very neat zebra designs on them.

I decided to embroider one for each of the kids, giving me five samples. Two of my girls choose the zebra stripes, but I found that when I tried to embroider them, I was having some serious problems. I was using a titanium embroidery needle, Madeira thread, and proper stabilizer for the project, but my thread kept breaking. Every time I would come close to the plastic in the stripes my thread would ravel and tear. I had never had this problem before. I decided to leave it be for a while and embroider the others.

Not being one to give up easily, I scoured the internet for suggestions on this problem. I couldn't find anything about it. So I started thinking, "I just need a smoother surface so that the needle doesn't catch." Solution? Embroidery topping. My local quilt/embroidery store carries it at $1.25/yd for water soluble topping. Topping is just a thin material that is usually used over towels and napped material to prevent the embroidery stitches from sinking into the material.

Today I sat down and embroidered two of the zebra striped koozies using the topping. My thread broke twice, in the same place in the design each time. But compared to the constant breakage and raveling of my previous experience, I believe that this was a successful experiment.

Foot Fetish

I have a confession to make. I have a serious foot fetish. It just started recently. About 6 months ago I think. About the time I started working on quilts. The darning foot available for my Singer started it all. I had no idea how to do free motion quilting on a machine. So after multiple You Tube videos, I realized that I needed a different foot to help me on my journey. This discovery led me on another one, in which I realized that I could also change out the feet on my serger and insert elastics, cording, ruffles, and so much more. I was hooked.

Recently I bought a Brother SE400 Embroidery and Sewing machine from Amazon. I wanted to do the embroidery work and thought it would be great to have a computerized sewing machine. Along with my machine came a whole slew of different feet for attaching zippers, zig-zags, buttons, and much more. I immediately bought a 1/4 inch piecing foot and am waiting on my walking foot to arrive. I use these feet all of the time. They make my sewing so much easier.

In fact, for the embroidery portion of the machine it requires a special embroidery foot. I had stitched multiple items in the first few weeks, marveling over the beauty of stitching I didn't have to do. A quilt project came my way that required multiple words embroidered on the background. I wasted a lot of thread and material, learning how to stitch the letters so they would line up and be straight. Anyway, I was ready to work on a portion of it and had all of my stabilizer on, the material hooped up, and my machine threaded. I set up the word and was let it go. To my utter horror the stitching started bunching up under the foot, the stitches were skipping, and the fill in was not filling in. I nearly cried because this had already been a four day project.

So I went down to Hobby Lobby to get my normal stabilizer, thinking that the Sulky iron-on must be the problem. I bought more thread and was walking back up to the register when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn't changed out the foot on my machine. I was using the zig-zag foot instead of the embroidery foot. I couldn't get home fast enough to fix my error.

Foot fetishes are a good thing. I have my eye on a binding foot and a ruffler. I mean, how can I possibly sew my best if I don't have all of the equipment necessary to do so? And I'm sorry if you were disappointed that I don't have a REAL foot fetish. But I think this one is much cleaner and less smelly. :)