Embroidery Online

Posts Tagged ‘Embroidering’

Free Machine Embroidery Designs

December 6th, 2011

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The sewing machine sitting in a corner of the room is a common sight of nearly every household. Throughout history, women of the household would spend time over the machine, stitching and embroidering garments, household items and gifts. Every once in a while, she glances over from the machine, lifts her creation up and smiles. Creating each masterpiece gives her immeasurable pleasure and pride in her accomplishments.

Embroidery has been an integral part of a woman’s life since time untold. Through technological improvements, from stitching with bones, to needles and now electric machines, methods have changed so much. Yet the essence of embroidery will always remain the same; using decorative and functional stitching to enhance and improve fabric projects.

Machine embroidery is the process of doing embroidery with a specialized sewing machine. The sewing machine creates tiny stitches in a predetermined pattern, which duplicates the pattern on the fabric, from electronic digital files. There is a wide variety of types of embroidery that can be done. Some of the main types of embroidery are appliqu, free standing lace, cutwork, full stitch and quilting. Women over the years have loved embroidery designs of all types. Embroidery designs are in certain shapes and sizes to serve specific purposes.

Embroidery Supplies for Hand and Machine Embroidering

April 14th, 2011

Do you want to adorn your living room or bedroom by displaying pillows embroidered with eye-catching designs? The secret doesnt lie on whether you made it by machine or by hand but on the embroidery supplies you use to craft it.

Before you make embroidery as a hobby, you have to determine first the method of embroidery you are comfortable with. Then, familiarize yourself with the various embroidery supplies and accessories available. Whether youll use machine or hand embroidery, it is important that you have the right tools you need for the type of work and the design you chose.

Hand Embroidering Supplies

Thread

The threads used in embroidery are further classified into two the stranded cotton and the soft cotton. The former is made up of six loosely twisted mercerized strands while the latter are designed for tapestry projects and bold hand embroidery.

Needles

Crewels, another term for embroidery needles, are offered in sizes that range from 0 to 10. These sharp hand needles are medium in length and have long eye that provides a room for a number of embroidery cotton strands that need to be threaded at the same time.

Patterns

If you want to embellish a piece of fabric, say pillow cover, you need to have beautiful and creative patterns. There are now a good number of embroidery supply stores that offer attractive patterns for towels, quilts, pillowcases, and the likes. Novice embroiderers also have nothing to worry about as there are various beginner patterns and starter kits offered especially at online stores.

Machine Embroidering Supplies

As expected, a switch from hand embroidery to machine embroidery means additional supplies. To mention some are the machine itself, the computer software, and various digital patterns.

Embroidering Machine

The machine youll get, particularly the new ones, contains basic patterns you can use. If you wish for a creative and more unique design, the net has lots of patterns to choose from. Some can be customized so you can put your personal touch. Just dont forget though to bring with you the model name and number of your machine so would be able to choose the patterns that work on it.

Editing Software

So you now have your design file. The next thing you can do is to edit or alter it to make your own design. Among the software editing programs to choose from are:

Digitilizing: This software includes stitch, and line types as well as border frame, and texture styles.

Lettering: Such software comes with choices of fonts and lettering styles as well as underlay types.

Other important features of software editing programs include display hoop, design locator, on-screen rulers, and lock stitches and trims.

Needles and Thread

These supplies are less expensive but are really important to achieve the embroidery project you have in mind. The thread used for machine embroidery is a special thread thats different from the ones used for hand embroidery. Though available in various sizes, the 40-weight needle is the commonly-used thread.

Such thread is also offered in various fiber choices ranging from natural to synthetic. Rayon, polyester, silk and cotton are among thread choices available in the market.

Before you went off to shop, be sure to bring with you a list of these necessary embroidery supplies because these are the stuff that will help you create quality embroidery result. Remember: with the right supplies, you will be able to do away with the usual embroidery problems.

How to Machine Embroider

April 17th, 2010

Machine embroidery adds a nice touch to gifts. Towels and pillows can be monogrammed or embroidered with a special design. Garments can be embellished by embroidering on a pocket or on the front of a shirt or jacket. Many sewing machines in today’s market are computerized and have the ability to embroider as well. Personalized gifts sewn by a special friend or relative are always appreciated.

The first step in machine embroidery is to decide on the design. This is quite easy because most computerized sewing/embroidery machines have many built in embroidery designs, and often involves just the touch of a screen. Most seamstresses will have a particular sewing project or gift in mind when deciding to embroider a design or monogram by machine.

When embroidering by machine, it is important to remember to use a good quality stabilizer on the back of the fabric. When embroidering a design on cotton fabric an iron on stabilizer may be appropriate, but there are also times when it is more appropriate to use a stiffer tear away stabilizer. If the embroidery design is dense, it may be useful to layer an iron on stabilizer with a tear away in order to make sure that the fabric doesn’t pucker around the design.

Using iron on or tear away stabilizers when embroidering on cotton fabrics works well, but terry cloth and fleece require some adittional stailizers on top of the fabric as well. When embroidering a design on terry cloth, the stitches have a tendency to sink down into the fabric. To prevent this, use a water soluble stabilizer on top of the fabric as well as using a stabilizer on the back of the fabric. Sewing machine embroidery on fleece fabric has the same requirements for stabilizers.

Stabilizers are important to machine embroidery, but it is also important to use the correct thread. Embroidery thread is thinner than regular sewing thread. Embroidery thread also has a sheen to it and is often acrylic, polyester, or rayon. There are many good embroidery threads available on the market today. Some of these are Janome, Robison Anton, and Madeira. Each brand provides a wide variety of color choices.

When embroidering by machine, it is also important to use a special bobbin thread because this thread is also very thin and will not show on the top of the fabric where the design is located. The bobbin thread is usually white, although other colors may also be available.

When deciding to embroider a design by machine, it is important to know which

Embroidery Designs by Hand

September 29th, 2009

Embroidery is one of the most interesting crafts that you can do at home and it has been enjoyed for a long time. Instead of it becoming a form of old art, it is still very popular. There have been some major things that have happened with technology that have changed and improved embroidery as an art form. Instead of having to use your hands to slowly create easy designs, the use of digital machines for embroidery, save time and money with this craft.

There are very few people that like the basic traditional way of creating embroidery designs by hand. Instead of using a machine to be the only way to create designs, they prefer to be creative with some of their own patterns. Hand embroidery gives them this option because when you are using a machine, you are depending on the digital machine and what it can do. This removes the users creativity because many of the designs are already in the computer.

Hand embroidery is harder to create and it takes up a large amount of time for completion. Otherwise, it would also need crystal clear eyesight and coordination for using the thread and cloth. It would also take a large amount of patience and creative ideas because the sewer would have to use their imagination for the designs. In the crowd of the kind of hand designs you can choose from, ribbon, canvas, lace, and cross-stitch exist.

Many years ages, the ribbon and lace embroidery was created a lot to bring about a floral embroidery design. This was an excellent pick for those who were beginners in the world of embroidering by hand because it was simple to learn compared to the other methods. For more info see http://www.allthingsembroidery.com/Embroidery_Designs/ on Embroidery Designs.

The cross-stitch has been the major and the most popular type of hand embroidering. This offers the sewer a larger amount of designs to pick from. It is also simple but it is intricate work in counting the amount of stitches and the many colors that are needed to give you the right design. In the use of canvas, the creator would use yarn and fabric to make many unique designs. It is not a good idea for beginners to start with canvas work because it needs a large amount of skills and experience.

It does not matter which embroidery type you pick, hand embroidery can give you a feeling of confidence in your designs because they are yours only. You can be creative and use your imagination in ways you could not before.

The Steep Learning Curve of Digitizing Embroidery Designs

August 16th, 2008

So you have your own embroidery machine and you want to use your own picture or pattern. Now what? How do you get your design digitized for your use?

The answer to that will depend on many things. Are you planning on embroidering as a hobby or will you be embroidering as a business? Is the program something you will use often, or will it sit unused on your hard drive for weeks or even months at a time? How much money do you have to spend? How much time do you have to spend? Remember, like any software, you can’t return embroidery digitizing software once you have the package open.

If you are embroidering as a hobby or even if you have your own business, you may decide to contract out to digitize your embroidery pattern. After all, digitizing programs can be expensive. Not to mention, how difficult it is to learn all the ins and outs of the program and the steps to digitize a pattern.

Most digitizing programs promise ‘auto-digitizing’ features. This is great in theory. However, if your graphic isn’t clean enough then you may spend a lot of time frustrated with your project. Many times, even if you have a clean graphic, you can’t just input the graphic and expect everything to turn out exactly how you planned it. Most likely, you’ll wind up wanting to go in and change something about how your design turned out.

Quite honestly, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, or what stitch type you need where, you may end up totally frustrated at the end of the day. Your best bet is to learn everything you can about digital embroidery. You need to know about registration, compensation, stitch angles, underlay, stitch types, fill patterns, tie-offs, in and out points, and so much more. If you don’t know these important points, not only will you end up frustrated, you may end up blaming yourself for the poor designs being generated by the digitizing software.

Before you spend your hard earned money on digitizing software, ask about classes in your area. Ask about digitizing classes in your area, or tutorials and training videos online. You will need the help and pointers. Be sure you fully understand all of the capabilities of the software you are considering. Make sure it is the right fit for your needs. Don’t be pressured into buying something that isn’t a good fit. Don’t be lulled into all the hype on the package or in a high pressure sales pitch and think that all you need to do is install the program, import the graphic and you’ll be ready to go.

Embroidery digitizing can be rewarding and fun, but it is an art form. Like any art form, be it playing the clarinet or painting a picture, practice is the best way for you to get more proficient at what you want to do.

Embroidery Online

Posts Tagged ‘Embroidering’

Free Machine Embroidery Designs

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Embroidery Supplies for Hand and Machine Embroidering

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How to Machine Embroider

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Embroidery Designs by Hand

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The Steep Learning Curve of Digitizing Embroidery Designs

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