#20dollarlolita vs ink/stitch

[20dollarlolita]

*gets one text on my day off*

no you know what? fuck it, i'm learning Ink/Stitch and no one can stop me, because it's not illegal for me to use free and open source software on my days off and teach people about it on my personal blog.

I can DO WHAT I WANT. I am the MASTER OF MY OWN DESTINY!!

[20dollarlolita]

alright, lets rate my machine! I have no idea what my old sewing machine is (it's a 10+ Janome) so I'll ask about my embroidery boy; Brother Inno-vis m230e!

(I'm a newbie sewist who is still slightly terrified of breaking it, so. I'm probably not pushing it very much :U)

Innov-is M230E is an embroidery machine with a max hoop size of 4x4" (100mmx100mm), which communicates to your computer via a USB drive. Not available in the USA but would cost about $1200, making it at the lower end of high-functioning embroidery machines.

Literally the first thing I check with new embroidery machines is how they talk to your computer. If an embroidery card, a CF card, a floppy disc, or direct link to computer via USB-B and no other option, it's a pass for me. Your machine might have the best stitch in the world and if you can't tell it how to make new ones, it's not going to sew what you want.

Honestly, I think have an embroidery-only machine is really preferable when you're at the lower end of the market. It's a case of the more features you get at that price, the lower the overall quality is likely to be. So that's a perk, not a disadvantage. Brother also has a partnership with Disney and some machines come with Disney designs, and if you got a machine to bring your own art to life--let's be honest, Walt has a lot of people doing that for him and no one but me is doing that for me--then paying for the Disney designs is just wasted money. So this didn't waste money on the two things I find the least necessary in a low-end embroidery machine.

Brother machines use the most supported embroidery file type out there, the .pes, which is used by Brother, Babylock, and Bernina. One of the funky things about embroidery machines is that a well-made design stitched out on a $500 machine will look better than a poorly-digitized one on a $18,000 machine. Using the most supported file type allows you access to the work that most digitizers out there are doing, and you can use it without converting file types.

As for onboard things, there's a color touchscreen but no editing or adjusting the design onboard, no combining multiple designs on the screen. No auto tension, but has a thread cutter. No thickness sensor and you're putting the presser foot up and down manually instead of the machine doing it for you.

Brother machines generally have a better selection of safe-to-use aftermarket parts than other brands, so if you need a double hoop (lets you do 2 embroideries in the same hoop without re-hooping, not quite as good as an 8x4 embroidery area but still better than re-hooping) or something, it's going to be easier to find.

To compare it to the machines I work with every day, this $1100 machine is better than my brand's $1300 machine, but not as good as their $2,100 machine.

Which sums up to 10/10, if your price range is below $1500 and you don't need a big hoop, then this is an absolutely fabulous machine.

With embroidery machines, what you're using to digitize also matters (I'm getting good at Ink/Stitch but I can do the same stuff easier and faster in Sewnet and get more interesting results) so both investing in good software and investing your time into learning that software are both worth doing.

[20dollarlolita]

Me, last week: Since my embroidery machine is in the shop, I should design more Cricut stuff, since I can't embroider anything for a minimum of another week.

Me, today:

iSo I made this bag design to go with the dress....If anyone has an embroidery machine with an 8x10 hoop or larger, and who wants to try this out, let me know. It needs a bit of optimization to actually stitch out efficiently but it's only like 20 minutes of work away from being ready for someone to try it out. You would also need to figure out how to, once you have all this, turn it into a bag.

Details: I'd start by hooping a double of black tear-away or maybe some heavy freaking soluble, use that black vinyl (remnant that I got a couple of months ago and never used) as the applique fabric, and then do the clock's border in an actual metallic thread so that it (hopefully) stays cool and textured when you rip the tear-away out. The hands are going to take an exacto to cut the insides with. Once the pieces are embroidered, I'd rivet the hands to the center of the bag and then stick a tailor's tack near the end of each to stop them from flopping. Then the whole embroidered piece can just be glued onto whatever I feel like making the bag out of.

But yeah, tell me what format you need and I'll do my best to save it in that format and send it out.

While we're at it, if anyone wants the other files from the rest of the project (clocks, ship, seagulls, etc), hit me up.

[20dollarlolita]

Clocks + Pirate. First thing I thought of was Captain Hook.

How have I not connected those things until now?? Holy cow, that's so good.

[20dollarlolita]

I was messing around with the Lolita Print Name Generator and "Pirate Grandfather Clocks" came up, so now I need to make the concept also pirate themed. Open to suggestions. I want to keep the clocks as just clocks, but add something into the space between them. Then I'll sprinkle some roman numerals in the sky so that I don't feel like I wasted a ton of vinyl, and we cut it out to iron on a hem.

Going to actually drop like $30 in cricut vinyl to make this work so I don't think I'm actually saving money by doing it this way, unless you count saving money over the cost of spoonflower, or something.

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

20dollarlolita vs ink/stitch, day 3:

If you think you're going to be interested in making your own designs via machine embroidery someday, start casually learning inkscape and ink/stitch now. Ink/Stitch competes with full-featured embroidery software the same way a $2 bill competes with a $1000 check. You can do a whole lot more with a $1000 check, but not everyone has one, and a $2 bill is still pretty cool. It's not worthless just because it won't buy you an original Iron Gate release.

Also, the digitizing process for making vector art and the digitizing process for making embroidery designs are very similar. You still have to think of things in terms of outlines and fills. This is different to how you would think of a drawing you would make with a pencil and markers.

Ink/Stitch is a plugin for Inkscape. Inkscape is a vector software that you can use for computer controlled cutter/plotter machines, laser cutting and etching machines, lots of graphic designs and advertising, fashion flats, and a lot more. Vector images are able to be scaled up and down with no loss, so if you can make a graphic on your computer for your dad's business that says, "Rick's Legal advice and Lobster BBQ" on your computer, your dad can get it printed onto menus, attache cases, a 7 foot wide banner, and the local billboard of your small town. Help your family out, and all that. I'm the person that my store goes to for most image editing, which is because I learned GIMP when I was 13 and had a need to make Inuyasha image edits for my signature on forum posts (yes, Comic Sans was involved). My childhood hobby has turned into a useful skill that I have in my adult life.

So, to everyone, especially the 13-year-olds out there who need to make *looks up the hip anime of the youth these days* uh...Miraculous Ladybug? embroideries, Ink/Stitch is a really good product for teaching yourself how to do this.

Set my Facebook profile picture to Rarity Pie as a joke, and then my idiot ass decided to try to join a Facebook group WITH A MY LITTLE PONY AVATAR

I shall never again rise from the ashes of my shame and humiliation

[20dollarlolita]

@fey-nikoa said: Patches of your pony OC aren’t going to digitize themselves ig

My ponysona is named Rarity Pie and she's original content please do not steal

my uncle works at Hasbro and they're going to make her into a the show just for me.

(plz no one think this is funny so that I don't have to spend hours digitizing Rarity Pie into a patch.)

If you don't want this garbage you can feel free to blacklist "20dollarlolita vs ink/stitch" and just follow this blog for the, you know, stuff I said it would be about. I'll also try to get better about the "not lolita" tag so that you can blacklist that, too.

*gets one text on my day off*

no you know what? fuck it, i'm learning Ink/Stitch and no one can stop me, because it's not illegal for me to use free and open source software on my days off and teach people about it on my personal blog.

I can DO WHAT I WANT. I am the MASTER OF MY OWN DESTINY!!

[20dollarlolita]

I have the ability to print waterproof ink onto small pieces of fabric (can't do yardage yet). What if I just do something weird like printing out people's faces and then appliquing them into the clock faces?

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

I think we are rapidly approaching my problem of "just because the vector software will let you zoom in that close doesn't mean that your cricu can cut all of that" territory

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

Did you know that every time you open or change or save a jpeg file, it degrades and gets worse in quality? This is why a lot of really old tumblr screenshots look like they only had one pixel to share between the five of them.

That's not what happened here, but let's pretend it was. I spent so long embossing "original character' on her that I failed to save any kind of quality.

Also I can only apply the gradient to her front half unless I want to spend a ton of time on it so that's her canon coloration now.

Her Pinkie hair is going to be applied by just throwing random pieces of pink wool roving onto the hoop as it embroiders and letting whatever happens happen.

Set my Facebook profile picture to Rarity Pie as a joke, and then my idiot ass decided to try to join a Facebook group WITH A MY LITTLE PONY AVATAR

I shall never again rise from the ashes of my shame and humiliation

[20dollarlolita]

Been flipping that wavy line layer on and off for a little bit and can't tell what I like better. Maybe yes line but less boring line. Maybe yes line but less abuse of spiral tool?

I also got a roll of shiny blue vinyl with the navy ones that I planned on buying, so I can do about three big focal motifs across the entire skirt. Not sure on that, either. Not sure on a lot. Maybe that's where I'll throw the pirate thing really hard into there. I also need to check what my levels of various RIT colors are, because if the answer is to ombre the hem of the skirt blue and then do a pirate ship as the big motif, I'll do that, but I also don't want to do a thing where I just slapped some galleons on it and called it pirate.

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

Okay, it's go time.

Time to go for what? Vacuum the floor? Probably.

But I'm about to drop a ton of little vinyl pieces on it, so maybe I"ll wait until this is done.

And, you know, if it's time to do custom textile, it's time to break out the Dye Wok and do some ombre ruffles.

Disclaimer: make sure your dye wok is desegnated for dye only. 20dollarlolita does not endorse using dye without gloves. Any appearance of dye without gloves should be assumed to be erroneous and not instructional. Safety is important.

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

So, I was correct in guessing that some of my little dots were going to be too small for the cricut to cut, but I'm still happy with it. Just have to slap a galleon on it and call it pirate at this point.

And then make it into a dress.

I'm getting a little power trip over making my own print and having it look this good. I'm super excited.

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

excuse you,

RARITY PIE IS PERFECT, PRECIOUS, AND PROTECTED BY LAW

I go this far into the whole thing before realizing that I should have actually done this in ink/stitch for practice reasons. My store closes an hour later tomorrow, so we'll try again.

Assuming that my machine doesn't need parts, I'm still going to be without it minimum until the 21st, so we have a couple of weeks to perfect our Rarity Pie art.

Which is good, because I am NOT going to be willing to hand-place all those individual sequins I threw all over her at the last minute.

And also because I'm going to do her tails (she has two tails; it's canon) as a pop-up effect like this :

And I don't actually know how to do that.

*gets one text on my day off*

no you know what? fuck it, i'm learning Ink/Stitch and no one can stop me, because it's not illegal for me to use free and open source software on my days off and teach people about it on my personal blog.

I can DO WHAT I WANT. I am the MASTER OF MY OWN DESTINY!!

[20dollarlolita]

Why would I properly design my own pirate assets when I can just trace them from Wind Waker?

Isn't that what piracy is?

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?

[20dollarlolita]

Okay, everyone, thank you for joining me on this week's adventures in custom textiles. This was much more about testing tools and techniques than it was about getting a great result, but, I just want to say

This turned out really good and I'm so happy about it.

Favorite things about it:

The color change on the ship swings between being the exact color as the ombre ruffle on the hem and being this glowing green light. Since I straight up traced a screenshot of the Ghost Ship from Zelda, which has a blue/green light, I love that it still feels like that ghost ship. I love how it kind of just hangs there behind the clocks like it's trying to decide if it exists.

I'm really glad I decided to put that ombre dye on the ruffle

The spacing and size of the vinyl works really well. I have the cheapest cricut that they currently sell, and it cuts a max of 4.5"x24" on iron-on. For this skirt, that was three full-length cuts of vinyl, plus another box for the holographic. This size worked really well as far as focal point, but the ruffle plays a part in that. I'm just really excited that this ended up being relatively feasible and not prohibitively expensive. Cheaper than a Spoonflower order.

I actually got a press instead of doing this with my iron and that actually paid off in that this looks good and I've only ever done one successful iron-on with cricut before with my iron...and I've attempted a lot more than I want to admit.

And, things that I'm not as sold on

I didn't mark exactly where I was going to place the transfers before I pressed them onto the fabric. This resulted in them being a little bit high/low, and adding the ruffle really emphasized that. I might slap a line of lace there to just cover it up a bit. My other idea there was to do a little line of decorative stitching. I found some old blog articles and this one-person indie brand did this really cool thing with two lines of stitching above the ruffle that just makes it look so nice, and I was considering stealing that technique. There's a close-up in a review here, and I seriously rabbit holed on this brand trying to figure out what she'd done above the ruffle that just made it look so professional. IDK if Lindsay, the creator, is ever going to read this, but your post from 2010 is inspiring people 12 years later, so thanks for making it! Anyway, I've forgotten what I was talking about.

I'm not sure what part of me decided that grandfather clock pirate print was going to be a sweet print, but I sure committed to that whole hog. And you know what, that's just what we're going to work with.

As previously mentioned, I digitized some details that are far too small to actually cut or weed properly. I got that balance right with the pirate ship, but I actually wasted like 10" of holo vinyl because I failed to export that ghost ship file properly. I really could have used that for something. I do have 6 little crossed pirate cutlasses that I cut out and am not sure what to do with. I'll probably stick them on accessories to be able to tie the project together.

I'm not thrilled with how I completely failed to integrate the pirate theme into the clocks. I kind of like it with the dreamy sky idea, of like being woken from a pirate dream to go join reality, but it would have been nice for that to be intentional.

@zypiris Throw some seagulls in because time flies

I'm absolutely doing that. I'm absolutely doing that.

Anyway, if anyone wants a tutorial on this, I'm all for making one. I'm a little bit proud of how I got all my cricut tools from cheaper sources than cricut themselves, and so that's vaguely blog-adjacent? More blog-correct than me repeatedly blogging my nonsense ideas for a week.

Stick around to the 21st when Rarity Pie will make a return, assuming that's when my embroidery machine gets back from service.

And I leave you with the same skirt, but at a different angle:

I'm going to try to actually pull off a custom textile on the cricut (since my embroidery machine is in the shop). So I'm just making up a BS print that I can design at work.

I'm saving my current concept, Rarity Pie in Intellectual Property Theft Land, for when I have the embroidery machine.

Not sure if this should be a serious print based on a motif I really like (clocks, or books, or something), or if it should be my "lolita isn't what you think" concept, or if I should just digitize the entire mountain sector from Code Lyoko and make that a border print.

Ideas?