Sewing Techniques

Machine Embroidery 2 – On Board Editing

An embroidery machine is essentially a sewing machine with an onboard computer, capable of doing all sorts of clever things – if only you knew how! We’ve had a play and are delighted to share our experiences

Getting creative
Whether you have an embroidery machine or computerised machine with embroidery unit, you can get really creative with the embroidery functions. By using in-built or purchased designs together with the machine’s editing functions, designs can be made more versatile or adapted for a particular project. Our samples were worked on a Janome 10000 so you will need to refer to the owner’s manual for details of which keys to press on your own model, but all the major brands of machine have similar editing capability.

HANDY HINT: When experimenting with the machine’s editing capability choose a simple design to work with, as it is easier to see what is happening.

Changing thread colours
Whilst any colour can easily be substituted at the time of stitching a design, some machines have the facility to view colour changes prior to stitching out which can be useful. View the affect of changing individual colours within a design or play around with different colour schemes until you are happy with the selection. Some machines will also allow the background colour to be changed to represent the base fabric a design is to be stitched on.

Enlarge/reduce designs
Enlarging or reducing a design is very useful to adjust a design to fit a specific area of an item such as a pocket, and most machines will do this within a certain limit. Usually this is a maximum of 20% of the design’s original size. The adjustment is limited because generally the machine is not altering the stitch count (number of stitches) within a design, it is merely stretching or condensing the stitches, therefore a greater change in size would spoil the design and make it appear too sparse or dense. In our sample we stitched a heart at 80%, 100% and 120% of its original size for comparison.

Rotating/mirroring designs
Moving designs around is great fun and can produce all sorts of interesting effects. In our example our heart design was simply copied and rotated to create a flower pattern. If the hearts had been made to face inwards instead of outwards it would have looked completely different again.

1. Select the chosen design and move it to the first position using the arrow keys or by ‘dragging’ it (i.e. touching the item with your finger on the screen and moving it to the required position).
2. Copy the item if your machine has this option or add a second one by selecting it again.

3. Rotate the item by pressing the appropriate keys on the screen and move as required.

4. Check the grid lines or view the position of the finished design within the hoop, and confirm ‘OK’ when you are happy with it.

Flipping a design so it becomes a mirror image is also very useful when you want to repeat a design on the opposite side of something, such as the lapels of a jacket. Stitch the first lapel, select ‘rotate’ to mirror the image, and stitch the second lapel.

HANDY HINT: Stitch the embroidery before cutting out the pattern piece as a heavy design can pull the fabric in and shrink it slightly.

Combining designs
Once the first design is selected, any number of other designs can be added. The only restriction is the hoop size and many embroidery machines will allow selection of the larger hoop size if one is available.

1. Press the in-built design key and choose the first image.

2. Press the key again and choose another design, this should appear on the same screen.
3. Keep adding designs in this way and moving them around until you are happy with the final selection. Confirm ‘OK’ to accept.

This is a great way to build up a picture or create a large embroidery design. It can be useful if you want different versions on a theme for a project, e.g. a large design on the back of a jacket and a mini version on a sleeve. In our example we used two small in-built designs to create a large floral design. Some machines will have a ‘copy’ facility to make duplicating a design really easy.

HANDY HINT: If the machine has a ‘save design’ option - make use of it as recreating an elaborate design a few days later is not always easy.

Adding text/monograms
Adding text or monograms is a great way to personalise a design and the ultimate compliment when giving the item as a gift. The easiest way to add text to a design is to select the design first and position it within the hoop area.

1. Select the text key on your machine.

2. Select the preferred font and key in the required letters, not forgetting to use upper and lower case characters.

3. There may be an option to ‘arc’ the font upwards or downwards and to move the text closer together or further apart. These are very useful options when trying to fit a word within a restricted area.

4. Return to the original design.

5. The text should now appear on the screen and can be moved to the required position.

You may want to do some fine-tuning of the design. In our example we increased the size of the teddy and reduced the size of the text to make the design look more balanced. Creating monograms is a similar process.
* Select the text option.
* Select an appropriate border and font.
* Enter the required initials.

HANDY HINT: It is worth doing a sample piece with the same word in various fonts and keeping this as a handy reference for next time.

If using three initials as in our monogram sample, the surname initial goes in the centre, the Christian name initial goes to the left of the design and the middle name to the right.

Appliqué
Appliqué is easy to do using a design that has a running stitch outline that is then finished with a satin stitch border. To create an appliqué requires the following steps:

1. Stabilise and hoop the base material in the normal way.

2. Lay the appliqué fabric on top of the hooped fabric. If it is very slippery try a touch of spray adhesive to hold it temporarily in position

3. Start stitching the design and manually stop the machine when it has completed the running stitch outline. The appliqué fabric should now be held securely in place.

4. Remove the hoop from the machine and trim the appliqué fabric close to the stitched outline (don’t remove the main fabric from the hoop). 

5. Place the hoop back on the machine, go back a few stitches to secure stitching and continue with the satin stitch part of the design.  This will overlap the raw edges of the appliqué fabric and give it a nice neat finish.

HANDY HINT: This is a great way of using up scraps from the fabric bag, velvet, satin and prints all look very effective in appliqué designs.

Cutwork
Cutwork designs are created in a similar way to appliqué. Again, you need to use a design that has a running stitch outline that is finished with a satin stitch border. This time, however, you need to remove the fabric inside the outlines before completing the satin stitch border. Hoop water-soluble or lightweight tear-away stabiliser under the main fabric and follow these steps:

1. Start stitching the design and press the ‘Stop’ key as soon as the machine has completed the running stitch outline.

2. Remove the hoop from machine but don’t remove the fabric from the hoop.

3. Trim the required parts of the fabric away inside the running stitch outlines, being careful not to cut through the stabiliser.

4. Re-attach the hoop to the machine.

5. Complete the satin stitch border and remove stabiliser to give a nice neat finish.

HANDY HINT: Use sharp curved edge embroidery scissors for trimming, as it is much easier to trim close to stitching.

Lace and motifs
Water-soluble stabiliser makes a great base for creating lace or embroidered motifs. Lace designs or motifs are generally heavily stitched as the stitching needs to hold together when the water-soluble stabiliser has been removed. Our peacock samples were purchased lace designs but you can use other designs provided the stitching is suitably dense. Reducing the size of a design can sometimes help with this. Again, the only way to ensure suitability is to stitch out a sample. Motifs can then be manipulated to give a textured shape or pressed flat and smooth. You can also create your own lace designs by using a fine net or organza as a base, together with water-soluble stabiliser.

1. Hoop the net and two or three layers of water-soluble stabiliser together.

2. Embroider the chosen design and remove from hoop.

3. Soak the finished piece in water for a few minutes and allow it to dry.

4. Do any trimming after the piece has dried.

HANDY HINTS: Cut away the excess water-soluble stabiliser roughly around the design before soaking it, do not tear it away as it may damage delicate fabrics or pull stitching away from net.

A final word
We hope our suggestions have provided a few ideas for using the embroidery machine creatively. We will be looking at the additional functions available using a computer and customising software so do visit the website again soon.

Ruth Cox is a freelance Computerised Machine Embroidery expert who writes for Sewing World magazine and runs courses on computerised machine embroidery for Janome Sewing machines. For further details or to contact Ruth email: ruthcoxtraining@yahoo.co.uk.

Nb: This article first appeared in Sewing World, February 2004.