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Your First Machine Embroidery Project – A Beginner’s Guide
Start Your First Machine Embroidery Project! by Pamela Cox It’s time to start your first machine embroidery project to wrap up National Embroidery Month! We’ve covered how to start adding machine embroidery techniques into your sewing repertoire, and we’ve defined the must-know machine embroidery terms. Now it’s time for the fun stuff–embroidering that first project. WHERE TO FIND MACHINE EMBROIDERY PROJECTS The internet is a veritable salad bar of sewing, quilting and machine embroidery projects. How do we know which ones are good for beginners? Narrow your search by being very specific. What do YOU want to make (think small, and go bigger once you’ve had more practice.)? Do you…
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Understanding Machine Embroidery Terms
Understanding Machine Embroidery Terms by Pamela Cox Understanding machine embroidery terms is essential for navigating through techniques and expanding your machine embroidery skills. Don’t hold back on adding machine embroidery to your sewing bag of tricks because of the word “computerized” or “digital.” Enjoying machine embroidery doesn’t require expert-level computer knowledge! The embroidery machine (a computer in its own right) easily interfaces, or “works with,” the home computer with little effort and minimum knowledge. Machine Embroidery Design Language Why can you not view an embroidery design on your home computer without using software? Embroidery designs are created only for specialized computers, specifically embroidery machines. A home computer, which can perform…
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Machine Embroidery for Beginners – How to Start
Machine Embroidery for Beginners how to get started with machine embroidery by Pamela Cox Machine embroidery is a fun sewing technique that allows you to personalize readymade items and custom sewing projects. It’s a simple embellishment to learn once you understand the fundamentals, because the machine does most of the work for you! Let’s delve in to the world of machine embroidery to see just how simple and fun it can be. Whether you consider yourself a quilter, garment sewist, home-dec aficionado, cross-stitcher, tailor or general crafter, machine embroidery is a technique that adds another layer to your creativity. Think you need to be a super advanced sewist in order…
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Halloween Hat with Puffy & Glowy Embroidery
Plush Hat for Halloween + Make it Glow! by Pamela Cox Create a fun hat with Glow embroidery to wear on Halloween night and beyond! The glow-in-the-dark thread is punctuated by Sulky Puffy Foam, which makes the embroidery stand proud atop the plush fabric surface. HALLOWEEN HAT PREP Download the free Sulky Fleece Hat Pattern. Additionally, download the free embroidery design in the format of your choice. Gather the supplies listed in the pattern directions with the following exceptions: Use Sulky Puffy Foam™-2mm as top stabilizer. For the embroidery design, use Glowy thread in the color of your choice. Use a size 100/16 Organ universal or topstitch needle for the embroidery.…
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Machine Embroidered Christmas Pillow with Removable Tags
Add some holiday cheer to any room with a simple embroidered Christmas Pillow. After the holidays, slip the pillow form out and easily store the embroidered Christmas pillow sham until next year. Hold on to the pillow form to create a new cover, a new design for every month of the year, for an ever-changing home accent. Embroidered Christmas Pillow designed by Pamela Cox. Supplies ⅛ yard – wool felt ½ yard of Osnaburg utility fabric (prewash, dry, and press) ½ yard of decorative ribbon – 2 3/8” wide ½ yard of decorative ribbon – 1/2” wide …
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Rainbow Felt Wreath with Hand Embroidery
With so much rain (and even snow) in much of the country we’re looking for the rainbows and sunny days ahead! Whip up a rainbow felt wreath to bring some color to your front door and start searching for that pot of gold. Rebecca Greco shares just how fun and easy making this rainbow felt wreath is. Not only does it only take a few hours to stitch, it doesn’t require many materials, either. Make one for a retiring teacher or lunch helper to say goodbye once school is out for summer – or one for yourself! Add an initial or monogram to the center for even more personalization. This…
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Matchstick Quilting Quilt Block – Kelly Nagel
This matchstick quilt block is named as such because of the matchstick quilting it features, which really calls attention to the brightly colored thread used on a neutral background. Matchstick quilting is basically straight line quilting but a bit wonky. The stitching lines are placed about a matchstick-length apart, and just like a burned matchstick, the lines aren’t perfectly straight. For this quilt block, we’ll take matchstick quilting one step beyond and use the negative space in the quilting to spell out a name. This process is easy with Sulky Stick ‘n Stitch. Stick ‘n Stitch is a water soluble sticky back stabilizer that is a great tool for straight…
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The Girl Scout Pillowcase + Giving Back
Continuing our monthly Pillowcases for People in Need charity effort, we’re bringing you ideas for introducing sewing to others while giving back: the Girl Scout Pillowcase. Organizing a pillowcase sew-a-thon with your local guild, teaching a neighbor or child to sew a pillowcase or helping a Girl Scout troop earn their badges while doing good–these are all great ideas for spreading the love of sewing while helping those in need. So, what are you waiting for? Pop on some educational songs for children from the KLS YouTube channel and get stuck into this fantastic learning opportunity. Girl Scout Pillowcase Some of my favorite memories from childhood are from Girl Scouts.…
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Make A St. Patricks Day Coaster
Make a St. Patrick’s Day Coaster or Mug Rug for your Shamrock Shake or Green Tea and cozy up to some wool felt applique! I have a soft spot for the minor holidays like Valentine’s Day, Arbor Day, Pi Day and of course, St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe it’s because it’s March and I love green and the promise of spring. Maybe because I could eat corned beef and sauerkraut every day. Or maybe it’s just a great excuse to have a party and stitch something new. My other addiction is coffee. So I decided to design a St. Patrick’s Day coaster or Mug Rug that celebrated both. Instead of…
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Sew a Kraft-tex Bag
Sew a Kraft-tex Bag – Blog Hop Make a modern and versatile messenger bag look even cooler and sew a kraft-tex bag with Kraft-tex Kraft Paper Fabric! I have to admit, I have been intrigued with kraft-tex Kraft Paper Fabric since it first came out. We even did a webinar with kraft-tex (watch it on-demand here)! kraft-tex looks and feels like paper, but it sews and mashes like fabric. It’s such a fun textile to use when you want to create a very unique look. Stash books has a great new book, Sew kraft-tex Bags, Tips & Techniques for Working with Kraft Paper Fabric. I chose to make the Stem…
