Over the last several weeks, I have been releasing videos regarding the basics of embroidery.
I've covered choosing a machine,
stabilizers,
needles,
thread,
hooping your fabric,
and now we're going to take all that information
and apply it to an actual project.
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Welcome back, everybody. Tricia here with Sewing Parts Online.
So let's get started.
So our project today is this adorable little drawstring gift bag.
Let's talk about stabilizers.
With this particular project, I am using a pretty sturdy, cotton woven fabric.
There's not a lot of stretch to it.
When you're using a fabric like this,
a good stabilizer option is going to be a tear away.
If you're using a stretchier fabric, like a knit,
then you would want to use a cut away stabilizer.
How about your needle?
When embroidering, you want to make sure that you are using an embroidery needle.
The wide eye and groove will help prevent friction,
allowing trouble-free stitching.
There are many different brand choice, but
I'm a fan girl of Schmetz, so
I chose to use the embroidery needle -size 11- in the chrome option.
I've already swapped that out on the machine.
Polyester and rayon are both great choices when it comes to thread options.
I really like Polyneon polyester thread.
It's made by Madeira.
It's really strong and it has a really pretty sheen to it.
Also, when getting your thread around, don't forget about the bobbin thread.
When embroidering, you want to use a lighter weight- usually a 60 weight -bobbin thread.
This particular one is also polyester.
So the benefit of having a lighter weight thread is that
the upper thread is not going to have to fight for tension.
Also, make sure that it's full before you begin.
There's nothing worse than getting into the middle of your project
and you run out of bobbin thread.
Now comes the fun part.
Or, the not so fun part.
It's kind of up for debate.
The reason that I say that it's up for debate is
hooping is an art.
It takes a lot of practice, but it definitely is achievable, so don't worry.
Let's remove the inner ring.
I've already marked the center of my fabric.
I just folded it in half.
Taking my pen, I marked the middle.
I'm not placing it directly in the middle, because I don't want my design right here.
I actually want it closer to the bottom.
When I make my bag, it will look better down below.
Actually, I am going to remark here.
You can hardly see it anymore.
You've got your center here and an arrow up here.
I'm going to place this first.
You just need the stabilizer all the way around
the ring. A little bit beyond the ring.
That doesn't have to be centered, because we are just going to tear it off
after we're done stitching our design anyway.
As long as it's all the way around the hoop, we're good.
Now the fabric- you have to be more careful with.
On camera, it's kind of difficult to see, but in person, it's much easier.
I can see where that line is.
Then I've got my marking and
I want to pull it down here because
I want the fabric all the way around.
I going to kind of move that back.
I see the mark.
There we go.
Then I want to smooth the fabric as best I can.
Perfect.
Now I want the inner ring-
it's got an arrow on the top as well.
I don't want to move my fabric.
How is my mark centered there and I am so far off?
Let's look at that again.
Something is not right.
Let's figure it out.
I want to kind of get the top in first.
Then push and work down towards the screw.
There we go.
It's pretty even. I don't have to rehoop it.
Oftentimes, you have to rehoop several times. There is nothing wrong with that.
Hooping can take longer than actually embroidering your project.
You just want to make sure that you can't pinch the fabric and
it has like a drum effect.
And, actually, I need to push that a little bit more.
You want to make sure that the inner hoop is all the way down.
There we go.
Now we can set that aside and get our machine ready.
Alright, let's go in and select our design.
The one that we are going to do today is in here.
Now looking at the LCD screen, I want to show you a few things.
You've got your hoops up here.
Then you've got your display.
Your different selections.
The 1 through 8 is just showing different pages, so
you've got 8 pages worth of these letters.
To navigate through those, you use these arrows down here.
Just like that.
Today, we are going to be embroidering a K.
Now notice that the small one gets blocked out.
You cannot use that particular hoop, because it's too small.
You have to use the 4x4.
That's one thing that I really love about embroidery machines.
They're smart.
They tell you when you can use something and when you can't.
If something is outside the border
It's really nice, especially when you're just beginning.
Now we'll just hit set because we've chosen our design.
In this area, you can make changes.
You can move it around. Let's hit that.
All different directions.
If at any point, you're like, oh shoot
I need to start over.
Just hit that little button in the middle.
It will bring it right back to the middle.
You can adjust the size.
You can squeeze it in.
Squeeze it in this way.
It's just a preference. You just play around with the size.
Rotate.
90 degrees, 10 degrees,
one.
Doesn't that look fancy?
You can, kind of, make it an H. Reset.
The mirror button.
We've got delete. We all know what that is.
Let's do that again.
Hit our design.
I've selected it.
Now I want to move it.
I'm going to bring it all the way down to the bottom of my hoop.
I want to change the size- just a little smaller.
That's good.
Hit ok.
I don't need to rotate it at all. I want it nice and straight.
Not going to use the mirror button.
And I'm not going to delete it again.
Now that I've selected my design, I'm going to
select my colors.
Go into the thread.
These buttons up here -
you can toggle through the components of the design.
I'll just hit back and forth a couple of times.
This one
it goes to the leaves.
And then
when I hit it again
it brings the K back.
This particular design only has two colors, so that makes it nice and easy.
I'm going to start with the K.
Since I am using green fabric for the drawstring bag,
I'm going to make the K white, so
it pops and it coordinates.
And I want to make the leaves green.
To change the color, again, these are the pages, so we're going to use the arrows to move over.
And I already know that the color I want is this one right here.
Oh and I changed the K instead of the leaves.
So let's just change that back. I am going to
move back to white.
Make that white again and then I'm going to
toggle through the design.
Now I'm on the leaves.
Now I can move through the color pages.
Pick my color.
There we go.
If you want a preview of your design, you can go up to this little button here.
Hit that.
You can see the white K and the green leaves.
Now, obviously, this is not going to be identical for every embroidery machine,
but it gives you an idea on how to move back and forth and make your selections.
And then you've got your add button.
So if you wanted to add anything else-
I'm just going to hit something.There we go.
You can move that around.
That's another thing with this particular machine.
It is touch as well, so you can touch and drag.
And we all know delete.
Now that I've got my design the way that I want it, I'm going to hit end.
And I am ready embroider as soon as I attach my hoop to the machine.
Then I remembered, I have to go to the grocery store.
So, what I'm going to do is actually save this.
I'm going to save it using a USB stick.
The first thing that you want to do is insert this into the side of your machine.
Now, make sure you watch out for it because it disappears pretty quickly, but it will say 'saving.'
So I'm going to hit this little pocket.
You can decide whether or not you want to save it do the machine or save it to the USB stick.
I'm saving it to the USB stick.
Now I can remove my USB stick.
And it's saved.
Now I can continue as soon as I come back from the grocery store.
Do, do, do, do, do...
Back from the grocery store.
So now we want to retrieve our design.
We just insert this into the side of the machine.
Hit the USB button,
and then your pocket pulls up.
I've got a few already saved on there, but we were working on our K.
Just select that and hit set.
Now we can continue.
Here's where the hoop is going to attach to the embroidery unit.
You would have your fabric hooped and
you would just carefully place it underneath the foot.
These little nubs here fit into the slots.
I find it easiest to get it all lined up and, on this machine, pull back this little tab
and slide it in.
They just kind of drop in.
Once they're lowered, then you can release.
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So now we're going to thread our machine.
We need to pass the thread through the foot.
Now with some embroidery machines, you need to
drop down your needle and pull up your bobbin thread.
With this particular model, you don't have to do that.
Just do about 8-10 stitches, stop, lift it up, and
cut away the extra thread.
You just don't want that to get stuck in there.
Now you can lower your presser foot and start embroidering.
We're using the Babylock Verve today.
It's a fantastic, beginner-friendly,
combination sewing and embroidery machine.
The great thing about using a combination machine is
I'm going to be able to complete the whole project on this particular model.
We'll be able to stitch out our design
and then take our embroidery unit off
and then use it as a sewing machine.
Then we'll be able to construct our bag.
Once you hit embroidery, it brings you to this page and it's going to tell you.
each color and how long it's going to take
and how many stitches you're at.
All done with the white. Now we're going to switch it out and do the green.
So again, we need to pass the thread through the foot.
We don't have to pull the bobbin thread up with this machine
so I'm just going to lower it and do a few stitches.
Stop
Lift it up so that I have a better view.
Snip that. I really should have embroidery scissors.
They work way better.
Lower our presser foot and start again.
Alright. All done. I am going to clip this first.
Okay. So let's lift up the foot.
I'll get that out of the way so that you can see what I'm doing.
That tab again- I'm going to pull it back.
Kind of work it out.
Lift it up straight.
Just be careful. The hoop is still under the foot.
Once you get to this point, I usually like to drop it down.
Now, I can carefully remove it from the machine.
Time to unhoop our project.
So now, once I have the seam allowance in there
and I'll be putting a channel for the drawstring
I think that will be a nice placement.
Sweet.
Okay, so next
we just need to remove our stabilizer.
Again, this is a tear away
so we can, simply, tear it away.
Once you get to the stitches, kind of hold them down.
You just don't want to distort any stitches or pull any out.
You can go in with a little tweezers and take out the stuff that's in the middle.
This is going to be hidden because I am making a lined bag.
You're not even going to see this, but
you can still go through and take it all off if you want.
Isn't that tear away awesome?
Super easy.
Alright, let's make our bag.
If you're interested in the step by step tutorial on how to make this drawstring bag,
I'll include a link for it at the end of this video.
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Thank you so much for joining me on this little embroidery journey.
I hope that you've learned something.
Until next time.