Thanks for joining me.
I'm Nancy Zieman.
Today on Sewing with Nancy, get ready to be inspired to add interesting accents to your
next sewing project.
Creative Sewing Specialist Barb Projota is my guest for this three-part series on care-free
machine embroidery.
Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, Barb.
Thanks for having me, Nancy.
It's a lot of fun to be here.
The trees on this four-season wall hanging are perfect designs for first-time embroiderers.
The spring, summer, fall, and winter thread trees feature Barb's unique techniques that
are easy and so enjoyable to sew.
I'll start by showing you how to set up your sewing machine for care-free machine embroidery.
That's what's next on Sewing with Nancy.
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Before showing you the four season tree project, I'd like to start by showing you how to set
up your sewing machine for care-free machine embroidery.
Thread is the most important consideration because that's what's going to be highlighted
in your project.
We're working with ran embroidery thread.
Ran is very fine and lightweight, adds a lot of luster to your project.
When working with ran thread, then you need to use a machine embroidery needle.
The larger size, the size 90, I think works out better, especially for beginners.
The larger eye prevents a lot of thread breakage.
So machine embroidery thread, machine embroidery needle.
In the bobbin area, you can use lightweight bobbin thread.
You don't want a heavy thread in this instance.
I have a compressed bobbin here, or you can use lingerie bobbin thread, just something
lightweight, about 60-weight of thread.
This bobbin doesn't require a bobbin case, it just pops in your front-loading machine.
Any type of lightweight thread will work for this area.
The bobbin, speaking of that area, will flip the machine open to show that bobbin case
area.
Give your machine a little cleaning out.
I should say not little, probably a lot.
Here, a little thread in there.
And then if your machine requires it, a drop of oil to start this sewing project.
And then we'll just snap in the bobbin case.
Now my feed dogs, these little gripper type of mechanism, is controlled with this knob.
And I'm going to drop or lower the feed dogs.
Notice what happens when I drop it.
By lowering the feed dogs, you'll control the stitch length.
So we're not even going to set the stitch length on this machine.
Notice the foot.
The foot area of my machine has a darning foot that came with my machine, or perhaps
you'd like to use a large foot, the clear plastic foot used for machine embroidery,
machine quilting, or perhaps just darning.
It will not sit next to the fabric.
It will sit loose so that the fabric can flow, but it will give you some control.
You'll see that in just a minute.
One of the last settings on the machine is to loosen the top tension.
You'd like that thread to be showcased as much as possible by loosening it by two notches
or two numbers.
I've gone from a five to a three.
You'll have the proper setting for machine embroidery.
So you basically have the machine set up.
I must mention I have a straight stitch, not a zigzag.
We're going to do straight stitch projects to begin with, and then we'll show you how
to set it for a zigzag in some other creative areas.
The hoop.
I'm using a machine embroidery hoop.
You may have an embroidery hoop at home that is for handwork.
You can use that, but unfortunately it's thicker than this hoop width, and this hoop fits underneath
the presser foot area easily, and that's why we kind of like using this.
Take the two hoops, put the larger section on the table, and the fabric is then placed
into the hoop.
You have to do a practice run.
I do practice runs regardless of how many times I've done machine embroidery just to
get the feel of working with this again.
Then place the smaller hoop on top and make a drum tight fabric.
We really want it very tight in here.
Sometimes they even push that inner ring out just a little bit so that there's a lip right
in this area.
That will cause it to be a little with more tautness, and then tighten the hoop.
Now the fabric.
I'm working with a cotton fabric.
It seems cotton fabrics or natural fabrics do not pucker as much.
You can certainly use almost any type of fabric, but we'll start in the practice with the simplest
type with a cotton or denim might be a good suggestion.
I'm going to place a stabilizer on the backside of my hoop, and to give the fabric a little
bit more stability, and place this underneath the presser foot area.
Just slide it underneath.
Now I'm going to draw up the bobbin thread.
I'm holding the top thread, turn the flywheel by hand one stitch, and pull up the bobbin
thread.
Kind of difficult to see that bobbin thread because it's white.
I'm holding the two threads taut with my left hand.
Place the presser bar in the sewing or darning position.
Lower it.
If you did not do this, you'll have a nest of threads underneath, and then sew two or
three stitches just to lock the threads.
If you can, stop with the needle in the down position and clip off the extra thread tails.
Now you're ready to do machine embroidery.
To work with this, place your hands on the side of the hoop.
You're not going to turn it like a steering wheel, but when you make changes, you're going
to just rotate that hoop by the sides area.
The first thing I kind of like to suggest, and which Barb will suggest, too, is to make
doodle stitches, just loop-de-loop, whatever you'd like to work with.
Now notice how I'm working with the hoop, not turning it, rotating it, but just giving
it a gentle push on the sides.
Many times what people forget to do when their machine embroidery is to breathe, I know that
may sound a little unusual, but it is a little different feeling because you're guiding the
stitch length.
It's not guiding by the machine.
The feed dogs are lowered.
You're doing the work.
You may practice doodling, and then some straight stitch if you'd like, maybe some outlining,
however you'd like to work with this, just practice.
If you sew at a fairly fast speed without moving the hoop, you get a little bit more
uniform look.
On lighter-weight fabrics, consider pushing the hoop a little bit faster.
I am truly doodling.
I have no idea what I'm making here, but just practicing.
If you'd like to do a fill-in stitch, you simply just, with this straight stitch, guide
over and over the area and have the threads work on top of each other.
That's kind of fun.
Here in this series, we'll tell you about making labels, personalizing your work.
As you're practicing this stitch, why don't you consider to write your name or your initials?
That's another good thing to practice with.
I'll just see what I can do here with some initials.
Whoa.
It's easy to do this when you're not talking.
You'll have a little bit more time practicing machine embroidery with the doodle stitch
and doing the straight stitch and fill-in, and then you'll be ready to begin our next
project, the Four Seasons Wall Hanging.
Now that you know how to set up your machine for carefree machine embroidery, Barbara and
I are going to show you some of her unique techniques.
Barbara, we're going to start with the summer tree on this wall hanging that we showed you
earlier.
This is great.
This is so fun to look at and fun to sew.
This tree has about two different colors of thread in the trunk and the branches.
We're using a medium brown for the base, and then later on I'll add a darker brown for
some highlights.
Now, we're going to do a little bit of a different step using a stabilizer, an additional stabilizer.
Why don't you tell us why?
I like to use a sturdy water-soluble stabilizer, the kind that's clear, and use that to transfer
my design onto my projects.
Just put your paper with your design underneath and use a permanent-type marker and trace
off your design.
Then you can apply the stabilizer onto the top of your fabric and just stitch right through
it.
Now, this is a little bit different.
This is a pattern transfer, kind of, with that stabilizer.
Right.
It's not actually being used for the stabilizer purposes, although that helps also.
Sure.
We're just going to apply a little fabric adhesive.
Make for sure it's fabric adhesive to the wrong side of the stabilizer.
It isn't absolutely necessary, but it sure makes life easy to keep the pattern in place.
We're working with a high contrast of a canvas so that it works a little bit easier.
Then I'm going to hoop this, just as I detailed earlier, placing the larger hoop on the tabletop,
fabric over the larger hoop, and then making a nice, tight drum.
Actually, Barb, I think it's a little bit easier to do this when you're standing up
than sitting down.
Yes, yes.
Get a little more leverage that way.
That's right.
Get it nice and taut in there.
We have the stabilizer as a pattern transfer on the top, and then on the underside, before
Barb places it in her machine, she already has the tear-away type of stabilizer underneath.
It's not necessary to hoop the tear-away stabilizer with your design.
Sure.
In fact, it makes life a lot easier if you don't.
It's easier to get the fabric taut that way.
Right, right.
You're ready to do the straight stitch trunk stitching.
I'm ready to stitch the trunk.
I have my machine threaded with a medium brown thread, machine embroidery needle in place,
and a lightweight bobbin thread, and I'm just using a straight stitch here.
The first thing that you always do with machine embroidery is bring up your bobbin thread and
lock your threads.
Be sure that you put your presser foot down, and a few stitches will lock that so you can
cut off your thread tails.
The first few lines of stitching that I do on the trunk are actually very small stitches,
smaller than what I will finish with.
This helps stabilize the fabric itself so that it won't pucker later on.
So a few base stitches, which are very small stitches, then I start stretching out my stitches
a little bit and filling in the trunk as I go.
I usually start at the bottom and fill it in.
Don't overfill, just fill it in nicely.
And I'll work maybe a quarter inch at a time.
Fill that in and then work my way up the trunk.
When I get up towards a branch, then I'll just go out and finish that branch.
It's kind of like coloring you used to do as kids, just kind of fill in, only this time
with thread.
The stitches look nicer if they are six to eight stitches per inch if you had your feed
dogs engaged.
That's about the look that you want.
The other thing I like to do is put the trunk horizontally so that I can see better where
I'm going side to side.
So you have it lying on its side.
Yeah, the tree is lying on its side.
This particular tree is already stitched with all of the medium shade of brown and then
we would add some highlight of a darker shade just to give it a little shading.
That's what I'm going to do now.
I have the darker shade right in my machine and sneak it underneath the presser foot.
We're going to repeat many of these steps over and over again to draw up the bobbin
thread.
Take one stitch by turning the flywheel by hand, pulling up that bobbin thread, grasping
onto both threads, lowering the presser bar into the sewing position, taking a few stitches
to sew to lock the stitch.
We'll stop with the needle down position if you can do that.
Clip off the threads, thread tails, we'll get into those a little closer a little bit
later on, and then just do some highlighting.
Some straight stitches, not filling in as Barb did, just some accents and this is kind
of your personal preference as far as how much you'd like to highlight, but it adds
a nice detail to the look of the tree and a little bit more realistic.
So now after you have some highlighting completed of your tree, we're going to do Barb's kind
of signature type of sewing and that's with a bar tack stitch.
Barb, you want to describe that?
We're going to do a stitch that I call a bar tack drag.
A bar tack in machine embroidery is a zigzag held in place for maybe five or six stitches.
The drag part is that I'm going to drag the thread to do the next bar tack and we're going
to leave those drag lines, you don't have to cut those drag lines.
I've already placed a few of the bar tack drags in the grass here, that would be the
apples that have fallen, and now I'm ready to do some up on the top of the tree.
So I've threaded my machine with the red thread, brought up my threads and locked them and
switched to a zigzag stitch about a four and a half width.
So I'm just going to do a bar tack by holding the hoop in place, turn the hoop a little
bit, drag the thread and do another.
So it's very simple, just keep moving the hoop as you go.
I like to keep turning the hoop so that the bar tacks don't all line up vertically or
horizontally.
Now again, that was about a four to four and a half inch width of your zigzag stitch.
The length you're controlling, that's...
Right, right.
I just hold it in place.
Each time that I do a bar tack, I just let the machine stitch.
And once you've completed that on your whole tree, you're going to change threads and do
a green thread.
Now Barb clipped the thread next to the spool and pulled it out through the needles just
so she's flossing your machine.
I've been trying to train myself to do that rather than pulling it backwards through the
machine.
That kind of gathers lint many times through the tension guide.
So that's something we're all working on to improve a little bit on our embroidery sewing.
So I'm threading now with green thread and that will be the leaves on the summer tree.
So again, in the same area of the top of the tree here, I'm just going to do some bar tacks.
And a good way to space these so that you don't get them too close together is try just
to cover up your drag lines that you have in between the red stitches.
It's not important that you cover this embroidery completely or the top of the tree completely.
You don't need it solid.
It looks better if some of the background fabric shows through.
So you would just continue this until you finish the top of the tree.
And you just fill in and it really looks extremely nice.
It's so fun to do and very addicting as I kind of found out making these samples.
This sample shows a filled in leaf area of the tree.
You can see some red highlights of the apples and then the apples kind of lying underneath the tree.
The finishing step is to put some straight stitching in the grassy area.
My machine is set up with the summer green thread, a straight stitch.
And I'll go down to the leafy area, again drop that bobbin thread and tack off my threads.
Lower the presser bar.
First I'll do a couple of stitches for a straight stitch.
Stop with the needle in the down position as always.
And then clip off those extra thread tails.
We'll get those closer a little bit later.
And then do the side stitching.
Again, I have the trunk of the tree in the horizontal position.
And I'll just fill it in, do the shading.
Barb tends to stitch a little bit more precisely than I do.
I have a little bit more pre-form Barb.
I'm afraid that I didn't mow my grass here as well as you have on your sample.
But we'll just fill this in.
And try to not completely cover up the apples and the grass.
Sure.
Although it's good to have some stitching over them so it looks like they're really in the grass.
Sure, sure.
Doing somewhat of a realistic viewpoint.
It'll take a little bit longer of course to do some additional filling in of the stitches.
But when you're complete with this,
then what we'll do is simply remove this from the machine and snap out the hoop.
We have the stabilizer on the underside and the stabilizer on the top side.
We can cut away the majority of this or simply tear it away.
Spritz it with water to remove the stabilizer that's inside and the design is complete.
That's right.
We'd like to show you the other three trees.
We have many, much by the same technique.
We have the spring tree.
This happens to have the three colors with the white and the pink for the blossoms.
And then a springer green color.
And Barb, you had a technique that we're showing you in the sample
that you space the bar tacks a little bit further apart, correct?
When you're using three threads, you have to spread them out a little bit more.
So you've got room for all three threads.
Now quickly too, we have the autumn tree.
We have a light color of yellow, gold, and a maroon.
On a dark background, you start with a light color first.
On a light background, work with a dark color.
And you're going to show us a little bit about this winter tree
where we didn't do any of the bar tacking, but just side filling in for the snow.
That's right.
The winter tree, I have the trunk already all stitched
and I've also added a little bit of snow in the branches.
That might be a little hard to see on the white fabric.
But there is some snow up in the branches.
And the snow that's on the ground is just with a straight stitch
and just work it side to side, just how snow would lay on the ground.
You can even build it up a little bit.
Just kind of drift it around the tree here.
And you would just finish filling in.
You could cover up the roots a little bit.
And that's how you would finish the winter tree.
And also you have a little cardinal.
I would like to show the cardinal a close-up
because that was just a straight stitch.
The cardinal is just done with a straight stitch.
That's the promise of spring.
Yes.
And you drew it on the stabilizer.
Right.
And then with red thread in the top,
you pretty much do this by hand wheel,
just placing your stitches.
And it adds a nice little touch.
So you can take all of these four designs,
make them into a quilt, perhaps stitch them on a sweatshirt,
maybe put them on a tote.
But you'll soon find out that this is addicting.
It's very carefree machine embroidery.
In this first program of carefree machine embroidery,
Barb and I detailed working with the drag Bartek stitch
and the fill-in stitches.
This lovely wall hanging that Barb created
with the trees from the spring, summer, and fall season
were all accomplished in the same way,
just by changing threads.
And then the winter scene with the straight stitch
and the fill-in stitches
to create the cardinal and the cardinal.
And then the winter scene
with the straight stitch and the fill-in stitches
to create the cardinal as well as the snow.
I know that you could find many ways
of working with this, putting it on a sweatshirt
or perhaps a tote bag,
but all using these great ideas.
We'll be back with more.
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Welcome to Sewing with Nancy.
I'm Nancy Zieman.
This is the second program of our three-part series
on carefree machine embroidery.
Back again to share her enthusiasm
and knowledge on embellishing
and accenting with fabric and thread
is Barb Pujota. Barb, great to have you back.
Hi, Nancy. You know how I love to share ideas
with other sewers, especially ideas
that use simple stitches and easy techniques
and can be used to embellish
either ready-to-wear garments or custom-made garments.
I like your approach.
This first technique of this program
features Bartek flowers and baskets.
Barb designed this attractive design
using a version of the zigzag stitch.
The accents take minutes to sew
and could easily be stitched on a variety of projects.
Stay tuned for more carefree
machine embroidery ideas
from Sewing with Nancy.
The first project of Bartek flowers and baskets
is a three-step process.
I'm going to show you
how to create the interesting basket
using variegated thread
and then add some stitching,
straight stitching for leaves
and then the Bartek flowers.
Here's where I'm going to sew the Bartek basket.
I've made a small little marking
so I know the width of the basket.
Notice that my fabric is hooped
as we have worked throughout this program
in the machine embroidery hoop.
I have a stabilizer on the underside.
My machine is set up for machine embroidery.
I lowered the feed dogs,
I have ran thread and a machine embroidery needle
and I'm using a darning foot
or you could use a larger foot
used for machine embroidery.
I have the widest zigzag set on my machine
and I'm going to first of all lock the stitches,
lower the presser bar
and pull up the bobbin thread.
After pulling up the bobbin thread,
sew two or three stitches.
If you can, stop with the needle
in the down position
and then once again
clip off these extra thread tails.
Now, this is the fast and fun part
of sewing this basket.
Sew 10 to 12 stitches
and then stop with the needle
in the inside of the basket.
Then rotate the hoop 180 degrees
and sew again 10 to 12 stitches.
Stop with the needle on the inside of the basket
and rotate back
and keep sewing in this manner
and you have created an interesting buildup
for the basket.
Again, I'll stop with the needle
in the inside of the direction
I need to stitch.
Now, to sew the following row,
I'm going to stagger my zigzag stitch
half a width of the zigzag.
So, I'll raise the presser foot,
advance to the next row
and I'm going to center my next stitch
between the last two sewn stitches
and stitch again.
Now, if you'd like to cover a little bit more area
while I'm doing this,
I'm just going to move this hoop
just about by an eighth of an inch
and I'll get a larger thread buildup.
I moved it a little bit
before I finished sewing
and then rotate again
and just move it an eighth of an inch
and you'll get an interesting width.
Now, the basket that I have completed
on this side is just about ready
for adding of the greenery
in the background.
I'll clip this top thread
and pull out the extra thread
giving it a machine of flossing
and now I'm going to set up
for a straight stitch
with the green thread highlight
for the background.
This is just going to give me
some foliage for the back.
So, I've quickly rethreaded my machine.
I'll set it up for a straight stitch
and now do some straight stitch
adding of greenery
and I'll just do a few stitches,
lock the threads,
and sew.
Again, this is kind of doodling
like we did in our first program
because those feed dogs aren't in place
we're just adding some interesting background
and you can add as much
or as little as you'd like.
Remember, I'm not rotating the hoop
I'm just moving it side to side
or up and down however I'd like to add that.
Now, after you've added
that little greenery
again, I'll clip the threads
right next to the fabric
and then again
at the base of the thread
and pull it out from the needle area
and I'm going to change to a flower color.
On my little sample I'm sewing for you
I'm just using one thread color
for the flower
but of course you could change
and add a lot of interesting thread details.
You could make some flowers
quite wide with wide petals
some with narrow petals.
I'm just going to show you
the widest width
and move down to this little illustration
that I've already stitched.
Again, I restitched my machine
or reset my machine for a zigzag
and now to create the flower
again, I'll lock the threads
so in place a couple of times
stopping with the needle
wherever you'd like
the center of the flower to be.
Then after you've stitched one area
then rotate your hoop
and stitch another petal.
Stop with the needle in the center
and rotate again.
You could make some petals
with three, some flowers
with three petals I should say
or five, I'm going to do
five or six here
and it will be kind of
an interesting design.
You keep on doing this
I'm just going to lock my threads now
keep on doing this
until you have enough
of your design completed.
When you're finished
you'll be amazed
how easy this is to do
and what nice little details this gives.
This is the petal and flowers combination
I just completed.
Here we have three of them
some going down into the basket
you can become quite artistic with this.
On the shirt that Barb created
she added the petals
or flowers in multiple colors
multiple widths
and if you would like
you could just add
a Bartek flower in basket
something easy to do
for carefree machine embroidery.
Our next carefree embroidery idea
features a squiggle stitch.
This quick to sew accent
adds just the right amount of highlight
when the thread and fabric are tone on tone.
Barb and I would like to show you
how easy this is to stitch.
You know Barb
when I first saw this idea
I thought this is great to add
to really any woven or knit fabric
you can add it to either a ready-to-wear garment
or one that you're making yourself.
But if you would be creating the garment yourself
we have a suggestion for you
when cutting out the pattern
roughly cut it out.
Right, you want to leave a couple inches more
in the neckline and the shoulder areas
so that you've got room to hoop your fabric.
So we've drawn the cutting line
but you can see the extra fabric
that will be trimmed later on.
That's right.
As far as the design
or on this design
I like to follow a pattern if I can.
This is the water-soluble stabilizer
the heavy type
and you've drawn some squiggle designs on it.
The water-soluble stabilizer
is just a really good product
to use to transfer designs.
If you'd like to put some fabric
temporary spray on this
it will make it easier to position
hold it in place
and I'm going to match up my lines
along the neckline
and the shoulders.
Then as we work throughout this program
to place the larger hoop
underneath the fabric
and then snap it into place
making certain that this is drum tight.
This will make the embroidery work so much easier
and I think you'll have
a fun time doodling with this.
I find that's really a key
is to have the fabric very tight in the hoop
and the stabilizer on top helps you get that.
I have my machine set up
ready to sew here.
I have my embroidery thread in the top
and lightweight bobbin thread
and a machine embroidery needle again
and I've locked on my stitches
with a straight stitch.
Now I've switched to a zigzag stitch
about a 4-width
and what I'm going to do is put my hands
on either side of the hoop
and just keep my hands on the sides.
I find that when you're doing
something that looks like a satin stitch
the faster you go
the easier it is to get those stitches
moving the hoop slowly
but pressing down the pedal.
Right, right.
And the nice thing about the water-soluble stabilizer
with this design is that if you don't follow
your lines exactly
those lines will come out when the stabilizer is gone
so you don't have to worry about it.
It's just a guide
something that gives you
a little map to follow.
And then as I get close to the bottom here
I'm going to decrease my zigzag
as I'm stitching
to taper it down just to a little bit of a point.
So as you were sewing
you were just
just punching the button.
Decreased it. If you had a dial
you would slowly decrease it down to a 0-width
just to give that nice tapered look.
Let me show you the finished project again
so that you can get an idea of how
these little squiggles look at the beginning.
Barb starts at the top
with about a 4-point width zigzag
tapers it down to a 0-stitch width
at the bottom
This is a very creative highlight
as you can see very easy to work with.
Creativity is what sewing is all about.
This jacket showcases
several extremely creative
yet carefree techniques.
The fabric is polar fleece
traditionally used for casual wear
but here transformed into
wow-wear. Barb has combined
unique yarn details along with
texture-adding machine embroidery.
Here's how easily you too
can stitch fascinating accents.
We're going to start by working with the yarns
the bulky yarns, the fun yarns
that have texture.
Barb, you really chose some interesting combinations.
Yes, there are so many
interesting yarns available for sewers nowadays.
You would think that
you really can't sew through these
but we're going to give you some hints on how to do this.
These are kind of blue clay yarns
thick and thin.
You wouldn't have to go this extreme
you could use them narrower if you'd like
but we're working with the polar fleece fabric
that's traditionally used for casual wear
but we're going to make this great jacket
or a vest would be fine too.
We're going to use a sample here
but we'd place the fabric on the table
and then lay the yarns
the way you'd like it.
You've kind of laid them on vertically
with a little bit of curve and shape.
I have some loops added there
just because that's kind of the way
that the yarn wanted to lay.
Let it fall on the fabric
and see if you like how it is.
You could pin it periodically
or you could use again
the water-soluble stabilizer
to position it, to hold it in place
and then use the fabric adhesive spray
just to
pin it
quote, unquote, down.
Much quicker than pinning.
We'll sneak this little loop under here.
There we go.
We're going to use a hoop a little bit later
but right now we're just going to stitch
down the center of these
little loopy yarns to the fabric.
The hoop is really going to be
the darning foot
or the large foot on your machine
that acts as a mini-hoop.
A straight stitch is the stitch.
I find you don't necessarily
have to use a hoop
if you're just doing a straight stitch
and if you have the darning foot
on your machine and you're working
on the lengthwise grain,
you're not putting that much embroidery in it.
You don't have to have the hoop moving.
I want the thread to interfere
with the beauty of the yarn
and the monofilament thread
and then a needle that coincides
with the filament part of the name
meaning for the clear filament thread.
That's what I have on my machine.
I'm going to do as we've done
throughout this series
and to draw up the bobbin thread.
I always have a hard time seeing
that clear thread.
Here we go, holding it on now.
Put the machine in the sewing position
three times.
I'll stop with the needle in the down position,
clip off these extra thread tails
and then simply guide the fabric with my hands
so that as I'm sewing down the center of this
remember, there isn't a feed dog here
that's feeding the fabric.
You're pushing and pulling.
Nancy, there are a couple of reasons
that it is much easier
to do this in
free-motion embroidery style
instead of with a regular crosser foot
on and your feed dog's up.
One is that you can follow
the lay of the yarn much easier
whether you have the loops
you can just work right around them
without pivoting.
The other thing is that some of the yarns
especially the thick and thin ones
are too thick in some places
to fit under the presser foot
so they work well with a darning foot.
Now I'm going backwards
so I'll just rotate it
and make it work easier.
This is how you would lay down
the fabric.
Then after stitching
you can remove the stabilizer
and I started on this sample
to take off most of the stabilizer
just by tearing it away.
I do save all these scraps
use these for buttonholes
or other maybe small little areas
of embroidery.
Sometimes I cut away the large sections
to keep them in big sections
and just tear this away.
Then for the embroidery portion of it
we're going to place it in a hoop.
Let me just show you
the finished garment again
so you get an idea of
kind of what the next step is.
Actually, Barb, you could just embellish it
with this yarn idea too.
That's true, that would be enough
but if you want to add a little more
we have some ideas.
Here's the yarn that has been couched down
now we're going to do bubble stitching
a new term for sewing
I'm going to show you how to stitch these bubbles
but before doing this, Barb
let's put the fabric in a hoop.
We're going to use a different type of hoop
a spring tension hoop.
Yes, we don't really need to use
a wooden machine embroidery hoop right now
because we don't need the fabric drum tight.
In fact, we want a little play in the fabric
so that it will be allowed to bubble up
with the stitching.
We'll put the larger portion
the plastic section of the hoop on the table
the fabric on top.
It's a little bit larger than your pattern piece
to give you room to hoop it like we're doing here.
That's right.
Then the smaller spring tension is pinched
so that it fits within the grooves
the plastic portion.
This isn't taught like our other hoops of the fabric
but it makes it fun to sew.
It also gives you some place to hang onto this
while you're sewing.
I've set up my machine with gold metallic thread
on the top
and a metafill needle in place here.
What I'm going to do is just stitch in circles
that are maybe a half inch in diameter
and go three times around a circle
and then move to the next one
which will be attached
kind of the way bubbles form.
That's why they're called bubbles.
By stitching three times around in a circle
you get the fabric to draw up
inside of those circles.
You can just keep building and building
and make your circles irregular in shape
some bigger and some smaller.
The bigger ones will bubble more.
That's what I found out when practicing
with the smaller ones.
I didn't get the texture that she created here.
So big, irregular, fun-sized embroidery shapes.
Right, and it goes quite quickly.
I see that. It's fun.
The other option that Barb added to her garment
she has some lever vine shapes.
This was accomplished
by changing the machine
to a zigzag stitch
and doing some satin stitching
and then you see little buds at the end.
Barb's ready to do the stitching
and you have your machine locked and ready to sew.
Okay, I'm ready to sew the vines now
and I have the same thread in that I had before
but I've changed my machine to a zigzag stitch
maybe a three and a half or a four width.
I find it easier to stitch the vines
working them upside down
so I'm actually working towards myself.
I start at the base of the vine
and this is done with a satin stitch
a free motion satin stitch
so stitch with the fast machine speed
or as I like to say step on the gas
and move the hoop slowly.
Then every once in a while
just kind of reverse directions
and put a little bud
a little curve and then a little bud
into your stitching.
Go back down a little bit
and start another branch
and they can curve to the left
or to the right
and your first pass
the first time you stitch it
it doesn't have to be filled in
it's when you go back on your line
that that's when you can really satin stitch it in.
While you're stitching this
earlier we worked with the squiggle stitch
and that was a precursor to this
this gives you some...
Very similar.
I fill in the buds
just with some extra zigzag stitching
just kind of move my hoop around
and then again fill it in on my way back down.
So these vines
or leaves
are actually done with one continuous
piece of thread.
This is so fun to see
how you've combined interesting embroidery
techniques and yarns
and perhaps maybe someone would just
like to do one or two of these designs
on the fabric and that would be fine too
as on the sleeve of your jacket
you can see just these vines
how beautifully designed
they go right down.
I think that's just so attractive
and nice looking.
This has a look of boiled wool now
that we have the texture and the stitching on here
but it is still this knit fabric.
Right, although you have to be concerned
about compatibility.
You have to have compatibility with yarn and your fabric.
This yarn is dry clean
so the garment would have to be dry cleaned.
And to give the polar fleece
some additional stability
you have fused and knit interfacing
after cutting it out
after doing the stitching on the wrong side.
And then the bubbles
become very predominant
and everything stays in place.
And Barbara, this is lovely.
I'm sure many of us will like to create something like this
on the sleeve of your jacket
or do some embellishing on different types of knits.
Great idea.
Barbara and I would like to encourage you
to try some of these embroidery techniques
on ready-made garments.
Since you can't put them in a hoop
as we did with fabric
simply use a pressure sensitive stabilizer
and then the sticky stabilizer.
We scored the paper with a pin
and we could tear away the paper covering
and then apply the fabric
right on top of this sticky stabilizer.
And then you can do the embroidery.
I hope you'll give this a try.
I would like to talk about
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Welcome to Sewing with Nancy.
I'm Nancy Zieman.
This is the third program of my series
on carefree machine embroidery.
I've been fortunate enough to have
Barb Prochota, creative sewing specialist,
with me throughout this series to share
her unique and exciting creations
using thread and fabric.
Barb, thanks for coming back.
Well, thanks for having me, Nancy.
You know that I love to share with others
the unending possibilities that
free-motion machine embroidery has to offer.
We're going to start with a spiderweb design
that was created with embroidery thread.
We'll introduce you to a technique
that Barb calls stitching on air.
It's a variation of embroidery
that will be sure to add a one-of-a-kind accent
to your next sewing creation.
That's what's next on Sewing with Nancy.
Barb and I have our machine
set up for machine embroidery.
Just a quick review.
The key element is to lower or cover the feed dogs.
Most of you will be able to drop
the feed dogs on your machine.
We're going to start with the foot
raised in this lower section.
Remove the traditional presser foot
and put on a darning foot
or a larger foot used for machine embroidery.
I have a machine embroidery needle
thread that's for machine embroidery,
but this time, instead of a lightweight thread
in the bobbin, I have both a red thread
in the top and bottom, which you'll see
in just a few minutes.
The other change is to forehead the tension
at a normal setting.
I'm going to put it back to the traditional setting.
A straight stitch is what I'm working with.
Because we're going to be making spider webs
and kind of holes in the fabric,
we need fabric that has some support.
In the back of our denim samples
we would apply fusible interfacing.
Then, as throughout this series,
we've put our fabrics in hoops
and we have the fabric
taught in the hoop,
the machine embroidery hoop, ready to put
underneath the presser foot area.
The first setting is to stitch circles
because we're going to make webs, right?
I'm going to draw up the bobbin thread,
take one stitch,
draw up the bobbin thread,
hold onto the needle and bobbin thread,
lower the presser bar,
and sew in a straight line
just to lock those threads.
It's the same procedure you use
for every time you do machine embroidery.
We've reviewed this a lot,
but I think it bears repeating
because it's the first step.
To make this web design,
we're going to stitch around in circles,
not exacting circles,
but somewhat looking circles
about three times
to build up thread.
Barb, you suggested that I really have
a heavy concentration of thread.
The more stitches you have there,
the stronger that edge will be.
It might not look as pretty,
but we're looking for strength right now.
Stitch as many circles as you would like
in the hoop area.
To advance to this other section,
I'm just going to raise the presser bar
and loosen the thread tension,
and now I'll just stitch again.
On Barb's vest,
she had many beautiful designs,
so we'll just show you
two samples here.
Then after stitching,
we'll remove this from the fabric
from underneath the presser foot
and then just cut
one of the openings, correct?
Yes, you only want to cut
one at a time.
If you cut all the circles
that you had sewn while your fabric
was in the hoop,
your fabric would be weakened,
so we're going to complete
one spiderweb at a time.
Now, it's a little bit easier
to cut this when you're not
holding it to a camera,
so I'll get fairly close to the stitching,
but you would cut it all the way
around, trimming extremely close
to the stitching line,
and the embroidery thread
from the top and the bobbin
is locked already on the side.
One point is that when you lock it
on the side, be sure that you really lock it.
Go twice as far as you usually do
so that it's really going to stay.
Now we're going to start doing the stitching
across the open area or the stitching on air,
and to do this,
we're just going to move the hoop
in a steady motion straight across the circle,
just like this.
You keep stitching as you go across
past your stitching.
Then you can move over to another area.
I like to cut this just like you're cutting a pie
and go across again.
And you can keep on going
and have a general
intersecting area
towards the center of your spiderweb.
You can stitch as many spokes
to the spiderweb as you would like,
and, Barb, I think you're going to sew a few more.
Yeah, I think I'd like to add just a few more
just to kind of fill it in a little bit.
Maybe another one right here.
And now I'm going to start
getting ready to do the center of the web.
And to do that, I'm going to stitch
past the intersection
and start moving my hoop in a circular motion.
And that
causes a buildup of thread
that makes a circle in the center
of your spiderweb.
And you'll notice that I'm stitching
in a much wider circle
than my stitches appear to be.
That's because they collapse in on themselves.
So then I'll take a couple stitches now
in that newly formed center
and then head back out to the outside.
To finish the edges,
I like to just
have radiating lines coming out
from the spiderweb.
And this can be very free-form.
And I kind of wrap that edge
just a little bit, finishes it off a little bit.
You could satin stitch it also if you wanted to,
but I usually don't.
So this is a straight stitch moving forward and back.
Now, we've used one color,
or Barbara's used one color,
to show the technique.
Again, we had a balanced stitch,
which is a little bit different than
the rest of the carefree machine embroidery ideas.
But this sample that Barbara's created
with this lovely, interesting collar
shows that we have
different thread colors.
Of course, you have that creatability.
Here we have kind of
an olive green
where I notice that
the center of the spiderweb is offset.
So you don't have to do it exactly in the center.
Another option might be
to change thread colors
and to have multiple centers
or multiple center sections.
And she has used, Barbara has used
both a rust color and a taupe color
in combination, so it's kind of fun.
Machine embroidery sewing
is being creative.
And so, really, we're just giving you some guidelines.
You can certainly do some changes.
Speaking of changes,
I'm going to flip up your next idea.
This is what you saw earlier in the program,
the vest.
This is really striking.
It has beading in the center.
Yeah, I thought it needed just a spark,
a little bit of highlighting
in the darker colors of the vest.
So I put silver beads in the center.
And actually, the beads were applied
with the sewing machine.
So you can do it all in one step
as you're doing your spiderwebs.
And I'm going to show you how to do that
very simply.
Lock on your stitches.
Be sure that you've got them locked well.
But while I was talking, we didn't explain
that you took off your presser foot.
Yes, I did take my darning foot off
because it would be in the way
as you try to do some bead work.
So if you're going to put beads on by the machine,
you want to work without a presser foot.
So I have my stitches locked in on the side here.
I'm just going to work my way
right to that center of the spiderweb.
And I have just a small bead here
and I'm going to put the needle down
into the eye of the bead
and drag the bead over a length of a bead
away from where my thread is coming up.
Take a stitch down,
and I do this by hand,
and then back where my thread was coming up.
And that gets the bead to lay over on its side
the way a bead should.
And then back out to the edge.
That was really simple.
So you just used the hand wheel
to turn the stitch
so that you weren't using the foot control
So that's a really nice accent.
And you could add a bead accent
throughout any of your machine embroidery ideas
using this concept.
That's right.
Now one thing we'd like to point out,
since this is the third program of this series,
we're kind of getting a little bit more detailed
as we go along.
Some of you may be a little hesitant
to do this stitching on air.
You have some guidelines, Barb,
for giving some confidence to this.
Yeah, when you first start doing this
presser foot area.
But if you have a darning foot on,
that's one big thing that will help.
The other thing is that if you want to
always stitch towards yourself,
so keep rotating the hoop
so that each time you stitch
you'll be working toward yourself.
Another thing, with some machines
that might be a little fussy with this technique,
I find often if you switch it to
just a very narrow zigzag,
a 1.0 width,
a lot of times that will solve the problem.
Another suggestion is to put
a water-soluble stabilizer underneath the opening
and then you'll have a little bit more stability.
You will not be sewing on air,
but you'll be sewing over the stabilizer.
The difference that you would have then
is that your stitches would not collapse
on each other in the center,
but you'd still get a very pretty effect.
I hope you'll keep this in mind
to add a little creative accent
to your next project
by using heavy fabric
that has been backed with fusible interfacing,
cutting out the circle,
and then doing the creative stitching
to create interesting spider webs
or decorative effects.
The next carefree idea
is called bobbin work doodling.
The main design is created
with carefree loop-de-loop stitching
sewn on the wrong side of the fabric.
It's an interesting concept
and like all other embellishment ideas in this series,
easy to stitch.
Here's how.
We're going to be working with decorative thread
in the bobbin.
Heavy thread, thread that would not fit
through the eye of the needle,
but yet can go through the tensions of a bobbin.
The pink thread on this top
has been worked with a pearl crown ran
or I'm going to use a serger thread
in the bobbin
by simply winding this type of thread
into the bobbin case
either by hand or if you're using
your machine, the bobbin winder,
maybe you want to bypass
one of the tension guides
or you want to stress or strain on the thread.
This design also has a couple
of other portions I'd like to point out.
In the second part of our series
we showed how to stitch bubbles
in little fan shapes.
Barb embellished this shirt
in addition to the doodling
with the bobbin stitch,
these two other designs.
I'll show you mainly how to work with the bobbin work
and then you could add those designs
if you'd like a little bit later.
You're going to cut out your fabric
pattern piece, maybe two to three inches larger
if you're working with
if you're creating this by yourself.
If you're working with a ready-made sweatshirt
you could open one of the side seams
so you could get in the area
and work a little bit easier.
This is to represent the wrong side of the fabric
and I've marked the
sewing line of the neck and shoulder
so I'd have a gauge.
Now to mark the position
of your new carefree embroidery
we're again going to use
an old stabilizer and on the stabilizer
I have lots of markings.
The first one you would mark would be
the shoulder and the neckline seam
the shoulder and the neckline seam.
Then at the center front
draw a line that's eight inches long
about three inches above the neckline
and five inches below.
Then a crosswise line
another eight inches
this T-shaped
will give you a position
that you can connect
the side of the T to the lower edge
and then back up to the side
to give the shaping for the stitching.
The doodling I have marked
a section of this.
You wouldn't have to mark the whole thing
if you didn't care to
but leave room for maybe some embellishments
of the bubbles if you'd like.
The choice is yours
but I just positioned where I'd like those.
As before we're going to position
this onto the wrong side of the fabric
this time not the right
but the wrong with some adhesive spray
if you'd like.
This makes positioning a little bit easier
matching the lines of the neckline
and the shoulders
and this allows everything to stay in place.
Since we're working with
sweatshirt fabric
the type of fabric used in our sample
I'm going to use a hoop
that I like best for knits
placing the spring tension
the plastic hoop on my table
placing the fabric on top
of the large hoop
and then pinching this all together.
This is just about ready to stitch
to go underneath the presser foot area.
But now for the setup of the machine
I told you I wound the bobbins by hand
or used the bobbin winder
on my machine
by bypassing one of the tensions
and since this is larger thread
it's not going to go through
the tension guide
as easily as
traditional thread will be.
So we need to loosen that tension
in the bobbin.
There aren't dials on the bobbin
like we have on the top of our machine
so at the screw area of the bobbin
I like to mark the position
the normal position by placing a dot
with a permanent marker
at the end of the screw
and then the portion next to it
right on the bobbin case.
So after I'm finished embroidering
I'll line up those two dots.
Then to loosen the tension
go to the left
and move the screw a fourth
to a half of a turn.
This you have to kind of
encourage a little bit.
I'm going to try that
to see now how my bobbin
thread feeds through it
and it goes through it
in easy tension.
That's the way we'd like it.
Set up the rest of your machine
as for machine embroidery.
I'm using a thread that matches
the bobbin thread in the top
or in the needle.
I have a machine embroidery needle
I've dropped my feed dogs
and I'm ready to do some stitching.
I'll place the hoop
underneath the presser foot area
and first of all
lock the stitches
as we've worked throughout this whole series
by taking one stitch by hand
turning the flywheel, pulling up the bobbin thread
now this time the bobbin thread is decorative
I'm going to start by going on the wrong side
lower the presser bar
and stitch a couple of stitches
to tie the threads.
Again, if you can stop with the needle
in the down position
it will work so much better.
I have part of the loop-de-loop designs
drawn here.
This is going to be on the wrong side of the fabric.
You don't have to follow those exactly.
I never do.
It just gives me a guideline
where to stitch.
I've done this before.
But you're not going to see the decorative stitches
because
they're coming on the right side.
You can get these quite tight
together
again, leaving room if you'd like
for some additional embellishment
but when I turn this to the right side
I think you'll be pleased with what you see.
Now, I always do a test run.
I would not start out just by sewing
I would start out by putting the thread on my garment
so I would suggest that you do the same.
We'll see how this looks.
It looks kind of interesting
because of all the detail of the thread
the heavy detail that you see in this area.
This is just a small portion
of the design that I've stitched.
I'll take another look
at our finished garment
and the highlights that are included in here
with some metallic thread
you'd unhoop the garment
put it back under the machine with the right side up
and add those interesting embellishments.
Throughout this series
Barbara and I have given you
we counted up about eight different
carefree machine embroidery techniques
and Barbara would like to give your ninth one today.
Well, I just think it's important
for people to take credit for the work
that you do in a garment
so I always add a personal label
to my garments that have a lot of machine embroidery on them.
This vest featured
the last thing we just went over
the spiderweb idea in this last program
and it's done on synthetic suede.
It has spiderwebs done on synthetic suede.
I like to work with synthetic suede
for labels because you can cut it
in any shape and it doesn't rattle.
Now labels sometimes
we think of those small little ugly white things
but this is far from that
particular description
because on this vest this is Brazilian embroidery
we didn't show this technique
but I love this label
and I want to thank our viewers
and you've added some of the embroidery detail.
Yes, some people might say
why put that amount of work into something
that's in the back of the garment
but I enjoy seeing it every time I put the garment on
so it's for me as well as
for when it's hanging on a hanger.
And you'll see that in all of Barb's garments
that she has one common denominator
and that's the name.
I use the name Southern Belle
or Southern Belle Originals
just for my own personal clothing
that my father had given me.
How sweet.
Another interesting detail is that
as we mentioned it has some of the techniques
from the garment on the label
and you just don't sometimes
just make the label specifically.
I always practice my techniques
on a scrap of fabric before I sew
and then I save those scraps
with the thought that maybe I'll be able
to use part of them as a label later on.
This is from our second program of the series
where we worked on polar fleece
which is the vine stitches
and now you could simply add a date
maybe your initials, whatever you'd like.
That's right.
So after you've spent time creating a garment
spend a little bit more time
and add your signature by a label
and I think that's a great way of ending this series.
Thanks, Nancy.
Music
It's time to wrap up this three-part series
on carefree machine embroidery.
But before I do I need to thank
our special guest, Barb Projoda.
Barb, this was inspiring.
Thank you for joining us.
Well, thanks for having me, Nancy.
I hope our viewers will try one or more
of these techniques and really have some fun
The ideas that you saw throughout this series
are written in a 20-page companion booklet
by the name of Carefree Machine Embroidery
so you have all the details written down.
Thanks for joining us.
Bye for now.
Music