Denim is a twill weave and runs diagonally and any diagonal weave is difficult to control, whether you are attempting construction sewing or machine embroidery. Twills are designed to give the wearer ultimate wearing comfort by the natural “give” it has. That’s why we all love our chinos & jeans! However, this comfort quality presents a real problem for machine embroidery enthusiasts.

It is essential to keep fabric “blocked” while cutting, assembling, and stitching either regular seaming or machine embroidery. From cutting out pattern pieces to hooping denim for embroidery, you will experience a challenge of keeping the fabric “blocked” squarely. If you’re a quilter, you know exactly what blocking is. If you’re not a quilter it simply means keeping the grain of the weave, in both cross & straight directions, straight or square.

Denim is difficult to block because of the diagonal weave and, generally, denim is a heavier weight than most other fabrics are. I recently stitched an ankle length, heavy, denim duster coat using a very large design down the front edge of the coat opening, near the hemline. This meant I had to keep the design running straight in 2 directions at once. The outcome could have been quite unsightly if I hadn’t taken extra precautions to make sure the design was placed squarely and that the stabilizing was adequate to prevent the puckers and warping that result from the pull of a machine embroidery design while it is stitching.

Since I had chosen a rather dense assortment of designs to combine for a scene, I knew that I had a difficult, but not impossible, task. First I had to determine what would keep the twill from becoming distorted during the stitching. Second, I knew it would be next to impossible to hoop the coat – the denim was as heavy as any work jeans I’ve seen.

I immediately knew that I wouldn’t be able to hoop the coat, therefore it was a matter of first stabilizing the denim then finding a way to create a method of hooping a backing that would hold up under a high stitch count design and remove easily when the stitching was completed. Given the factors I couldn’t change – the weight of the fabric & the heaviness of the group of designs – I wanted to use a “formula” of layers which wouldn’t create a stiff effect when all was done. The front edge of a coat does flip open – this could be considered a lethal weapon if one is not careful!

~ DESIGN PLACEMENT ~

The first problem to overcome – can you imagine the bulk of all this fabric when attaching the hoop to the machine! Since the bulk of the fabric must be to the left of the machine so as not to constrict the movement of the embroidery “arm” and hoop, the design had to stitched upside down! To accomplish this you simply flip the design/s first vertically then horizontally.

Using a printed image of the design and the plastic grid for the hoop, I decided exactly where I wanted to place the design. (Always stand about 3 feet away from the garment to make sure the design is where you want it! It’s usually best to try it on & look in the mirror.) Since this was for my daughter I had to wing it!

~ PREPARING THE FABRIC OR GARMENT ~

I laundered the coat to shrink it to prevent any warping or puckering which would have happened after it was laundered the first time. Next I steam pressed the front of the jacket to its original flat state by applying Magic Sizing and heavy steam. Now the key here is the word press – not iron! If you iron (move the iron in any direction while bearing down) denim will be stretched and distorted.

After allowing the coat to dry completely after this process, and making sure of the design placement previously decided, I then applied the fusible medium tear away backing to the back side, using a dry iron set at the polyester setting, making sure that the backing straight grain was running with the coat cross grain. Again – press the backing not iron it. To avoid an armor look, I chose the soft tear away backing as the second layer which was placed straight grain to straight grain. A light spraying of 505 temporary adhesive was applied to keep it from shifting.

~ STABILIZING ~

My choice for the “hooping” backing was wonder solv – a water soluble, fabric-like stabilizer, which will support any number of stitches. I hooped a piece in my Brother jumbo hoop, which has a 5 X 12 inch stitch area. I then sprayed the wonder solv with a heavy coat of 505 spray.

I set the jumbo hoop on my Hoop Mate to insure that I could get the front edge of the coat straight with the curved edge of the hoop. Then, making sure that the hem edge was kept straight as well, I pressed the entire backed portion of the coat to the hooped wonder solv. I placed the plastic grid template over the “hooped” fabric to double-check the placement Whew – the worst part of the project was accomplished!

~ FINALLY! READY TO STITCH ~

After locking the hoop to the embroidery arm, I placed a sheet of web solvy on top to prevent the stitches from sinking into the denim. The first thing I stitched was the basting outlines in all three areas of the jumbo hoop. It takes a bit of time, but is well worth the effort. This secures the fabric/garment to the hooped backing helping to insure the least amount of movement during the actual design stitching.

I proceeded by stitching the top design first, then the bottom design and finally the center design. By moving around the hoop in this fashion you are preventing excessive pull in any one area, which can cause distortion of the fabric and unsightly puckering.

~ FINAL RESULTS ~

I’m happy to report that the entire scene was straight/square with the front and hemline edge of the coat, there were no puckers, no warping and no “off ” outlines! The coat was no stiffer after the designs were applied than it was originally. My daughter now proudly wears a lighthouse to ocean-floor scene on the lower edge of this spring / fall weight coat!

Terry Carter is the webmaster and author of embroidery articles at embroidery designs by Thread Artist. He has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts at embroidery software. There is a free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at this web address – embroidery by Thread Artists. You can email Terry at this address – ThreadArtist@qx.net

How many of you are always looking for new ways to use your embroidery designs – always, or never? If never, you are overlooking wonderful opportunities! Do you optimize the use of every design? Do you routinely review your library of designs to see if you can combine motifs from one set with another? Have you noticed how embroidery design styles have changed over the past few years? Give those old motifs a new look by using the designs that you got way back when, again! Add new motifs under, or around, them to create a whole new look! My last big project, a wind jacket back, is a good example of what anyone can do with a little time and imagination!

With fall already upon us, I wanted something tropical in my
wardrobe as it’s still every where in ready-to-wear & home dec. The colors are just as exciting as leaves turning colors. With the tropical look continuing into fall, I remembered a wind jacket, with a hole that needed covering, in my closet. The fabric is an aqua, “falling leaf” jacquard that would be perfect in both style & color!

I began with the 168-169 Tropical scene components but wanted
to add other motifs to cover the entire jacket back. Next I added a colorful bird from set 166 Flights of Fancy.

Although larger, these birds were simply wonderful as forefront
motifs with the smaller tropical plants as background! When I
went back through my sets, up to 2 years old, I found 117 Japanese Botanicals with several motifs that worked into what I had already stitched to make a spectacular finished look. The scene had motifs from 4 entirely different themes that I had never thought about putting together before.

When planning a large area you want to give the effect of being
almost covered, yet leave an open effect. You want most motifs to appear as just an illusion, with only a few focus pieces to be in full fill. Often this can achieve this by using muted colors that almost blend into the fabric color & brighter colors for the key pieces which you want to draw the real attention.

TIP: A great way to visualize how the whole “picture” will look, print out 1:1 size templates of the motifs, cut them out & move like puzzle pieces until it’s pleasing to you.

The main things to watch when creating a large area or scene are:

1. Don’t overdo it! Don’t try to fill every single inch of the large area making the scene too busy.

2. Don’t worry about exact placement – a random look is much more attractive, especially on all 4 sides. Place motifs in an uneven fashion.

3. Don’t limit yourself to motifs from one set – you might wind up with something less than spectacular!

4. Think outside the box! You may be surprised at the sets you pull motifs from to create a whole new theme! Example: try roosters with florals or veggies or create a theme of fruit & flowers.

5. Don’t let the design colors keep you from considering them for the project. Very often a few color changes will give a whole new look to a motif making it work with something else you would never have considered before.

If you don’t “think outside the box”, you are missing out on
the real enjoyment & ability to expand your creativity to optimize the use of your designs! To see what I mean, take a look at the photo of my finished wind jacket that is post on our web site!

Thread Artist has the superior designs & supplies you need to make all your creations as spectacular as you imagine them. You’ve invested a lot in your equipment; don’t compromise the projects you create with your equipment by using less than the very best supplies & embroidery designs available anywhere!

Sandy Carter is the author of embroidery articles at embroidery
designs by Thread Artist. She has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts at
embroidery software. There is free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at
this web address – embroidery by Thread Artists.

Many new to embroidery have experienced numerous problems because of the inferior quality of free embroidery design files that they downloaded over the internet. One of the biggest mistakes that many new sewists make is using free designs patterns that have problems built in. Even if you are lucky enough to do everything else right and use inferior designs, results will probably not be good. Many of the free embroidery designs files that one can download are the first efforts of someone that has just begun to digitize and thus are not very well made. Many new to this great hobby use these because they are free and easy to download without using a credit card, but this is where the trouble begins. Then when outlines are off or there are gaps in the sewing and poor results are evident, how does one know where the problem lies? Is it the designs or the stabilizers or even worst – Can it be the new embroidery machine? We have a test so one can determine if the design is at fault or if the stabilizer is the problem. We make available free designs, free sewing lessons, free thread color charts and info that you may need to learn so you can get great results with your embroidery designs projects.

There is a big difference in the way embroidery designs patterns sew out because of how the designs files were digitized. All designs should have a foundation, underlayment stitches that sews before the design itself, to help stabilize the fabric. These underlayment stitches are put in so that the stitches on top have a minimum stretching effect on the fabric, so stabilizing will be easier. – this takes careful planning as one needs to know what top stitches are needed to make the design and what stretching effect this will have on the finished design pattern and fabric. The goal is to put the underlayment in so that the thread art designs on top will have no or very little effect on the fabric. (no puckering, no cupping or off outlines or miss-aligned parts) Without proper underlayment, it is almost impossible for a design to sew out well, even with the best of stabilizing. Another important consideration for sewing ease is thread changes and jump stitches. Skill and careful planning is necessary to eliminate all unnecessary jump stitches and thread changes. So choose your embroidery designs well and avoid the disappointment and frustrations of trying to use poor designs. Even free designs can cost a lot more in time, garments, frustrations and disappointment that a purchased quality one – there really is no comparison in the pleasure you will have while sewing quality embroidery designs patterns.

Terry Carter is the webmaster and author of embroidery articles at
embroidery designs by Thread Artist. He has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts
at embroidery software. There is free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at this web address – embroidery by Thread Artists. You can email Terry at this address – ThreadArtist@qx.net