Blog Archives

Fall Machine Embroidery With Variegated Thread

9/21/2022

Fall is here and the changing seasons mean more inside crafting to come; but, maybe you are in a dry creative place. It's totally ok to say that and I would encourage you. This summer has been a busy one for me as I decided to go deep into quilting. In fact, I created three smaller quilts, one queen size and one king size in the span of a few months. I immersed myself in so many detailed techniques, that I have run my tank a little low. So how do you get some of that tank filled up? You go easy on yourself and instead of hard projects, you do simple.

How's this for a pretty fall embroidery design? When I digitized it, the colors were plain, but the stich out gets a WOW factor from variegated thread. I took my time while digitizing this brand new Love Fall Most Of All embroidery design. I didn't think about anything in particular and just played. Once I was done, I did feel that tank slowly filling. Using the variegated thread added a little pizazz. So instead of needing too much extra energy to make a complicated design, thread makes it pop. Sometimes you just need
SIMPLE.

I sewed a cute little mug rug out of the stitch out and that made me feel even better because I realized my creative MOJO isn't gone, it just needs to get on a different track for a while. Do you sometimes feel that way? Maybe you need to pivot and do something different for a while. Changing weather and seasons are exciting for some people. Others have a harder time. You do you. Your sewing and crafting will be there waiting for you when you are ready.

Here are some other ideas for this Love Fall Most Of All embroidery design. You can click on the link to see it in my store. I also have a video below that shows the actual stitch out and finished mug rug. Maybe it will inspire you to do a small project and get past that creative block.

Welcome Fall and our future crafting endeavors! I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work

Install A Patch Over A Monogram For Busy Prints

9/12/2022

Monograms on backpacks and lunch kits are very popular but you never really know what you are going to deal with until you start working on the actual item. Backpacks usually have larger front pockets but they can also have additional zippers, flaps or hardware that make them difficult to hoop for the actual embroidery. Lunchboxes will most always have some kind of fabric designed to maintain temperature. I have another blog post about doing patches on hard to hoop items. You can read it here. From that older blog post, I showed that the backpack had a lot of pockets and some of them were made of the ice cooler material. So I didn't want to undermine the quality of the fabrics. I made a patch and had to hand sew it to the pocket. If you have been doing machine embroidery for a while, you might think that hand sewing anything is not ideal, but don't feel that way. It is a tried and true way to adhere patches and before fancy sewing or embroidery machines were made, most patches of any kind were hand sewn to items.

In a perfect world, decorators love items that are designed to be embellished. When the stars align, this is how I hoop back packs that will fit into my hoops. I like to use my multi needle machine and Mighty Hoops. The 5x5 Mighty hoop is perfectly sized for an average monogram or name. The bonus is I usually don't use stabilizer because the magnetic hoop and layers of backpack fabric are sturdy enough to carry the tension of the thread as it sews. Final products are commonly flat and without puckers.

This particular brand backpack is Viv and Lou. The entire line is designed with embellishment in mind. If you are looking for an excellent product to purchase and either embroider yourself or have done, keep this one at the top of your list. Most of the backpacks are sewn with large pocket openings. The lunch bags have an additional flap on the outside that you can sew through and the inner hot cold area is separate.

Here you can see from underneath my machine how wide the opening is on the backpack pocket and that there is no stabilizer in the hoop.

Viv and Lou is also known for their colorful prints and on trend styles. Each season they release new items. As you can see from the picture above, the print is bold but the monogram gets lost in it. Once my client saw this, they asked if we could do anything to make the name stand out more. So I brought images of the back pack into my digitizing software and tried other thread colors.

I superimposed the monogram above the actual sewn one on the backpack and tried white then green thread to match the colors in the print.

Then I tried a light pink and a navy. All of the colors disappeared into the busy print. Any addition of colors to match the print would simply not show very well. So I thought about using a patch instead.

Now the name could be seen from any distance. So once I confirmed with the client that this was a good plan moving forward, I created the patch in my software. I didn't rip the original monogram out of the backpack and lunch bag. I knew that all you would be seeing once it was complete was an additional stitch line around the patch. The original monogram would have already shown with bobbin thread on the reverse side. So essentially it would look the same and my biggest concern was to line everything up correctly to have a neat interior pocket.

I made sure the patch fit over the original monogram name in my software first.

Then I embroidered the patch using this Poly Patch twill from DIME.

Instead of trying to embroider the finished patch over the original design, I wanted to be more cautious, so I used my sewing machine. A few pins held everything in place exactly positioned while I sewed. I was glad that both of the bags were designed to be embellished because I was able to manipulate them much easier around the foot of my sewing machine. Had they been another brand, hand sewing might have been the only option.

The final result speaks for itself. A beautiful patch monogram that really stands out. If you are interested in seeing my sewing process, I have a video below you can watch. Machine embroidery isn't perfect and each item is usually like a brand new day even if you have worked with that brand before. The key is to stay open minded and to work with your client in the best way you can so they have a product they are happy with. It also feels pretty good to come up with an alternate fix to a difficult design choice. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

September is National Sewing Month!

9/3/2022

Did you know that Sewing has it's own month set aside by official proclamation? Officially named by President Ronald Reagan. If you are interested in the history, check out this link to read all about it!

I truly believe that sewing has many benefits for the crafter and receiver of finished projects. If you have read my blog articles, you will find out that I have an ongoing sewing journey and my knowledge continues to grow each year. There seems to be no end to the different ways you can use and incorporate sewing. It is the one thing in my life that I have never gotten bored with. If I get a little low, I can always count on feeling better once a new project is begun. Gifting my completed items to someone in my family or my community makes me feel better also.

Are you ready to lift someone up with your sewing or embroidery skills? Read through my past blogs and you will find so many ideas for sewing, embroidery, and quilting projects. Visit my page with FREE project downloads to get started. My link page has a button at the bottom of the page that takes you to all of my free project downloads. As always.......I hope you enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Prepare T Shirts For Quilt With Your Heat Press

9/1/2022

It is National Sewing Month!! What are you sewing?? I am currently working on a T-Shirt quilt and if our cooler mornings are any indication, we will need some warm quilts pretty soon. I think prep work may be one of the things that keeps people from sewing. By the time you get to the sewing stage, you might lose your creative steam.

This is my pile of T-shirts waiting to be disassembled and interfaced. Quite a pile of them as I will be making a king size quilt. If the thought of using an iron on all of this intimidates you, think about using your heat press instead.

The interfacing I am using for this quilt is Pellon 906F. It is a sheer weight and I like the hand of the knit fabric after it has been applied. Some of these shirts have very dense screen print logos on them. So I don't want to add more weight or stiffness. The instructions should always be followed per the manufacturer and I do that with a couple of minor changes.

A wool heat setting is recommended. That is around 300 degrees F. I set my press to 280 degrees. The time to press on the instructions is between 10 and 12 seconds with lifting and overlapping your iron . I set my heat press timer to 8 second increments. This will allow for moving or repositioning in case any spots are missed. Modifying the time and temperature slightly should keep the t-shirts from overheating and melting the screen print logos. You are pressing from the back but it would be so sad to discover an applied logo couldn't stand any heat. You don't know what kind of materials were used when the shirts were made so caution needs to be observed.. The pressure is set to a medium on the heat press.

A damp press cloth is supposed to be used on top of the interfacing. I use a piece of 100 percent cotton fabric and a spray bottle filled with clean water. The water can be misted on the press cloth and it will create a steam press environment.

So you can go from this pile of messy shirts to a stack of flat t shirt logos ready to insert into your quilt.

I really do think the heat press allows for an assembly line workflow. I was able to knock out 30 t-shirts in a few hours.

The Pelon instructions do state that a final steam press can be done from the front. I don't press from the front. Instead, I will press the interfacing from the back and take it back to my cutting station. There I trim away any excess fabric and square the block up. Then I take it back to the heat press to make sure I haven't missed any edges. This is done from the back again just like the initial pressing.

If there are any small logos on the pockets or sleeve of the shirts that look interesting, I will interface them and sew with a zig zag stitch to the t shirt block. Usually on the edge so they don't obscure the logo.

Now I just need to decide where all of these different blocks will be placed in my quilt and sew everything together. There is a quick video tutorial you can watch below to see my heat press in action. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.

Fall Machine Embroidery With Variegated Thread

Install A Patch Over A Monogram For Busy Prints

September is National Sewing Month!

Prepare T Shirts For Quilt With Your Heat Press

Follow Me On Facebook

Author

What is a Lagniappe Peddler?

Archives

Blog Categories

Lagniappe Peddler LLC