machine embroidery Tag

02 Dec The Holiday Tunic

From the moment I resumed sewing garments in 2011, I was obsessed with learning to sew the cute $$$ RTW tops I could never justify buying for myself. My second blog post was about recreating Milly peasant tops, and thus began my journey leading to The Tunic Bible. My first top, a silk peasant top looked quite homemade, but I was blinded by enthusiasm and after my investment of time and effort, I wore it with great pride. My mother bought the silk in Asia and I wanted to please her as much as myself. Six years later I see the progress I've made...

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21 Oct Embellishment in Black & Blue

On Monday while sitting at the pattern table at JoAnn's, I overheard a woman interrogating the sales clerk about the store's sewing machines. She railed on about how complicated the new machines are. She said she was an excellent seamstress and all she wanted was a sewing machine without a computer. Then she exclaimed she was too old to learn how to use these new machines...

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23 Sep McCall’s 7543

Happy Fall, Y'all! It's always so hard  to say goodbye to my favorite season of the year in exchange for falling leaves, pumpkins and holiday madness. I needed a little pick-me-up after trading my white jeans for black pants, and my new top did the trick. The pattern is McCall's 7543, a pattern worth sewing more than once (my previous version is here). [caption id="attachment_21462" align="aligncenter" width="266"] McCall's 7543[/caption] The two piece sleeve offers a great opportunity for machine embroidery embellishment, so I put the petal to the metal and embroidered both sides of the sleeves with a mirrored image design. The floral embroidery motif...

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27 Aug Black White and Cherry!

I've never been able to adopt the 'keep it simple' philosophy, but I do believe in the 'one step at a time' approach to life. In sewing that means sticking to the familiar while learning the new. While I try to grasp the details of machine embroidery I'm sewing with patterns and fabrics that leave no surprises. Mood Fabrics offers a fabulous collection of cotton shirtings, and what better backdrop for cherry red than a black and white check! I knew this smooth shirting fabric with a soft drape would be perfect for a tunic and kept my fingers crossed that it would be...

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22 Jul McCall’s 7543

After seeing so many cute renditions of  McCalls 7543, I could not let another summer day pass without sewing my own. An off-the-shoulder top with gathered shoulders and elastic pulled tight across the chest and back gives the appearance of nice clean lines, which I wear better than a full gather. The nice tight pull across the chest also prevents gaping. After finishing the experimental embroidered denim jacket I was ready to embroider for real ;) The printed fabric from EmmaOneSock is a lightweight linen with a nice background for an embroidery design. I settled on a floral motif  the Pfaff Embroidery book...

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17 Jul Embroidered Jean Jacket

I've been practicing my embroidery. After trying out two designs on muslin with no purpose other than to serve as practice examples, I went in to 'Just Do It' mode. I grabbed a very old denim jacket out of a closet and began to explore with the Pfaff embroidery designs which came with my machine. My plan was to sew whatever struck my fancy...

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