#satin stitch tutorial

[kell-stitches]

Tutorial: Tips & Tricks to Making the Satin Stitch

The satin stitch is probably my most used stitch, aside from perhaps the leaf stitch. I use it for filling in most small shapes. It works best with geometric shapes, but can be applied to organic shapes as well. It's a relatively basic stitch, but it's taken a little time for me to develop a good technique that results in well defined shapes and smooth textures. Here's a little look at how I actually do it

I start with the shape I want to make and then mark with which direction I want the stitches to go in. Next, I take my thread and outline the shape using a back stitch. Outlining helps to keep the shape looking clean and even. When the outline is done, make some straight stitches following the directional lines you’ve marked out. Make sure to bring your needle up just outside the outline and work your way in this way the outline gets covered up properly.  

Next, I start making more of those directional stitches, working section by section until the whole shape is filled in. Working in small pieces like this helps to keep the overall shape looking uniform and feels a little less overwhelming especially when filling in bigger or more complicated shapes.  

When the shape is completely filled, I take the sharp end of my needle and gently run it through the stitches to separate and distribute the threads so they have a softer, less bulky look. 

And here's a look at what the finished product looks like after adding a couple minor details. This here is a rockrose that gets made in my piece inspired by "The Rockrose and the Thistle” 

You can use this technique on a variety of shapes. Here's another example of how I used it for the hem of the sweater in my “Wild Blue Yonder” piece. I have used this technique time and time again whenever I have needed the satin stitch and I am always pleased with the result. Hope this helps you dear hearts in your own crafting journeys. Happy stitching!

[thecassafrasstree]

Had a few folks interested in how I made the patches I posted for Solarpunk Aesthetic Week, so I thought I'd give y'all my step-by-step process for making hand-embroidered patches!

First, choose your fabric and draw on your design. You can use basically any fabric for this - for this project I'm using some felt I've had lying around in my stash for ages.

Next, choose your embroidery floss. For my patches I split my embroidery floss into two threads with 3 strands each, as pictured. You can use as many strands in your thread as you prefer, but for the main body of my patches I prefer 3 strands.

Next you're going to start filling your design using a back stitch.

First, put in a single stitch where you want your row to start.

Poke your needle up through the fabric 1 stitch-length away from your first stitch.

Poke your needle back down the same hole your last stitch went into so they line up end-to-end.

Repeat until you have a row of your desired length (usually the length of that colour section from one end to the other). Once you have your first row, you're going to do your next row slightly offset from your first row so that your stitches lay together in a brick pattern like this:

Make sure your rows of stitches are tight together, or you'll get gaps where the fabric shows through.

Rinse and repeat with rows of back stitch to fill in your patch design.

When you're almost to the end of your thread, poke your needle through to the back of the fabric and pull the thread under the back part of the stitching to tuck in the end. Don't worry if it looks messy - no one's gonna see the back anyway.

This next step is fully optional, but I think it makes the patch design really pop. Once your patch is filled in, you can use black embroidery floss to outline your design (or whatever colour you want to outline with - it's your patch, do what you want). I use the full thread (6 strands, not split) of embroidery floss to make a thicker outline.

I use the same back stitch I used to fill the piece to make an outline that adds some separation and detail. You could use most any 'outlining' stitch for this, but I just use back stitch because it's just easier for me to do.

Once you're finished embroidering your patch, it's time to cut it out!

Make sure to leave a little border around the edge to use for sewing your patch on your jacket/bag/blanket/whatever, and be careful not to accidentally cut through the stitches on the back of the patch.

If you have a sturdy enough fabric that isn't going to fray, you can just leave it like this. If not, I recommend using a whip stitch/satin stitch to seal in the exposed edges (I find that splitting your embroidery floss into 3-strand threads works best for this).

And then you're done! At this point you can put on iron-on backing if you want, or just sew it on whatever you wanna put it on. Making patches this way does take a long time, but I feel that the results are worth it.

Thanks for reading this tutorial! I hope it was helpful. If anyone makes patches using this method, I'd love to see them! 😁

[theenbyroiderer]

One more tutorial. I think this is the last one I have for now.

Here's how you stitch a 3D jellyfish. This is a more advanced tutorial. Prior experience with most of the stitches is recommended.

Materials: You'll need several needles, at least one shorter and one really long. I've used sashiko needles in three lengths, 4 cm, 5.5 cm and 8.5 cm. As for yarn, I think you can use whatever you have. Most of it can be done with six-stranded floss, but you'll need some thicker woolen yarn for the fluffy turkey stitch. I used fine d'aubusson (a fine wool embroidery yarn) for the body, six-stranded floss (2-3 strands) for most of the tentacles, a shiny silky embroidery floss for the edge of the body and a couple tentacles, and knitting yarn scraps for the turkey stitch.

Stitches: satin stitch, bullion stitch, padded satin stitch, buttonhole stitch, drizzle stitch and turkey stitch. Please look up stitch instructions on youtube, and do a bit of practice beforehand. This project is probably not a good practice run for these stitches.

Time: depends on the size of your jellyfish. I made quite a large one and it took me about 5 hours to complete.

1. Make a sketch of your jellyfish. At least of the body. Fill this body from edge to edge with bullion stitch, make them a bit longer than the body is wide so that they are somewhat loose. You should be able to get a finger underneath the bullion, depending on the size of your jellyfish.

2. Then it's time to satin stitch the body. For this part it's important that the needle goes through the fabric as close to where it came up as possible. The goal is not just to make a 3D body, but to make it a hollow 3D body. Don't just stitch over the bullion, stitch around it. It's also important to not pull too tight. Bullion stitch of this lenght is rather malleable, so it's a bit tricky to keep the satin stitch even. Hold a finger in the hollow underneath the bullion as you pull the thread tight. This will stop it from getting to tight, as well as make sure you keep the hollow. As the stitching gets thicker the hollow will get smaller, but that's ok.

3. When the top part of the body is fully stitched it's time to do normal flat satin stitch for the bottom part, the inside of the body of you will. Leave an opening in the middle though, you'll need some space for the drizzle and turkey stitch later.

4. This is a good time to give the edge some definition. Do buttonhole stitch around the top edge, then you go around and do another row of buttonhole stitch, kinda the other way around, through the loops from the first row. Hopefully you can see from the pictures what I've done. The bottom edge of the body doesn't need defining and won't be very visible anyway, so I just did some sloppy stitches along there and called it good enough.

5. Now it's time for the tentacles. Start with the drizzle stitch, because the turkey stitch will just get in the way if you start with that... but do remember to leave space for the turkey stitch underneath the drizzle stitch. This is where you need the loooong needle. Pack as much drizzle stitch on that needle as you can. You'll notice that the drizzle stitch wants to rotate around your needle as it gets longer, do let it, that will just help you fit more stitch on there, as well as give the finished stitch a nice curl.

6. When you think you have enough drizzle you can move on to the turkey stitch. You will not need to do a lot of it. You'll probably overestimate how much you need, but that's ok, you can always give the fluff a bit of a haircut later. Do a few looong loops of turkey stitch, a little bit longer than your drizzle stitch. Cut the loops to slightly different lengths, otherwise you'll get a very blocky bit of fluff... tapered is better. Untwist the yarn and separate the strands, draw a needle through the strands to fluff them up.

7. As a finishing touch you can add some long and thin strands around the edge of the body.

Edit: Tfw a post has been up for years before you notice that you forgot a whole-ass step. Apparently #4 has been missing all this time. Oh well.

[or-what-you-will]

How To: Phantom Cloak

I've gotten some questions about how I made my phantom cloak, so I thought I'd do a post about it so that others could try it out. Overall, it cost me about 250$ USD plus several hours of labour. Details under the cut!

Note: I am not a professional, nor do I have particularly advanced sewing skills, this was mostly me making things up as I went

I'd never made a cloak before, so I started with a base that I got off of Amazon (about 70$ USD).

Note: prices are listed here in USD for accessibility, but I paid for most things in CAD.

It's a basic 100% polyester cloak, pretty light weight, but full length (54 in/137cm). It's not a full circle cloak, nor is it exactly circle shaped. It's more bell shaped and doesn't lie flat when spread out because of the way it's sewn together over the shoulders.

From there, I went to my local fabric/craft store and got enough velvet to cover the collar and black sewing thread (about 20$ USD).

Note: if you do not already have a basic sewing kit with needles and pins you'll need one of those also.

I pinned the velvet to the collar and sewed it on inside out, along three sides using a back stitch. I did my best to hide my stitches in the collar's existing seam. I left the bottom open, where the collar meets the body of the cloak, for sewing on appliques later.

Note: the collar was really floppy before I put the velvet and the appliques on because the fabric was so light. If you want, you could get some plastic or metal boning/wire to put between the velvet and the original fabric to make the collar more stiff or to allow for custom shaping.

After this, I went searching on etsy for appliques. I eventually settled on nine (about 100$ USD for all 9).

Once I got all the appliques, I laid out the cloak and positioned them all in their places to make sure that I was happy with their placement and everything was symmetrical. Then, I recruited my poor roommate to stand there in the cloak while I pinned them in place to make sure that they fit with the way the fabric fell.

When they were pinned in place, I started sewing them on along the edges, with a few stitches in the middle.

The reason why it's important to leave the bottom of the collar open is because then you can sew the appliques to the velvet more easily without having to sew them to the fabric of the cloak. This allows you to hide your stiches between the velvet and the fabric of the collar and prevents them from catching on things and coming undone.

Once I'd sewed on the collar appliques, I pinned the bottom of the velvet and sewed it closed along the seam where the collar meets the cloak.

I left it like this for a few months, but eventually I decided to add a lining, mostly due to the applique stiches catching on things and because I wanted to add more weight to the cloak. I'd also be going to cons for the first time and I wanted it to look nice in person.

So, I went back to the fabric store, and this time came out with four meters of polyester satin and more thread (about 40$ USD, but the fabric was on sale, so it would have cost me about 100$ USD otherwise). Then I realized I really, really did not want to sew that much fabric entirely by hand. In the end, I borrowed a friend's sewing machine.

Note: you can also rent sewing machines from your library and sometimes community centres depending on where you live.

Adding the lining is essentially the same technique that I used to add the collar, just on a much larger scale.

I found this cloak tutorial really helpful for figuring out the order of operations when putting together the lining. It's also a great tutorial in general for making a cloak from scratch, so please run with it if you'd rather do that.

I used the existing cloak as a pattern for cutting out four panels for the lining. I laid them out on top of each other, marked out the fabric, and cut it out (with the help of a friend because right handed scissors are the root of all evil).

I messed up a little while I was doing it because instead of mirroring the front panels, I cut two of the same side, so make sure to keep sides in mind! It ended up being mostly fine because the fabric was big enough that I could use it for a different panel.

I pinned, then sewed the four panels together with the sewing machine. My seamstress friend gave me the helpful tip of rolling up the sides of the fabric, as it starts to get really long and bulky, to allow it to go through the sewing machine more smoothly.

Once the four panels were together I pinned it to the main cloak, inside out, like the collar, then sewed it along three edges, doing my best to stay along the existing seam of the cloak. I left the edge where the fabric meets the collar open.

After three edges had been sewn, I pulled the fabric through the opening at the collar so it would be the right side out, with the seams on the inside. I then folded in the extra fabric, pinned it, and sewed it shut.

I ended up keeping the long ribbon ties, rather than replacing them with a clasp because I can tie them in front or thread them under my arms and around my back, which allows me to wear the cloak in a similar fashion to how they do in the show.

And that is how I made my cloak!

Thank you for reading, and I hope this is helpful for those of you interested in making your own phantom cloak. If you have questions or if something is unclear, feel free to ask in the comments of the post!

[wosieposiecozy]

could you make a candy club hat tut and materials list...?

Okay!

Materials:

-white cotton fabric, you'll need about a yard

- white & light blue thread

-pink embroidery thread

-light blue ribbon

Pattern is a sailor hat pattern, you can probably use any sailor hat pattern that is round on the top but here's the free one I used

Pattern:

https://www.ja-academy.com/courses/free-sailor-hat-pattern

Tutorial: https://youtube.com/shorts/bYy5mcc8bQQ?si=LQet6S4pjJo0ZYnt

Add seam allowance to the pattern!!!

I used a sewing machine but you don't need one for this, if you can hand stitch, you'll be fine. Also while the creator surges the edges I didn't, I put a lining but you don't have to or you can zig zag stitch or use fray check on the inside raw edges

The pattern's brim was a bit too long to where you couldn't see the candy club logo so I'd suggest not adding the seam allowance to the top and bottom, do add your seam allowance to the side.

I sewed the ribbon after sewing the front brim, I marked where I wanted it and pinned the ribbon in place.

For the candy club logo I used I think a satin stitch.

I think that covers the things that need explaining, if you need help or have questions I'd be more than happy to help!!

[polymorphiczooid]

Marcille's frog suit is complete! This was my third-ever project using a sewing machine, so I've put a bit on my process for suit and staff-making below.

The Body: I drafted a pattern from a loose sweatshirt and sweatpants (somewhat following these tutorials: 1 2). From this I made a truly terrible mock-up from a fitted sheet -managing to sew the arms on inside out (twice, in two different ways). I also learned that the back panels need to be larger than the front panel, to accommodate the butt.

Originally, I wanted to make this out of raincoat material or pvc fabric to get that slimy frogskin look. I couldn't find any in the right color (or price), so I went with a cheap polyester satin. I think latex might have been also been a good alternative, but I've never worked with it before.

To get the white patterns on the frog, I just eyeballed where I thought the stripes should go on the paper pattern and cut it into smaller pieces (which I had to tape back together when I made the lining - this time out of blue bed sheet).

In the manga, there are large visible stitches in front. To mimic this, I decided to have the front lace with a thick cord. This meant I needed to install gromets on the front opening - but I was worried the hardware would tear right through the fragile satin. To prevent this, I reinforced the opening with a strip of denim encased in red cotton.

The smart thing to do would make the front zip up, and add a panel of fake lacing over the top. Since I didn't, 1) it takes a while to put on, and 2) the suit gapes open in places.

Frog Head: I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out - but in the end, I went with a very simple construction.

The hood consists of four main panels: the frog-shaped front and back panels of the outer hood, and two red panels for the inner hood. I 1) attached the white and orange parts of the outer panels 2) sewed the outerpanels together, and the inner hood panels together 3) cut a hole for my face out of the front outer panel, 4) sewed the edge of the inner hood panels to the face hole, 6) stuffed with batting from an old pillow, 6) added some extra fabric to close the hood under the chin.

I didn't quite get the shape right - the eyes should be rounder/ protrude less, and the cheeks/marcille's ears should sit lower down on the head. I think adding an extra panel to the back of the head would help it sit better. It's pretty 2D in profile, so my face sticks out of it too much.

Finally, using a stretch fabric for the inner hood (or a drawstring, that could tighten the hood itself) could make the hood fit snugly around the face. My hood was too loose, and I constantly had to adjust its position.

The frog eyes were also a bit tricky. The satin frayed to much to add large decorative stitching, so I had to sew little pieces of cord individually to the eyes. I probably should have made these smaller and more numerous...but my fingers were pretty sore form hand sewing.

The Shoes: I decided to make some boot covers for my docs, because making shoes from scratch is beyond my skill level.

I made a pattern by wrapping one shoe in a plastic back, then masking tape, and tracing out what looked like some important seam lines. I sewed all the pieces together except for top of the shoe, which I left open so 1) bagline the show cover, and 2) sew in the frog toes.

The toes themselves were sewn out of cotton and, stuffed with batting and old crochet squares. Then everything except the toe-tip was covered in orange satin. I did this since I was worried that the satin would not play nice with paint (foreshadowing). The toe-tips were then painted with a mix of black acryllic and liquid latex (for flexibility).

To keep the shoe covers on the shoes, I added some elastic around the bottom (salvaged from a fitted sheet). They also needed to close in the back - but I didn't have and velcro or zippers and I was running low on gromets. Instead, I made some loops out of scrap leather to run the lacing through. This looked cool but it was really hard to lace up myself!

Gloves: These were made the day before the convention, and are terribly slapdash.

Normally when you make gloves out of non-stretch fabric you need to add gussets to allow your hands bend, without the gloves being too loose. I did not do that. I just traced my hand on the fabric, and gave myself big finger pads and plenty of ease. They turned out pretty meh!

One issue was the finger pads themselves: it's hard to sew in a circle, so they were lumpy in shape. This lumpiness was enhanced by the way I stuffed them: just shoving stuffing into the finger tips. which is also where my fingers have to go. So every time I took the gloves on and off, the fingertips would get out of shape. I think hollowed foam balls would have been a better choice for the finger tips.

In addition, I painted the fingertips with the same latex/acrylic mixture I used on the toes. While it dried just fine on the cotton, the paint remained really sticky - so they picked up dust and peeled rather badly.

The gloves only had four fingers in the manga, so that's what I went with. But it was pretty uncomfortable with the pinky+ring finger sharing a home, and it didn't even look good.

Ambrosia (the staff): This was a real last-minute addition to the costume, done the night before the convention.

The base is a wooden dowel, and the hoop in a long tube of cotton fabric that I stuffed very firmly. I anted to make sure the hoop wouldn't fall off, so I "drilled" a hold near the tip of the staff (I.e. I shoved a screwdriver through the soft wood like an animal), and added grommets to each end of the stuffed cotton tube. I then created a tight mechanical join by running leftover cord though one grommet, then the dowel, and then the other grommet before tying it off.

Next, I wrapped a ton of different materials around the hoop and body of the staff: coord, twine, paper florist "rope", and paper-covered florist wire, etc. This was secured with an ungodly amount of hot glue. When possible, I tried to new strands under pre-existing ones for some extra security. I really like how wrapping the cord around the soft-hoop created the impression of vines growing around a living branch.

I painted the staff in three layers: base coat of red-brown, then a "wash" of watery black acrylic , and a dry brush of a lighter brown. I did not do a good job getting the paint evenly over the surface! From some angles the white cotton is still very visible, and I probably should have painted it before wrapping anything around it.

The sprout was made by sewing two leaf-shapes out of cotton, hot gluing it to a small snip of florist paper, and then hot gluing the stem to the hoop. Not bad for a rush job!

Overall: I think the feet and staff came out the best! People recognized me at the convention too, which is always the real test.

[faifenaco]

what did you do for your selkie costume? I am looking for inspiration hehe- I would have been so excited to see a selkie at the ren fair, smh to all the fairgoers

AHHH I'm so glad you ask! SO—I did two outfits. One was more siren style, the other was more wench. I took like *no* pictures unfortunately, but here's what I do have:

So I did a satin white skirt, black peasant blouse + corset, and then layered a few coin belts/skirts. I also had nude gloves that were black ombre, so my fingers were inky black, and then I just did my makeup to give me a seal nose and spots!

I made my cape out of grey, splotchy-patterned flannel and then painted the darker grey on after. I don't have a tutorial for the flippers, but I drew up a rough pattern that I used to make the main body of the "seal skin"

x1 Panel of Fleece x1 Panel of muslin - I folded my fabric in half and cut along the shape b/c symmetrical - Open, stitch up with the outside of each panel facing in leaving the neck unfinished for you to turn it right sides out - Finished the neck with a top stitch, but blanket and ladder work too - I added flippers to mine with upholstery padding and top stitches - Lastly, I used ornate hook-eye fasteners and sewed the eyes to my corset + the hooks to the cape shoulders!

[rootandrock]

Needlepoint hyperobsessives, gather round and lend me your ears:

Where do I learn how to construct my own WEARABLE embroidery work? Like... I need a hand-holding tutorial or resource that gives me the skillset to create my own patterns and execute them.

I can cross stitch like a golden god (It is pixel art made one X at a time. My brain was built from the atoms of dead stars for this very purpose), but when it comes to how embroidery "works" I just get confused.

I see people making beautiful things. I see them doing different types of stitch... but it happens too fast. Or I see a kit with instructions and it's like "Fill in this area"... okay I get satin stitch but... that's a big area. Is it not going to be flappy gappy mush? How do I prevent the threads from gaping and fraying and falling apart? No one explains how.

I have the water soluble interfacing and I can back pieces with extra fabric as-needed for strength. I have most of the hand-eye coordination.

Google has just become a pointless wasteland of sales and advertisements and I don't even know where to look or how to get to the message boards where I know the good secrets are still whispered.

[love-medusanon]

One more post from my recent Hornet cosplay, this time the wip/progress pics when sewing Hornet's cloak!

This was a bit daunting as I had never tackled anything so large before - my prior sewing experience was more accessories, belts, bows, stuffed tails, that sort of thing, and not full outfits! I had a couple ideas in mind for her cloak, (boning, petticoat, ballgown panels, etc) but ultimately ended up going for a double circle skirt with horsehair as it seemed like the easiest option for my sewing skill, while giving the perfect flowy look!

I decided on using duchess satin because obviously Hornet is a princess and deserves nice fabric ♥️ it was quite heavy but I think it ended working out well as the weight gave it some solid structure! I used a crimson satin for the outside, and chose to line it with black satin - that step maaay not have been necessary, but I think it made the overall cosplay look much sleeker and cohesive 😅

I drafted my pattern with the help of La Modéliste's YouTube tutorial and an online calculator, and got to work! I first cut out my pattern, sewed the pieces together as needed and then attached the horsehair first to the wrong side, and then folded and ironed underneath to give a clean finish. I then spent a solid amount of time hand stitching a catch stitch to keep the horsehair in place... this did take awhile.. orz Then it was time to attach the black lining underneath, for which I hand sewed a ladder stitch ALL the way around, 10/10 do not recommend, took me probably three days straight, but it meant there was NO ugly seam showing on the front!!

Last, but not least, I took some scraps from my crimson satin and attempted few different collar/cone shapes until I found one I was happy with; then used thick interfacing on one side to keep it stiff before sewing at the neck hole and attaching some snaps to keep it closed. I am still terrible at getting crisp corners, so that's something to improve on next time 🥲

I also accidentally forgot one poor lonely pin and entombed it inside the lining, and had to stage a rescue operation so that it wouldn't stab me at the convention 🫠

[borninwinter81]

Book pouches

I've been meaning to make a post about my book pouches for a while. I saw someone selling them at a comic con a while ago but they were quite expensive and I thought "surely I can make something like that at home way cheaper?" These are the results.

If you're the sort of person who often has a book in their bag, then you'll know there's usually a chance that the book will be damaged (scratched cover, crumpled or torn pages etc.) These are to stop that happening.

There are a lot of tutorials for how to make them on YouTube, but all you need are a nice patterned fabric for the outer layer, some quilt batting to pad the pouch (not too thick, just enough to protect the book) and a satin type fabric for lining. As fabrics and batting can be expensive I just went to a charity shop and bought a large, thin quilt for £3 which I was able to use for both the padding and the satin lining.

Get a book and draw a large rectangle around it, giving yourself enough space for seam allowance and the thickness of the book. You won't be able to make one that will fit all books but give yourself a bit of room and it should fit most. Also, this gives you an excuse to make several in different sizes!

Cut two pieces each of your lining, quilting and outer patterned fabric. Sandwich everything so the patterned fabric is in the middle, good side to good side, quilting outside of that, and satin liner last. Sew all around three sides, leaving the top open.

At the top edge fold down all three layers and sew around to hem the edge.

This next step wasn't part of many tutorials I found, but I did it because I didn't want the raw edges poking out and fraying. I made some home-made "bias tape" by cutting large pieces of my liner fabric, folding in all edges and ironing them down, then hand sewing them everywhere there was a raw edge. I used invisible stitching and made sure I only sewed them to the lining, I didn't go through all layers. This might not be very clear but hopefully this picture of the inside once I've finished will help. I used different colours of liner fabric here because I was running out. That doesn't really matter as it won't be seen.

Turn right side out and you have a book pouch!

I could have made a flap to fasten them closed, but I didn't really feel the need for that. However one further step I did take was to decorate the front. There are many ways you could do this, but I decided to take some quotes to do with books and reading and use an online text generator (cooltext.com was the one I used, but there are loads of these) to give them interesting fonts and colours that match the fabric, then use iron on printer transfer paper to make them into patches.

"Here alone I, in books formed of metals, have written the secrets of wisdom", William Blake

"Dare to read, dare to comprehend, and forever face the lurking madness", HP Lovecraft

"Fiction is the lie that tells the truth" - Neil Gaiman (though a lot of writers have said this in one way or another).

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

tried to film a little embroidery tutorial for how to get the nice smooth stained glass look with satin stitch but it’s too big for tumblr. so i guess i will make a youtube or vimeo playlist for them or something instead hmmmm

[20dollarlolita]

Machine embroidery tutorial: Shaded pointe shoes.

I know from working in a sewing machine store that a lot of people are intimidated by machine embroidery. So, I made this pattern the other day, and let's go into how I stitched it out.

Embroidery does not need to be this hard. If you've never used the embroidery part of your sewing machine before, stick some cheap stabilizer in the hoop with some fabric, grab a random pattern from inside your machine, and run all or part of it. Once you do this, you will be much less afraid of it. Some brands of machines will include some stabilizer and fabric for you to run an initial test on.

So, let's get into something more complicated. There's a few things that we're going to do to make this more complicated. The first is the surface that we're embroidering on. I'm using a dress from Five Below, which is made of a knit fabric without a whole lot of stretch. The surface that you embroider on does impact how you want to set up the design. I also want to do the embroidery very close to the bottom edge of the dress, so it's won't fit in the whole hoop. The third difficult thing about this design is that there's a machine applique in the very start. This applique will let you embroider this on a fabric that isn't pink, and the shoes will stay pink.

Regarding the applique, I've been told that it's small enough that you could cut up an actual pointe shoe and use the satin from that, if you want to. I don't have a shoe on me, since I don't dance (I just do the costumes). But, if you're making a gift for someone who dances on a level where they're throwing away dead pointe shoes instead of keeping them in a memory box, it could be a fun addition. Here is a template to show you how big the pieces need to be. Important: do not cut out the appliques using this template. The machine will cut them out for you later. You can use this template to know if the pieces of fabric you are using for your applique will be big enough. You want your pieces to be larger than this template, but they don't need to be significantly larger.

The first problem that we're going to deal with is the fact that the dress has a small amount of stretch in it. We don't want the section of the dress that has our embroidery to stretch at all. At best, it'll look bad, and at worst, it'll destroy the whole embroidery. To stop the area with the embroidery from stretching, we're fusing a fusible non-showing mesh stabilizer onto the area to be embroidered. I'm doing this design in 6x6 hoop, so I got a piece that was about 8x8 and fused it on the area.

When you're using fusible stabilizer, you want to iron it on from the fabric side. Some nylon meshes will melt if you iron them, but most importantly you want the face of the fabric to be perfectly smooth.

When the design is done, this stabilizer will remain in the design forever. This stops the design from stretching, even when the garment is worn or washed. The mesh is light and flexible enough that it doesn't drastically change the way the fabric moves.

The next thing we need to do is add stabilizer to the hoop. Embroidery machines put a lot of stress on the fabric, and so it's not usually possible to embroider without stabilizer. In this case, we're also using the stabilizer to hold the fabric, since we can't get it in our hoop.

This is two layers of soluble tear-away stabilizer. If I'm using tear-away, I always use lightweight tear-away. Using multiple layers of tear-away will put less stress on the stitching when you rip it away, because you rip one layer at a time. This requires less force than ripping a thicker layer away all at once. We're using tear-away because we don't want to keep all this stabilizer in the design. The specific one I'm using is a tear-and-wash stabilizer, where the extra bits of tear-away can be washed out of the finished design.

The other thing that I did while the iron was still hot was to press the pink satin that I'm going to use for my applique. Applique is much easier if the fabric you're using isn't wrinkled.

We're going to pop the hoop into the machine. Now is a good time to go into your machine's manual and find out where the basting line setting is. Bernina, Viking, and Pfaff all make this super easy, and Baby Lock and Brother do not. For Brother and Baby Lock, it's often in the "embroidery edit" mode. If it really gives you trouble, tell me what hoop you need it for, and I'll make you a version of this file with a predone basting line.

Some people like to spray-baste into the hoop. I do not like this, because it makes your hoop and your machine all ugly and coated in spray shit. If you are one of those people who likes spray, 100% take the hoop outside to spray! It's not good for your body and you'll get overspray glue all over your shit. If you're not a person who spray-bastes, do not become one.

Some people like to use tacky or sticky tear-away for this. That's a completely fine and valid option, but that shit is expensive. Basting line is cheap. A general stabilizer rule is that you can cheap out on tear-away and cut-away, go mid-price on fusible, and buy a good brand of tacky or wash-away. This is because it's pretty hard to fuck up cut-away stabilizer, but also pretty hard to make a good stabilizer that's also tacky and n'gones when you need it to. Since I have 200 things I'd rather do with $86 than buy a roll of stabilizer, I just use the basting program for 99% of my embroideries.

Before you run the design, flip through your color blocks. Make sure that your design starts with five blocks of the same color. If your machine decides to "help" you and merge the color blocks together, this won't work properly.

Now, put your fabric in the hoop, wherever you want the final design to go. I lined the hem up with the bottom of my hoop. Run your basting line, holding your fabric flat on the hooped stabilizer. You might need to pause and unpause the machine several times to move your hand and keep the fabric flat. Remember that as long as your hand is flat on the fabric, and you have a presser foot on your machine, you can't hit your fingers with the needle. Despite what this image shows, I often hold the fabric down with my whole hand in the center of the hoop.

Floating the fabric like this, instead of hooping, also allows you to line the fabric up very precisely. It's hard to hoop something 100% straight, but it's pretty easy to float it 100% straight.

Another advantage of floating with a basting line is that the line will show you exactly where the design is going to go. If you don't like where it's going to go, you only have about 50 stitches to rip out so that you can change the location. You'll know that your embroidery unit will have enough space to move. All hail the basting line.

The machine is going to sew an outline, and then stop. This is showing you where to place your applique fabric.

A good general rule is that any time a pattern sews an outline and then stops, you're supposed to put fabric down there. If your pattern does this, and you're not sure why, see if there's any instructions that tell you what applique fabric to use where.

If your machine sewed this outline and then kept going, make sure you have color block merge turned off, and that you're not in monochrome mode.

Just like when you were basting your garment onto the hoop, you're going to hold the applique fabric over the outlined area, and keep it there while your machine runs the next color.

Once the machine has sewn the applique fabric down, you'll want to trim away the excess. I use some very small curved scissors for this, since the curve lets me get very close to the stitching line. Generally, you want to be as close as possible to that line.

Once you have your applique fabric sewn in, you can more or less just watch the machine and change the colors when it asks you to. You'll see that I have a bulge in my applique fabric on the lefthand shoe. This isn't ideal, but since this design has so much stitching, it all got flattened down in the end.

You'll see that there's a lot of crosshatching on the surface before the colors go on. This is to stabilize the fabric and keep it in place when the big feathered stitches start. These stitches also sew the stabilizer to the back of the fabric, which means that if your fusible mesh starts to lose fusion, it'll still be completely sewn down.

If your machine has manual tension, you'll want to lower it after the crosshatching layers are done. You can change it after color block 5.

The reason that you're lowering your tension is that these stitches are particularly lorge and lomg, and that means the machine can pull just a bit harder than normal when it moved form place to place.

If your machine doesn't cut jump stitches (the long stitch the machine leaves when it jumps from one section of embroidery to another), you will want to trim them between color blocks, instead of waiting until the end.

If you're watching this stitch out and going, "Wait, I was told my machine embroidered at 1200 stitches per minute! This isn't going at 1200 stitches per minute! What gives?" well, I'll tell you. Your machine's stitch speed was rated by the absolute fastest that the machine head can go. It doesn't actually take into account how fast the embroidery unit can move. Since these are longer stitches, the embroidery unit can't move fast enough to keep up with the machine going 1200 stitches a minute, so the machine has to slow down to deal with the e-unit's speed.

If you did this correctly, the back of your embroidery will not be sewn to the front of your embroidery, and you'll have something that looks like this.

You'll need to cut your bobbin thread about every 10 stitches in your basting line. This is pretty easy, because the stitches are so big. I do this from the back side because the stabilizer protects the fabric from my scissors.

Then, flip it over and rip out your tear-away, one layer at a time. You'll notice that my back side is really ugly. This is because Viking and Pfaff don't cut the bobbin thread between jump stitches. In the old days, this meant that they jammed and locked up significantly less than other brands, but now there's things like wiper feet and tail-clearing programs that work a lot better. No, there's no way to activate bobbin jump cuts. If there was, I'd have done it by now.

Now, using your iron if you need to, peel back the extra fusible mesh and trim around your design. You can get closer to it than I did here. I'm just lazy.

If you're using polyester embroidery thread, you get some pretty good results by sticking a press cloth over the design and ironing it. This will make sure the threads line up and stay extra shiny.

And that's important because polyester thread already doesn't have the same luster as rayon thread. It's more sparkly than lustrous. However, some brands of thread are just easier to work with. When we're testing machine problems in my store, we test with isacord, since it's the least likely to have problems, so we can rule out thread problems. But man, I just think it's so ugly. I used polyester for this design, because it's long stitches on a garment, and I need that strength, but I'm not happy about it.

Anyway, there you go, that's the basics of a somewhat complex machine embroidery pattern.

I'm considering making a separate blog for embroidery stuff. I'm really tired of the embroidery industry charging for tutorials like this or instructions on the embroidery software (looking at you, Floriani Total Control University DVD for $218), but this blog isn't really for my vendetta against the embroidery industry.

[theenbyroiderer]

A simpler tutorial today. Here's how I made the 3D fish on my amatonormativity project. Used the same exact technique for the fish I've stitched on my fishy beret too.

First, fill outline with bullion stitch. Second, satin stitch over the bullion. Third, add fins with cast-on stitch.

[mutantenfisch]

As per my last post, i am currently doing 3 things and decided to do a little of each today.

The pattern of the maybe-vest-maybe-pillowcase is becoming visible:

The Nirnroot is outlined and started (I actually own a cross stitch pattern from etsy but with this linen canvas i decided to not use cross stitch but satin stitch instead), DMC glow-in-the-dark floss is ordered. As is a booklet with some templates to make the order worth the shipping from France :')

And last but not least - progress on Vidomir's hut!

Unfortunately i could only scrape together 8 of those tiny bamboo planks fromy drawers, so I first gotta get a few dozen more to build the door, door step, and make window shutters. Window and door frames I'll make out of square bases wooden sticks like the one that stabilises the house's top.

I also painted the roof, first with some slightly diluted black acrylics, then with a mixed-together ugly af brown because guess who has tons of paint but most of it is dried up ✌😎

I'm gonna check whether my blue, other yellow, red and green are still working and grab a fine brush to add the wall painting next to the door. Then, to watch some youtube for a tutorial how to make the oven. And a ladder for the storage loft.

If it's not too late by then, I'll sew some tiny sacks to go there too. :)

[pokeycub]

Making a Plushie (Saga)

(Not really a tutorial. Just marking progress.)(wip)

Day 4

A continuation from day 3 I finally finished the outline for the eye bags.(In reblog of the first post)

And then embroidered in the color. (The satin stitch is the easiest one for me. Don't know why?)

That was all I was able to do today cause it takes forever to thread the needle.

But he's coming together; slowly!

The other posts:

Day1-2 ,Day 3