Monday, May 11, 2009

Stipple & Free Sewing

Free-Style Machine Embroidery

Free machine embroidery is the process of creating embroidery using a straight or zigzag stitch stitch without feed dogs in an ordinary embroidery hoop. Free machine embroidery is fun and easy but requires practice at first. It's called "free" because the hoop is controlled freely by hand rather than being fixed to the machine.

Requirements are as follows:

A sewing machine with a drop-feed control or a plate that covers the feed dogs - in other words, you have to be able to lower or cover the feed dogs so they don't feed the fabric.
An embroidery or darning foot but some machines will quite happily sew without any foot at all.
An embroidery hoop
Fabric
Thread
Thread for the bobbin.

The procedure is to drop the feed dogs or cover them with a special plate. Place the fabric in the embroidery hoop so that the surface of the fabric is at the bottom of the hoop. It is very important to stretch the fabric in the hoop as tight as possible - as tight as a drum! The tighter the cloth the better the embroidery. When you place the hoop on the table the fabric surface should rest on the table with the right side of the fabric facing up. Put the embroidery or darning foot on. Place the embroidery hoop in the sewing area. Set the sewing machine for a straight stitch and have fun!

Stippling by Free Sewing
Stippling is a similar technique and is used to give a quilted effect. A hoop is often not used at all, so it is really freestyle sewing. Typically you move the fabric so that the stitching forms wavy lines which evenly cover the fabric but do not intersect. You may need to increase the bobbin tension slightly. The rule is fast foot, slow hand. It takes practice.

Stippled Embroidery Designs.

There are many digitized embroidery designs available now specially created for stippling. Find out more about them in our Redwork Section or see the Stipple Designs available. They enable you to stipple designs in beautiful patterns, automatically without having to move the cloth by hand. You need to be able to place your cloth either in the embroidery hoop, or secure it on top of the hoop with adhesive stabilizer to sew out the stipple design. The hoop is then placed on your embroidery unit, and you embroider the design. Add batting for a quilted effect.

Heirloom Sewing Techniques

Heirloom Sewing in Todays World.
by Hope Yoder

Heirloom sewing is a term used to describe many different techniques used when incorporating Swiss or French laces into various techniques & shapes. It can also be referred to "Sewing From Yesteryear". The most popular era in history where heirloom sewing was the main focus in garments was the "Titanic Era". Remember the romantic white blouses with rows of pintucks & laces. Heirloom sewing can also refer to special items that were made with love and stored in a cedar "Hope" chest for the future generations.

In todays world of instant gratification there are many embroidery designs that help speed up the process of creating new heirloom sewing projects. Hope Yoder has invented a new technique of combining machine embroidery & English cotton netting (bobbinet) to simulate traditional heirloom "Lace Shaping" in the embroidery hoop. While these designs don't look exactly like their traditional counterparts, they are very delicate and dainty. Her embroidery collections that recreate traditional heirloom techniques in the embroidery hoop are Cathedral Lace Windows, Madeira Applique, Lace Shaping & English Lace Ovals.

Helpful Hints for Heirloom Sewing

Below you will find some "Helpful Hints From Hope" regarding heirloom sewing & embroidery principals.

English Cotton Netting
Fabric shrinks @ 6" in width. Dip in hot water, wring out excess water and dunk in straight liquid starch. Fill a bowl with just enough starch to cover fabric. Swish around and wring out excess starch.. Let air dry until 80% of the moisture is gone and iron dry. Netting is perfectly stabilized and ready to use with Hope's Heirloom Embellishment embroidery designs.

Heirloom Principals
Use a high quality 100% natural fiber fabric such as silk, linen, rayon or cotton when using heirloom techniques. Synthetic fabrics such as polyester have a memory to prevent wrinkles and are not suitable for heirloom techniques such as twin needle pintucks or wing needle stitching.

Spray Starch
Spray natural fiber fabric with starch lightly and let soak in for 30 seconds. Iron dry. Mist fabric (do not wet fabric) again and iron dry, repeat 3 more times. Use this method to stabilize fabric before doing any embroidery or decorative stitches (such as wing needle work). The only exception is when doing pintucks.

Hooping Fabric
Place "Wash Away Wonder Tape" on the wrong side of your top hoop frame. Place a piece on all 4 sides and peel away the paper. Once you have drawn placement lines on your fabric, lay the hoop on top of fabric and the tape will keep the fabric from shifting while you finish hooping. Another good tip is to purchase a rubber mesh shelf liner at your favorite discount store. Lay underneath the bottom part of your hoop to keep it stable so it doesn't slide over the countertop.

Creating and Removing Placement Marks
Use a blue water-soluble fabric marker (not a purple air-erasable marker) when drawing placement lines on your fabric. You can apply spray starch and heat from an iron to marked fabric without causing any damage to the fabric. Occasionally when pressing on purple air-erasable lines they may become permanent. When removing the blue marks, soak fabric in WATER ONLY. Occasionally detergent can cause a chemical reaction and the lines will not disappear.

Hope Yoder Offers Us a New Twist on Heirlooming
by Martha Pullen, Sew Beautiful Issue No. 102, 2005

Hope Yoder has been on a roll this year. Pick up just about any sewing magazine on the newsstands, and you'll find something she's designed. Be it her blouse on the cover of Sew News, her embroidery techniques in Designs in Machine Embroidery, or her "Victoria Dreams Heirloom Shirt", which, of course, graced our pages last spring.

Her book Embellished Heirloom Treasures (self-published 2005, $21.95) makes evident why Hope's design approach is so popular. Her work is feminine without being overwhelmingly frilly, and she often blends white with just the right intensity of color whether she's making a linen tea cozy, or an heirloom blouse. Although she didn't invent the Cathedral Windows technique, she works it with an interesting new twist teaming it with delicate machine embroidery.

"My embroidery designs are not your typical embroidery - stick it in the hoop and go - but they are heirloom techniques that have been recreated in the embroidery hoop, making it easy for everyone to make beautiful heirlooms." Complete instructions for lending her flair to a tea cozy, a baby quilt, petite purses and the book's cover blouse are detailed step by step. Embellished Heirloom Treasures is Hope's second book. For additional sewing materials, visit her website.

Most recently released is Vintage Reticule , which includes a new embroidery design and a purse pattern featuring crazy quilting, reverse bobbin embroidery, couching yards, and threads.

Heirloom Designs

Hand Embroidery has been done for generations, and with the invention of modern machine embroidery designs, anyone can sew traditional heirloom designs very quickly and easily.

Heirloom sewing is a specialized sewing often used in blouses, childrens clothing, and table line. Cardinal Country Designs specializes in many different types of digitized embroidery designs with the heirloom look.

Cutwork and Lace Shaping.
Heirloom Sewing often involves special lace placement and trims to create the Lace Shaping or Peek-A-Boo windows effect. Hope Yoder has some great techniques for re-creating this look with embroidery. Some embroidery designs are specially digitized to enable you to use them for Cutwork. Sewing cutwork embroidery designs involves embroidering the design, and trimming out the sturdier fabric from behind, giving you an elegant cutwork lace effect. It is basically the reverse of applique, and instead of adding applique fabric, you are cutting the base fabric away.

Modern Heirloom Designs.
Many of the embroidery designs that were hand sewn in the past, can now be re-created very quickly and easily by modern machine embroidery. The stitches used in the traditional hand embroidery, like simple outlines, crosses, or satin stitches are now digitized to re-create the vintage look. You will find many heirloom deisigns at Secrets of Embroidery in our Heirloom, Redwork, andLace categories.

Tone on Tone Sewing.
There are many beautiful "one color" or "tone on tone" embroidery designs available that you can use to sew out in soft whites, creams or ecru threads on natural linen fabrics to give the delicate "tone on tone" look. Any embroidery design can be sewn out in this "tone on tone" effect just by changing your thread colors. You can either use the same thread color to stitch out the entire design, or if it is digitized in different colors, you may like to use similar shades of the same color thread to give it a delicate soubtle look. For example, try 3 pastel shades of pink, for a baby girls project.

Use Natural Threads and Fabric.
Any type of embroidery thread or fabric can be used to sew heirloom designs on. However try using 100% cotton threads, and soft linen fabrics to re-create a more authentic yesteryear look. If you are sewing redwork designs, you may like to use a heavier weight cotton thread, and larger needle for a beautiful look.

Redwork Embroidery

In the United States, redwork history can be traced back to the late 1800s. Redwork embroidery was very popular across America. Usually it was used in coverlets and spreads as well as household linens. The coverlets were thin, consisting of only a top and bottom, no filler, and were used in the summer.

At first red thread was used for this type of embroidery because the method of dyeing the "red" color resulted in a color fast thread . Other colors would run when washed and did not hold up with repeated washing. By the 1920s, dyes improved and other colors became available.

Penny squares were a very popular method of making redwork quilts. Each square had a design stamped on it and could be bought for a penny, hence the name. Some of the antique redwork quilts available today were made from "Penny" squares. There was a variety of designs available. These included, children, animals, nursery rhymes, flowers, fruit, vegetables, or were of historical importance. These designs were worked in a variety of stitches. The outline or running stitch were used the most. Other stitches included cross stitch, chain, stem, and double running.

Redwork designs are very popular today.
The popularity of redwork, which declined in the 1920s, has been revived and they are again a very popular form of embroidery amongst the modern embroiderer. Now machine embroidery is used to re-create traditional penny squares, quilts, and decorate a large number of household and childrens items. At Secrets of Embroidery you will find many different types of redwork designs in our Redwork Category.

Perfect for quilts and stippling.
Modern Redwork Embroidery designs are generally outline designs are not filled in with various embroidery fills. This makes them very quick and easy to sew out, and perfect for stippling in quilts. Try using a layer of batting, ontop of your stabilizer, when stitching out the redwork design. This will give you a fabulous embossed or quilted look.

Experiment with different colors.
Modern Redwork embroidery designs these days are sometimes known as Blackwork, Greenwork, or Bluework depending on the thread color used to sew them out with. Try experimenting with your various threads, and even use variegated threads for different results. Generally, a darker color on light fabric shows the design better, but you can try the reverse and sew out the design in a light colored thread on dark fabric for some stunning results, like gold thread, on navy blue satin cloth.
Try heavier threads, or diferent textures.
Some redwork or Stipple designs are perfect to sew out in heavier weight cotton threads as there is no fill detail in the design, and the designs can handle a heavier thread without becoming to dense. Quilting is a rich and honored tradition. Colors, fabrics, patterns, and designs reflect your artistry, your personality. Perfect Quilter Variegated Threads will give you a strong stitch definition, and create a smooth, soft, touch and appearance whichwill add the perfect finishing touch to your quilting inspirations. Ensure you use a needle that can accommodate a heavier weight thread.
Always test sew your design.
If you experiment with different colors, thread weights, or textures of threads, or batting, always ensure you test-sew your design first to ensure it will work and give the finished result you would like. As you are changing the reccommendations given by the designer for the threads to use, you need to ensure the embroidery design will sew correctly with the thread size, and needle you are using before you sew it on your final project.

Embroider Cutwork

by Shelly Smola of My Fair Lady

Supply List:

Wash-away mesh stabilizer

Small embroidery nips

505 or Sulky KK2000 Adhesive Spray

Seam ripper

Fray Check

Cutwork Instructions

The following instructions demonstrate the method for embroidering a cutwork design from My Fair Lady.

Other designers may use a different method. Please read all instructions before stitching any cutwork designs.


Step 1 Spray the back of your fabric with adhesive spray. Place it over the wash-away stabilizer. You MUST adhere the fabric to the stabilizer to insure a clean stitchout. This will keep your fabric from shifting when you cut out the cutwork area. Always spray your fabric far away from your machine.	Step 2 Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together.	Step 3 To stitch a nice, “clean” design, pull the bobbin thread to the top before you start stitching each sequence. This will prevent the tail of the bobbin thread from getting caught under the stitching in the cutwork area, which is very difficult to cut away and leaves your design looking messy. To do this, lower your needle and bring it back up. Use the top thread to pull the bobbin thread up through the fabric.

Tip: Hold your hoop by the hoop!! It’s easy to push your fingers through the fabric if you hold the hoop as shown. This is a common mistake, and your fingers will displace the fabric. This will lead to an unattractive and imperfect stitchout.


Step 4 Sew the first sequence. Trim any jump stitches or thread tails on the top and bottom of the hoop.	Step 5 Sew the second sequence. This is the cutting line for the cutwork area. Use the same thread that you will use for the cutwork finish. The outer line will help keep your fabric in place.	Step 6 Take the hoop out of the machine. Use the point of your scissors or a seam ripper to start a small hole inside the cutwork area. Use a pair of sharp embroidery nips to cut out the fabric only inside the stitched guideline. DO NOT CUT THE STABILIZER! This needs to stay in place to hold your fabric in position! Trim the fabric close to the stitch line, but do not cut the stitches.

Tip: Make sure that your hoop is sitting on a flat surface while you trim the fabric. Be careful not to loosen the fabric inside the hoop.

Step 7
Place the hoop back in the machine. Sew the finish for the cutwork area. While your embroidery machine stitches the connecting bars and underlay, watch for any “whiskers.” If you see any (this will depend on your fabric), stop your embroidery machine and trim them before the satin finish is sewn so that you will have a nice, clean stitchout.

Step 8
Sew the last sequence - the Swiss dots.

Step 9
Take your project out of the hoop. Apply a dot of Fray Check to the back of each of the Swiss dots. After the Fray Check is dry, rinse with warm water until it feels like the stabilizer is completely gone. Soak the item in a container of soapy water for a little while to make sure that ALL of the stabilizer is dissolved. Rinse your item again thoroughly, and hang to dry.

Tip: If you accidentally cut part of the stabilizer, “float” a small piece of stabilizer under the cut. To do this, cut a small piece of stabilizer slightly larger than the cutout area, and use spray adhesive to hold it to the bottom of your hoop.

If you accidentally cut all of the stabilizer, float a small piece of stabilizer under the cutwork area, and sew the cutting line again (go back one thread color on your machine) to hold it in place before going on to the next thread sequence).

Color Chart at a Glance
Heirloom Cutwork Freebie
Color 1 Dark Blue – Vines and Leaves
Color 2 Cutting Line for the diamond – Stop and trim the fabric inside the line.
Color 3 Light Blue - Cutwork Finish
Color 4 Dark Blue – Swiss dot accents

Washing and Ironing

Treat your cutwork item as you would any other delicate heirloom. Wash the cutwork item by hand. Use a detergent that will not harm your fabric. If your fabric is linen, remember to use a gentle detergent that does not contain chlorine bleach, as this will break down the fibers and ruin the linen.
Hang the item and allow it to dry naturally.
Before your project has dried completely, iron it at a setting appropriate for your fabric. Remember to iron from the back or use a pressing cloth so that the embroidery does not get flattened

Resources

Stabilizer: www.allstitch.net (Vilene)
Adhesive Spray: www.allstitch.net (505 adhesive spray or Sulky KK2000). Please do not use Dritz adhesive spray for this project, as it does not wash out.
Embroidery Nips: www.toolsandgadgets.net

Copyright Information
Sharing is Stealing! All digitized designs and instructions are copyrighted by My Fair Lady and are only for use by the person who originally purchased the designs. Digitized designs and instructions are not to be shared, swapped, duplicated or sold in any way. Designs in their stitched out form can be used on personal items, gifts and items for resale on a small scale. The digitized design itself remains the property of My Fair Lady. Please help My Fair Lady continue to offer quality designs at reasonable prices by following copyright laws.

Free Design Download

Visit My Fair Lady's Heirloom Cutwork Design page to download both Project Instructions and the above freebie design.

Make a Spring Quilt

by Shelly Smola of My Fair Lady

Quilt Instructions Note: All fabric amounts listed refer to 44" wide fabric. All fabric should be pre-shrunk, ironed, and starched for best results. If the fabric you choose will shrink significantly, please buy extra! Quilt Squares Make the following Spring Quilt squares all in the same hoop size. Follow the instructions included in the Spring Quilt in the Hoop set.		Quilt Supplies 80/12 universal sewing needle Fabric for sashing (see charts below for yardage) Fabric for back 4x4 Squares: ( 2/3 yd) 5x5 Squares: ( 2/3 yd) 6x5 Squares: (¾ yd) Fabric for binding (¼ yd) Hand sewing needle
6 Main Quilt Squares (1 of each square) 24 Half Squares (4 of each half square) 24 Corner Squares (4 of each corner square)		Finished Quilt Sizes 4x4 Squares: About 19" x 28" 5x5 Squares: About 23" x 35" 6x6 Squares: About 27" x 40"

Sashing and Binding
The quilt shown has pink sashing (the strips of fabric in between each quilt square) inside the 6 individual blocks, and yellow sashing separating the 6 large blocks. The yardage is given below.

4x4 Squares
Pink Sashing:
6 - 1¼" strips (¼ yd)
Yellow Sashing:
3 - 1¼" strips (1/8 yd)
Binding:
3 - 1¾" strips (¼ yd)

5x5 Squares
Pink Sashing:
7 - 1¼" strips (¼ yd)
Yellow Sashing:
3 - 1¼" strips (1/8 yd)
Binding:
3 - 1¾" strips (¼ yd)

6x6 Hoop
Pink Sashing:
8 - 1¼" strips (1/3 yd)
Yellow Sashing:
3 - 1¼" strips (1/8 yd)
Binding:
4 - 1¾" strips (¼ yd)

Quilt Assembly
The quilt will be assembled in "sets" of 9 pieces at a time. Start with 1 main quilt square and its 4 matching corners and 4 half squares.


1. Take the top left corner square and place it over the pink sashing, right sides together. (The grey image above is the wrong-side of the fabric - the pink is the right-side).	2. Stitch together using the stitched border on the corner square as your seam guide. Stitch JUST INSIDE the line as shown to hide the seam guide.

3. Trim the unused portion of the sashing.	4. Open the sashing and finger press. The seam will naturally open toward the sashing.

5. Place a half square right sides together with the sashing.	6. Stitch together using the stitched border on the half square as your seam guide. Stitch JUST INSIDE the line as shown to hide the seam guide.

7. Open the sashing and finger press.	8. Place the corner and half square right sides together with the unused strip of sashing. Stitch together using the stitched border on the half square as your seam guide. Remember to stitch just inside the seam guide.

9. Trim the unused portion of the sashing. As you complete the block, if the unused sashing isn't long enough, set it aside and use it for smaller sections. Start with a new strip when necessary.	10. Open the sashing and finger press.
	11. Place a corner square right sides together with the sashing. Stitch together using the stitched border on the corner square as your seam guide. Remember to stitch just inside the seam guide.
	12. Lay the row flat and iron. Use a pressing cloth and iron from the front. Do not iron from the back, as the wash-away stabilizer will shrink and distort the blocks.
	13. Sew two half squares and the main square together with sashing and iron open.
	14. Repeat for the last two corners squares and half square.
	15. Sew the 3 rows together with sashing in the same manner. Complete the other 5 blocks following the same steps. Iron each block when finished. Remember to iron from the front with a pressing cloth.

16. Sew the top two large blocks together using the yellow sashing.

17. Sew the middle two large blocks together using the yellow sashing.

18. Sew the bottom two large blocks together using the yellow sashing.

19. Sew the 3 rows together with sashing.

20. Cut the fabric for the back of the quilt slightly larger than your quilt. Lay the quilt top on the quilt back, WRONG sides together and pin.

21. "Stitch in the ditch" along the yellow sashing and around the six main squares to secure the back and protect the batting. TIP: Use a walking foot!

22. Baste the quilt top to the back around the edge. Trim the back to match the quilt.

Binding

1. Sew the binding strips together, and press the seams open.	wrong side
2. Press under ¼" along one short edge. Press under ¼" along one long edge.

3. Beginning a few inches away from a corner on one side, stitch the unfolded side of the binding to the quilt. Stitch just inside the seam line already stitched on the quilt.

4. To miter the corners, stop sewing ¼" from the corner and backstitch.

5.    Fold the binding so that it is in line with the edge you will be sewing, then fold it back down so that the raw edges are together again. The fold should line up with the edge of the quilt top. Pin in place.

6.    Turn the quilt so that you will be ready to sew the next edge. Begin sewing the next edge ¼" from the top.

7.    Continue sewing the binding around quilt, mitering corners as you go.

8. When you reach the starting point, overlap the edges about ½". Tuck the end of the binding under the fold of the starting point.

9. Turn the binding to the back of the quilt and hand-stitch so that the seam line on the back is covered. Hand-stitch the front of the binding where the two ends meet.

Washing
Wash your quilt in warm water to remove the stabilizer. Tumble dry on low heat. Remove the quilt from the dryer while it is slightly damp and lay it flat to dry.

These directions may not be reproduced, copied or distributed without prior permission from Shelly Smola at My Fair Lady . Thank you. For a printable version of these instructions click here.