You know how I always say I like to use FILL STITCH when I do towels? Well, I have an exception to the rule. I had a customer bring me these beach towels to monogram, and she specifically said “nothing too thick”. These are from Tarjet I think, and they are cute little towels and also relatively thin. In this case, I DID NOT use fill stitch. I made sure my font was thin enough to do satin stitch. These names pretty much filled the 5×7 hoop, so close to 6.5-7″ wide. In Monogram Wizard Plus you can adjust the boldness (thickness or fatness of the satin stitch) of a font so I did decrease the boldness on the right 2 girl towels. The font is MWP Specs. On the left boy towel, I used MWP Kazoo font and the name wasn’t too thick at this size, so I don’t think I had to adjust the boldness on it. If this is all confusing to you, stay tuned for my next post on Monogram Wizard Plus and adjusting a font’s width and boldness and all that good stuff.

Specs is a wonky font, so I did the letters in layers and then arranged them all in Sew What Pro. See this post for more info b/c I didn’t take pictures of how to do it.

Now on to a project I did today for Mallory. I bought this a-line dress/top at an overstock sale several months ago. It was all of like $8 or $10 and was a sample from Red Beans clothing line. It had a monogram on it, but I got it anyway. When I see something monogrammed, I usually see A) if it will come out easily and B) if I can cover it. I did a little bit of both on this one.

As you can see below, I took out what I could of the monogram ~ mainly the fat parts that I could easily cut (with a seam ripper or small scissors) and pull out. The dress/shirt was fully lined, so I didn’t have access to the back side and bobbin thread and could only take out the monogram from the front which was a little tricky. Anyway, I took out what I could and decided to move on. You can also see where I marked the approximate center of the monogram. My plan was to cover it with an applique!

As I said, it was fully lined (covering the back of the monogram) and I didn’t want to mess with the lining.

I used medium cutaway stabilizer on the back side of the dress and hooped it so that the monogram was pretty centered in the hoop. You want to make sure the applique will cover the entire monogram.

I chose our Fat Fish Design to cover the monogram. As you can see below, I sewed the marking stitch first. I then had an idea… what if I cut out the seersucker fabric and monogram INSIDE the marking stitch LEAVING the lining in tact. Had I thought of this before, I would not have wasted 20 minutes trying to take out part of the monogram. See my post on Layering Fabrics in an Applique for more info on this.

As you can see, I trimmed closely inside the fish. The white you see is the lining of the dress/shirt (I’m honestly not sure which it is, dress or top, but we plan to wear this w/ shorts).

I am using red Ta Dot fabric because I have a pair of little ruffle shorts she is going to wear this with. I use Heat N Bond Lite on the fabric (of course).

Ready for the tackdown stitch!

Here I have trimmed the fabric closely. I love my Gingher 4″ curved scissors! It will then stitch the eye and around the fish and I stopped the machine and left off the fin that is shown on this design.

Here is the finished outfit! I got the shorts from Doodles Boutique. This will be great for the summer AND it’s a little patriotic for the 4th of July!

I love this fish!

I also did this Fat Fish last year to match a pair of shorts I got at the same overstock sale! I believe the shorts are from Red Beans too!

Lastly, I posted on Facebook yesterday that you can make pretty much any design patriotic by using red, white & blue fabric, like in the outfit above. Here is also a pic of our Popsicle Trio design done in RW&B fabrics! Have a great week!

Here’s B after we got home from the ER and by then he was able to straighten his arm and was fine! Now we know we should have waited a couple of hours before heading to the ER. But, we were in and out in an hour and had we not gone, it would have been broken in 3 places. As you may recall, Sissy broke her collar bone last May so we don’t play around with bones. Speaking of Sissy, she left last Friday to spend the weekend with her cousin down at the beach. She extended her stay and is FINALLY coming home this afternoon!! It’s been quiet without her!! Anyway, back to soccer, trampolines and swimming!!

Here is what I’ve been up to this past week or so. These adorable rompers are from www.jiffyshirts.com (Apples & Oranges brand). Sonny and Sophia are twins, so they needed to be coordinated. I came up with this using these coordinating Riley Blake fabrics and Sew What Pro. See if you can follow this…

Pink – 5×7 Rectangle Scalloped Patch + 4×4 fish from Fish Patch + Sophia in Monogram Wizard Plus “Kim Single” font.

Blue – 5×7 Fish Patch – fish, + 4×4 fish from Fish Patch + Sonny in Monogram Wizard Plus “Tipsy” font.

Did you get all that? One of the many reasons I love Sew What Pro!

I got asked several times at EAC this year how I hoop towels, or IF I hoop towels. I am a hooper! When I bought my first machine I learned how to hoop, so I hoop almost everything. I do use Fast Frames with my PR650 when I’m doing things I can’t hoop (lunchboxes, ribbon, backpacks, etc.) but for most other things including towels, I HOOP. If you loosen the hoop enough to get the towel in there, then you can tighten it and it’s secure. I use a water soluble stabilizer on the top, as seen below. It is hooped with the towel.

On the bottom I use an iron on tearaway stabilizer which will be removed (torn away) when I’m done. It doesn’t have to be iron on. Any tearaway will do, because you don’t want stabilizer left on when you are done. Hence the tearaway!

I did at least 10 towels this past week for graduation gifts. I put the hoop on my machine upside down so that the excess towel hangs in front of my machine. My machine stand is a file drawer table, so I open the door and let the excess towel “rest” on the drawer.

Since my towel is on the machine upside down, I also rotate my monogram to where it will sew upside down. As you can see on my machine there is a Rotate button. The font I used is Monogram Wizard Plus “Sydney”.

Here are a couple of finished towels. I also use FILL STITCH on these towels and the monograms pretty much fill up my 5×7 hoop (close to 7″ wide).

I posted this on Facebook this week. This is a shirt I did for my Mallory to match some cute Candy Ta Dot (Michael Miller) shorts I got from Doodles Boutique. This is our Bubbles design we just listed in the past week or two. The shirt is an old Just Blanks shirt. I bought a box of them a few years ago from a clothing line that was not going to be using them as blanks anymore.

Finally, here is a Columbia PFG (Performance Fishing Gear) shirt I did today for my 13 year old niece! She sent me a photo she found on Pinterest. This is, again, Monogram Wiz Plus “Sydney” font and I narrowed the letters up a bit to try to fill up the 5×7 hoop, making the monogram 7″ wide and as tall as I could get it. As you can see below, these shirts have “vents”, so I was able to hoop inside the top layer and monogram inside the “vent”. Not sure you could do that with a single needle machine, but I was able to do it on my 6 needle without monogramming through the mesh lining layer inside.

This is the inside of the shirt. This is a mesh lining inside the shirt (not Comfort Cover).

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! I am working on sampling new designs for Applique Cafe this week. 3 down, 1 to go! I’ve worked hard to get all of my customer work pretty much done (or at a manageable level) so that I can enjoy my kids, sleeping in, going to the pool and just doing nothing. Oh, and more blogging!! Have a great weekend!

It has been C-R-A-Z-Y!! But…… as with last year’s conference, I came back excited about applique, eager to get back to what I do and anxious to BLOG about it all. I came away with lots of great blog ideas! Several reasons why sometimes I take a break from blogging are: 1) lack of time to sit down and blog (i.e. letting Facebook suck 3 hours out of me instead of blogging), 2) lack of material or finding pictures or ‘stuff” to blog about, and 3) thinking ‘no one reads it anyway’. The first two are fine excuses, but the latter is evidently not true. I had tons of people tell me they read my blog at some time or another and that they actually LEARNED from it! Thanks to all of you who do! It keeps me going!

Now on to the pictures! Last year Jeff went with me to EAC and took lots of great photos. This year he stayed back to wrangle the kids, so I was solo and did a terrible job of taking pictures. Here are a few from my classroom. BTW, I taught 6 hour long classes and each class held about 85 folks. Much to my surprise, all but the last class were at max capacity with ladies sitting on the floor. I went in assuming everyone was a pro and no one needed my Basics of Applique class. Evidently there were a lot of newbies in attendance so they all hit my class. Thank you all! Everyone was great!

Here are my design samples, which turned out to be a huge hit. As most of you know, I sample each and every design we list at Applique Cafe. I like to make sure they sew right and that all the steps are correct. If I don’t have a t-shirt on hand, I hoop medium cutaway stabilizer (2 layers) and sample on it. I then trim around the applique, punch a hole in the sample and group them together in rings by category. I used these in my classes and also had them on my table at the Meet & Greet Friday night. Everyone seemed to enjoy thumbing through them, and I heard lots of people who do craft shows or home parties say they were going to start showing their designs this way as well.

My class was “Basics of Applique“, so I briefly went over thread, stabilizers, etc. and then we stitched a shirt from start to finish in each class. The threads shown are Isacord and Exquisite brands, both my go-to threads for embroidery. The stabilizer rolls are all from Sewingmachine.com (commercial backing). I love them because the prices are fantastic and these rolls last a long time!

Here’s where I stitched each shirt for each class. Exciting stuff huh? I brought my own crusty Shark iron and my Heat N Bond Lite smathered  ironing board. BTW, I have TONS of samples to sell at some point.

We got to use this sweet Brother PR1000 10 needle. Everything was a little rushed so I didn’t get a lot of time to play around with the machine and see what all it could do. I have a PR650 and found it was similar in the programming.

Here are a few of my samples I displayed in my classes as well as Friday’s Meet & Greet “party”. I had a whole suitcase full of samples and will at some point sell them off. The cute ruffle pants are from Doodles Boutique! These are our Popsicle Trio, Girly Frog Face, Mini Giraffe and Snorkel Fish designs, all available at Applique Cafe of course.

Here is one shot of my display table from Friday night. Like I said, I was bad at taking pictures so I snagged a few off of the EAC Facebook Page. Check out all the albums from the weekend on the page! The cute pink dress is from Blanks Boutique and that’s our Lollipop Trio design!

Here are the Digitizers from the EAC and we were presented with these cool wooden initials (available at Mint Julep Monograms). From L to R are yours truly, Emily (App Alley), Karen (App Market), Kathy (App Corner and Mrs. EAC and Koral, the fabulous EAC planner extraordinaire.

Here’s a shot of me Friday night.

Here are a couple of shots of me teaching my class on Friday and Saturday. Evidently I explain things with my hands? Not sure what I was saying here… Probably something super intellectual.

 Here is a shot of the General Assembly Friday morning or afternoon. This is just part of the room. It was filled to capacity with 1500 women (and a few men too). Gobs and gobs of great door prizes were given away, including 6 machines (and I mean nice machines ~ PR650c and a fancy serger to name a couple).

 Overall it was a fun filled great weekend, which is now a bit of a blur to me. 2 days of fast paced, high anxiety, fun and sharing with little sleep. I also survived on granola bars and peanut butter crackers for 2 days because that’s all I had time for. Thank you to all who made the trip, who took the time to come to my classes, and also to everyone who encouraged me or just took a minute to introduce yourself and say “HI”!! I look forward to EAC 2014!

Like I said, I came away with some great blog post ideas too, so I will get on those asap. We have a dance recital tonight, Kindergarten party in the morning and Browder finishes school on Friday. His birthday is Saturday as well as the wedding of a great college friend (and Memorial Day weekend). Monday morning will officially be SUMMER!! Have a great week!

Here are a few things I’ve been up to lately when I haven’t been stressing over the calendar. Sissy had a birthday party to go to this past weekend and they have a pool, so I had in mind to find a cute towel to monogram. I have to say, I was disappointed in the beach towel selections at Target and Walmart. I found this cutie at Kohls! I was also at TJMaxx yesterday and they had some cute ones too. Hopefully Target and Wally World will do better next year. I used Monogram Wizard Plus “Specs” font for her name. What a bright and cheerful towel!

Here’s an Old Navy dress I did recently, and I think you can get these for dirt cheap. They are perfectly BLANK, so you can easily jazz it up with a monogram or applique design. I used our Flip Flop Trio design and some bright fabrics and it turned out cute! I love the blue on the pink, and this pink is brighter and more “highlighted” than it looks. My kids call fluorescent “highlighted”. I think I used MWP “Penpal” for this font.

In my last post, I discussed No Show Mesh cutaway stabilizer. I STILL love my medium cutaway, but I did some tees recently and used the no show mesh b/c this particular tee was thin. Some tees are thicker than others so this is a great option for those that are not as thick (where medium cutaway might really show through). Again, my pictures are backwards so this is a shot of the t-shirt after I un-hooped. I used a little spray adhesive to “stick” the no show cutaway to the back of my shirt. This time I ironed some iron on tearaway on the back of that (rather than “floating” it underneath the hoop), so I had 2 layers of stabilizer hooped with the shirt.

As you can see here, I hooped all 3 layers (tshirt, no show mesh and tearaway) together.

Actually 4 layers b/c I used a layer of solvy on top. So on the back of the t-shirt – 1 layer no show mesh, 1 layer of iron on tearaway and on the top, solvy. I’ve gotten to where I am using solvy more and more on top of t-shirts, mostly when I am doing monogramming. If the shirt is a little thin, then it helps the shirt not to gather in the monogram (like on the ends of the letters). When I’m done, I remove the solvy and tearaway and then trim the no show mesh around the monogram. This is MWP “Pendant” font.

We listed this Bug Jar Applique Design on Monday, which was featured on a t-shirt in Sew Beautiful magazine in their May/June 2013 issue. There is a fabulous article on TJ’s Fabrics in the issue, and I was lucky enough to sew a t-shirt with this design on it for one of the cute little models to wear!

It’s always fun to see your name in print!

Here is the cute shirt which was made to match the cargo shorts made by TJ’s using their Michael Miller  Baby Bug Jar fabrics.

If you subscribe to Sew Beautiful or see it in your local fabric store, pick up a copy! It’s a great article! The outfits they featured are gorgeous!! TJ’s is located in Opp, AL, so don’t forget to plan accordingly if you are traveling to the beach this summer!!

We just got back from a Dream Disney little vacation. The boys have been to Disney once, but Mallory had never been. We decided to try a Disney Cruise this year, but hit Magic Kingdom for the day on our way down. If you are going on a Disney Cruise, let me know. I wrote a book on it (not really) when we got back for some friends who are heading that way in a couple of weeks. It really was MAGICAL!! The cruise was massive and amazing and we will definitely go again! Here are just a few pics ~ I will spare you of the 253 I uploaded from my camera.

This was right before we left the park. War Eagle! I hope the people on the left figured out their phone settings…

Here is the “Sail Away” party on the ship the evening we left the Port. Yes, there were like 4,000 people there. I think the recommended pool capacity was exceeded. This is the Disney Dream ship which comes and goes from Port Canaveral in Florida. It has an awesome tube slide called the “Aquaduck” that goes literally off the side of the ship, and then around it.

Here we are riding the Aquaduck. We rode it many many times (as many as the kids could talk us in to).

We met Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and all of the other Disney characters and Princesses (several times). I was fascinated by the characters as much as the kids were!

Chip & Dale got on the elevator with us one day.

The kids got to play basketball with Goofy!

It was so much fun! We HIGHLY recommend it! Again, if you are planning a Disney cruise and want to read my tips and suggestions, let me know!

All designs at Applique Cafe are on sale through May 7th, and we are listing 3 more new designs today or tomorrow! Have a great week!

It turns out I had something LIKE this that I’ve used before, mostly on sweatshirts. The friend who recommended this also said she “floats” a piece of tearaway underneath which I forgot to do, but I still got good results. Here is a pic of it on the inside of my shirt. I used it like I use any cutaway and “stuck” it to the shirt with my Sulky KK2000 temporary spray adhesive before I get it hooped.

Here is the finished shirt, and it looks like any other applique I have done. I will say… the brown gingham dog fabric was a little “bubblier” than I find when using my medium cutaway, but I was able to squirt some water on it with my iron and iron it really well and the Heat N Bond Lite worked and it turned out just fine. So… not sure I am making a drastic switch over to this new cutaway, but I did like it and will try it again (and try floating tearaway underneath for a little added support). I think the idea of this “no show mesh” is that it’s a lot thinner than medium cutaway so it doesn’t “show” on the shirt, which I don’t have a problem with. Some people say you can see the stabilizer around the design, but I’ve been using it for years and have never had anyone complain nor has it ever bothered me. But, if that is something that concerns you then you might give this a try!

The moral of the story… try new things! You have to figure out what works best for you! Just because I use and love medium cutaway (which I am completely out of BTW…) doesn’t mean you have to! I have a whole roll of this no show mesh, so I will try it some more for sure!

I always LOOOOVVVEEEEEE…. opening a box from my doorstep from TJ’s Fabrics! A funny side story… when we got home around 2:20 from all the running around and carpools, we noticed the doorbell was ringing. It kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. I ran to the front door to see who was there, and all I found was the TJ’s package! Evidently the mail-person left it for me and rang the doorbell. The doorbell got stuck and rang and rang and rang until we got home! Good thing we don’t have a dog or else it might have gone crazy!!

Now on to fabric… I saw these “mini” chevrons the other day on TJ’s Facebook page and knew I had to have some! I always tell people that in applique, you are dealing with such tiny spaces so small prints are GREAT! The top left one looks PERFECT for patriotic designs. Top right – great spring colors – lime, turq., yellow, orange. The bottom one is a few shades of pink and lime/green. LOVE LOVE LOVE!! Great job Timeless Treasures!! These are “mini chevron stripe”.

Love these 2 together ~ Timeless Treasures Small Geometric Multi on the right. Fun colors for summer!

Here are some new Riley Blake chevrons in some great new colors! A-D-O-R-E the lime green. Top left is purple, then orange, lime, blue and baby pink. I really like this lime and blue color!

These 2 look great together too!

More chevrons ~ these are also Riley Blake. The top left one would be great for Auburn fans! This group is called “One for the Boys” and I love all of the colors!

I think if I didn’t get to designs appliques, I would love to design fabric!! All of these make me want to sew something! How about you? Check them all out at TJ’s Fabrics!

These below are Riley Blake Ladybug Garden. LOVE LOVE the ladybugs!! I am also a sucker for GREEN & PINK!

Chevrons…. Oh how I love thee….. These are all Riley Blake also. These are medium and small chevrons and in case you’ve been under a rock for the past year, chevrons are THE BOMB right now. You can use them horizontally, and I have used them a couple of times vertically (see Fish 2 and Loopy Easter Basket designs below this pic).

How about some GINGHAMS to go with the CHEVRONS??? These are Riley Blake also and they match the chevrons perfectly!!! If you have seen my website, you know I use gingham A LOT. I absolutely love all of these colors also!

A–dorable!!!

TJ’s Fabrics will be at the Everything Applique Conference this year, and BTW early registration ends this Saturday, March 16th. The early bird price is $119 and will go up to $149 on Sunday! So far they have surpassed last year’s registration numbers and are super excited about all of the vendors and folks who will be there!! Check out the website for all of the details and to register!

Have you noticed all of the new BLANKS websites popping up lately? I think it’s super exciting to see so many new options and what they are offering! Which reminds me I need to update my LINKS on my blog… Below are a couple of items from Drawing a Blank. This is a size 4T red Puff Sleeve Shirt. They also come in white and pink and go up to a size 6. DABlanks items are 100% interlock cotton which is thick and very soft. Inventory is in stock and ships in 24 hours. You can also find DABlanks on Facebook! I have not had a chance to stitch anything out on these yet but am seeing something with turquoise on this red tee for summer…..

I also have this cute long sleeved white dress with pink ruffle. They also have different colors, solid pink, black and white with no ruffle and short sleeve options (with the ruffles). This is a size 4/5 and seems very generous. I think this would be great at the beach at night when it can be a bit cool. This photo was taken on my covered porch but below is another picture which shows the bright pink!

Sissy is holding it up so you can kind of see the sizing. She just turned 5 and wears a 5T and this will fit her perfectly! Be sure to check out Drawing a Blank! I will add them to my LINKS list as well!

I just listed 5 new designs today at Applique Cafe, and Easter Designs are ON SALE! Have a great weekend!!

Last week I monogrammed 6 bath towels, 3 hand towels and also 4 wash cloths. The bath towels took 48 minutes each to sew! I used Monogram Wizard Plus “Candlewick” font in FILL STITCH. They turned out great, and I am envious of the new towels (that belong to my customer)!! More info on the monogram ~ the size of the entire monogram was 4.79″ tall X 6.96″ wide. Stitch count was 27,617 stitches and I think I had my machine set on 800 stitches per minute = 48 minutes! The hand towels and wash cloths were a breeze and pretty fast.

She chose a tone on tone color scheme! It looks great and very elegant!! For towels I use iron on tearaway on the back + solvy water soluble on top. Hoop it all! The tearaway and solvy then peel right off when I’m done.

Now for my “repurpose” part of the post, which is a very popular term used these days for furniture and such. Not sure if it applies to clothes, but it sounds good for the purpose of this post. We have a few consignment sales here in town before spring/summer and fall/winter. I went last week and found this cute dress for like $12. I have found cheaper dresses w/ monograms but this was super cute for summer and I could tell by looking at it I could whip it in to shape. Yes, my daughter’s name is Mallory, so the M would work. But…. this was a pretty bad monogram job. No offense if the monogrammer person is reading this. I don’t think any stabilizer was used, and it was picked and just didn’t look good!

The fabric was gathered and some of the thread was coming loose. Not good.

Looking on the back side of the monogram, it was loose and I knew it would be super easy to remove! Very little bobbin thread showing = again… not good.

I was able to remove all of the monogram with my regular little scissors that came w/ my machine. That’s how loose the stitching was! I cut through the entire “M” and then removed all the thread.

As you can see the fabric is gathered underneath the monogram. I found no trace of any stabilizer.

This was an easy one to remove!

After I got it all removed, you could see the little holes from the previous “M”. Not a problem!

I find that a little water and ironing will do wonders! Looks much better below, and I think once the dress is washed you will barely see any remains of the monogram.

Today I finally got a chance to re-monogram the dress and it looks precious! I used Monogram Wizard Plus “Pendant” font, and added a couple of dots on each side (layered in MWP – SySerif SyS 26, size .75 – layer 2 and 3). I also made the M wider in MWP (Letter Width 125 I believe — default is 100). This will be a cute $12 dress for summer! As you can see below, you can barely see any remnants of the previous M! I really really really like this “M” font.

As I said, I monogrammed 13 towel items in the past week. Today I knew it was time to CLEAN my bobbin area. It was full of lint. See my last post on PR650 maintenance. I dusted it all out using my brush and also Qtips and alcohol (not the drinking kind). I also cleaned the bobbin case and changed my right 3 needles which are used the most. I normally change all 6, but just changed them recently so I only changed the right 3.

While I was in a cleaning mood, I decided it was time to “clean” my thread stand and thread and organize all my thread by color. I took all of my spools off and used a towel to wipe my stands, which are hung on the wall. I have 3 June Tailor stands and then 1 big 5000M stand I got from www.sewingmachine.com. They get dusty! I also wiped my thread spools off with just a dry towel to knock any dust off.

Isn’t it pretty?? Wow I have lots of greens!!

I organized my big spools last night.

I mostly use Isacord and Exquisite thread, but have a few other random spools as well!

In my Expedit cubby I have a whole cubby devoted to random thread organized thrown in there. These are extra colors or colors I rarely used. Some variegated in there too I’ve never used.

All organized by color! Yes, I was laying on the ground taking this photo!! Isn’t it pretty? Taking bets on how long this will last…

I have waaaaayyyy….. too much thread. But, I honestly use most of it! Especially all the pinks and greens!

Hope you all have a great VALENTINE’S night!

Here are a few things I’ve been up to this week. First, a friend brought me a couple of cute Pottery Barn Kids pillowcases to monogram for her daughter’s room. She had “pinned” a font she liked on Pinterest so I was able to do something similar with Monogram Wizard Plus’ PENDANT font + Sydney “E”. I didn’t like the wings on the Pendant E (it was too much) so I merged in the Sydney E. I did the 3 letter monogram in layers in my MWP software. Layer 1 – I, Layer 2 – E, Layer 3 – L. After the fact, someone pointed out that if you use lower case letters in Pendant, they don’t have all the wings. Next time! I just got the font so this was my first time using it. This monogram was big ~ 5.96″ tall X 8.88″ wide, so it was 33,980 stitches and machine time said 59 minutes. I did fill stitch since the monogram was so big and on a pillowcase. It really didn’t seem like it took that long and it turned out very pretty!!

I used 2 layers of medium cutaway and my biggest 8×11 hoop.

Here are a few shirts I did for a relative of a friends soon to be sister in law. Got that?. This is our Girl Bunny design with Michael Miller Candy Ta Dot and Riley Blake My Mind’s Eye Quite Contrary in green. The font is Monogram Wizard Plus Specs.

This is our Mermaid design with the name in MWP Curly Q. I think the dot fabric is Riley Blake?

Lastly, our Zig Zag Popsicles which I LOVE! I used MWP Kim Single font.

I love all of these colors together for SUMMER!

OK…. I have seen a post or two on Facebook about maintenance with 6 needle machines. Let me start by saying I am not a Brother expert or a certified service person, nor do I play one on TV. I thought I would pass along a few things that I learned when I bought my machine from Steve at Sewingmachine.com. They ARE a certified service center for Brother so I feel like his tips are noteworthy. I’m sure all dealers are different! You can find lots of great videos on their website under VIDEOS!

First of all, when I got the machine Steve showed me how to oil the needle shaft. I put a drop of oil from my oil pen on the needle shafts (all 6 of them) once every couple of weeks (when I realize I haven’t done it in a while!!). You just pull the needle down, put a drop of oil and then pull the needle up and down another time or two so that the oil disperses on the shaft. You have to go through and select the different needles. For instance, if needle 1 is selected, then it will pull down and also needle 2 will pull down, but needles 3-6 will be locked. So, you have to then switch to needle 3 and oil 3 and 4. Then switch to 5 and do 5 and 6. I saw a picture on Facebook this week of someone who had removed the whole front panel of the machine to expose all the needle “workings”. Not sure if she was doing that to oil the shafts but I learned to just oil them the way I just explained.

Every now & then you should really remove the throat (bobbin) plate and give it a good cleaning. Just unscrew the 2 screws with the tool that was included in your tool kit. When you take the plate off you might see all kind of lint and tiny thread pieces. I do this usually when I change out all my needles and “clean” my machine. Again, I change my needles every few weeks or so usually when I realize I have not changed them in a while, and also if I’ve done a lot of embroidery with sticky paper I change them out. I use Schmetz Embroidery Needles ~ 75/11.

Mine has a little bit of lint and dust, but is pretty clean because I cleaned everything a week or two ago. It was FULL of tiny pieces of thread!

Your bobbin case can get dusty and gunky too. Fuzz can get caught under the clip which can cause your machine to stop or not sew right. Steve said to take a business card and slide it under the clip to remove any lint or dust. You can also clean it with alcohol (rubbing, not the drinking kind) and a Qtip.

Your machine tool kit most likely came with this handy little brush. I use it in the bobbin case (and all over) to dust the machine. Again, it is AMAZING how much dust and lent can accumulate as you can see in my photos!

Your machine will also tell you to “please put a drop of oil on the hook once a day” when you turn it on each time. I turn the knob on the back of the machine until I can see V in the the hook, then put a drop of oil with my oil pen. I then turn the knob back and forth so that the oil disperses on the hook. I also clean the bobbin area with my brush, a Qtip and alcohol also, to get rid of any oil+lint buildup. You can see a video on how to do this properly HERE at sewingmachine.com!

You have probably all gotten the error message “check upper and bobbin” or something to that effect. Your machine stops and you get that message and wonder what is wrong! If your bobbin is full, then it’s probably lint under the clips OR the silver tension disk is “stuck” and not turning properly (see below). I also did a post on NEEDLE 4 you can read which is notorious for that error message! If you get the message, check your clips and try to remove any lint or dust. You can use a business card corner, move the thread back & forth or use the little brush above to clean it out. Just don’t force the clip b/c it’s part of the tension system and you don’t want to break it.

Your thread guides can also get wax buildup from your embroidery thread. Not sure if you can see the tiny “gunk” on the guides. You can clean it off with, again, a Qtip and rubbing alcohol.

Sometimes when I get the “check your upper and bobbin” error message, I start my machine again and look to see if my silver tension disks are turning properly (the thread wraps around the silver tension disk). If they are jerky or not turning consistently, your machine WILL stop and give you the error message. You can easily take the tension knob off and clean everything. Just pay attention to what order everything is in. Here I unscrewed the top knob.

If you take the plastic white piece off along with the spring and the little plastic thing on top, you’ll see this felt pad, the silver tension disk and another felt pad underneath. Please excuse my non-technical terms!!

The felt pads can get dusty and pretty gross with lint (see arrow on photo below –> lint). I just use my fingers/fingernails to clean it all off. The silver tension disk can also get dusty and waxy in the grooves from the thread. AGAIN…. good ole Qtip and alcohol. I just go over everything with the alcohol Qtip on both sides of the disk. (these are my stabilizer notes for my weekend class!)

More lint to clean off.

Once everything is clean, it’s time to put it all back together. Put the blue felt pad down, then your silver tension disk, MAGNET side down, then the other felt pad on top. You then put the white plastic piece/spring/plastic little piece on top back on and screw the white knob back on. You then wrap the thread around it as it is supposed to go.

There is a red line on the tension knob that tells you approximately how far down the knob should be screwed on. Here is a better shot of the silver tension disk. If your machine is running and the disk is not turning properly, the machine will cut off and give you the error message! Gosh my photos show a lot of DUST!!

So you’ve put everything back together and your tension isn’t quite right. Luckily these machines come with a built in tension test! That is one great thing about multi needle machines. A lot of issues you might have you can solve yourself! If you have tension issues on a single needle, that usually results in a trip to the shop! If you keep your multi needle maintained and clean, a trip to the shop is only required for standard maintenance (every so many hours you should have your machine serviced). On your main screen, hit the button with the blue bird on it where your built in designs are stored!

Then go to Page 2 for your tension test.

Click the button with 6 rows of thread.

Press SET to get the tension test ready! I assign the colors on my machine to the tension test so that each needle is tested. I hoop a piece of stabilizer or two and do my test on it. If any adjustments need to be made, you do it yourself by adjusting the tension knobs (tighter or looser) and you can then do the tension test again. When you look on the back of your tension test, a good rule of thumb is 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 ~ you should see left 1/3 your colored thread, middle 1/3 white bobbin thread, and right 1/3 your colored thread. If you see too much bobbin thread, loosen your tension on that needle. If you see very little bobbin thread, tighten your tension on that needle. Steve describes this as a tug of war between bobbin and upper thread! He explains better how to do this in his video ~ HOW TO ADJUST YOUR TENSION ON THE PR/EMP SERIES 6 NEEDLE. 

I hope that helps!! p.s. I use Fil-Tec Magnetic Core Bobbins (MagnaGlide-L-). I just ordered a new box today! 100 come in a box which lasts a looonnnnggg time.

Let me say it again, I am not a PR650 expert!! Your dealer may have taught you different or you may have other tricks and tips to share! However, I have found these tips to be helpful in maintaining my machine and solving those pesky little problems!

I did some shirts last week and had to share this one. This customer of mine is very specific and EASY and this was her idea, not mine! She wanted a double circle with this cute Tricycle fabric in the middle. I’m guessing she has pants or shorts to match. Sorry the photo isn’t great, but you get the idea. I just merged 2 circles together in Sew What Pro. Getting the size right was a little tricky and luckily it worked out with the tricycle.

Super cute fabric! I thought I had some to tell you what it was, but I can’t find any and my customer has already picked up (it was her fabric). I’m guessing Fabric Finders?

I think in the past I’ve done something similar with this fabric (below) using a rectangle patch and one of the cars, buses or bicycles. If you have fabric similar to this and can’t find the right design to match, consider using your fabric in a patch!

Jeff & I went to a friend’s 40th birthday party this past weekend, and the theme was 80s & 90s. It was HILARIOUS! The music was great too! Jeff rounded up his outfit and sporto-rolled his old jeans, and I hit Walmart (yes, Walmart) for most of mine. I hate you can’t truly appreciate the banana clip in my hair! My top was neon pink and actually glowed in the dark. Did we really dress like this?? We are headed to an 80′s Prom party next weekend so that should be fun too. I found a dress on Etsy and can’t wait to get it. Think MAUVE, huge puffy sleeves and a huge bow across the back!

Now on to a NEW BLANKS supplier. I got an email a week or two ago from Blossom Blanks based out of Birmingham, AL. Jenny offered to send me a few blanks to try out and I got them yesterday. They are really cute! I was going to do a few samples on them and post then, but decided to go ahead and post some photos today. A little info on Blossom Blanks ~ they are a family owned business based out of Birmingham, AL and at this time they are strictly wholesale (business license and sales tax ID required). Their shirts are 100% organic cotton and very soft. With any cotton there is some shrinkage and their sizing accommodates for that. Right now they offer long sleeve tees for boys and girls and onesies (long sleeved). They are taking pre-orders for short sleeve tees for boys and girls (ruffle) and onesies and also baby gowns (late February) and girl angel sleeve tees (March). They only offer white at this time but intend to add color as they grow! Check out their website for their Gallery of photos and for more information!

Here are my pics, and again, it’s a little cloudy today so take that into account!

This is the girls ruffle long sleeve tee.

This is the boys long sleeve tee.

This is the long sleeve onesie.

Here are some closeups of some of the detail on the tees and onesie.

Again, check out Blossom Blanks for more information! You’ll find a size chart and can get pricing information as well as see photos of some cute kids in these blanks! They are also on Facebook.

Don’t forget that our Applique Cafe sale ends tomorrow (Thursday, 1/24)! We listed 5 new designs yesterday shown below.

 Also, have you heard there is going to be a 2nd annual Everything Applique Conference this year? The date is set for May 17-18th in Birmingham, AL again. Follow the page on Facebook to keep up with all of the class information, registration info, etc.

We also sell some of our designs at SWAK Embroidery and also on Etsy. Here’s a prime example of a design that we were getting ready to list on Etsy. Our Alligator design is one of our originals (#60 out of 575) and I shrieked a little when I saw this picture! The fabrics are cute enough, but I think I must have taken this picture in a closet somewhere! So…. this morning I re-did the sample with a brighter chunky lime gingham with turquoise teeth and eye. I also got a brighter picture (outside even tho it’s dreary here) and removed the background in my photo. It looks MUCH better, eh? One design at a time…… A good photo and fabric can make ALL the difference!

 Now, on to further discussion on Heat N Bond Lite (see this POST for more info). I saw a post or two last week on Facebook regarding Heat N Bond Lite versus Steam A Seam Lite (2?). You can find it at most sewing stores like Joann, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby etc. It’s described as “double stick fusible web”. Years ago before I discovered HNBL I tried it (and Wonder Under), but found it a little stickier than I liked for my machine. I HAVE NOT tried it since, and they may have changed it and I noticed a SASL2 so that may even be the new thing (vs. just LITE). Anyway, a question was posed on Facebook asking if people were going to switch, or stick with HNBL. I am choosing to stay with HNBL. I’ve been using it for years, it’s easy to work with and my machine has no problems with it! I encourage everyone to try SASL if you feel inclined (Wonder Under too for that matter), and figure out what YOU like! Figure out what works best for you and your techniques, and your machine, and your finished product. Just because I use HNBL doesn’t mean everyone else has to. But, I do recommend it!

I thought I would post a few pics I took of a shirt I did recently for my daughter. I wanted to show what the shirt looked like straight out of the dryer. This is a Garanimals long sleeved tee from Walmart (60% cotton/40% polyester), and our Bird 3 design. As you can see it’s a little wrinkled, which is normal for a t-shirt I believe and this was probably after 3 fluff cycles since it takes me 3 days to get clothes out of the dryer to fold them.

The applique itself looks pretty good. Most of the “wrinkle” in my opinion is in the shirt. The applique fabric is still fused to the shirt with no bubbles.

I ran an iron over the shirt a time or two, and this is how it looks. There is a “wet spot” between little birdie’s legs, which is probably a stain of grease or cheese dip or something. Sissy is 4 so most of her shirts have something on them!

The applique looks crisp and wrinkle-free!

Here is a side view – no bubbles.

I use a cheap Shark iron that most likely came from Target.

The instructions on HNBL say: Preheat iron to medium heat, no steam. I do keep water in my iron but do not use the steam setting. The water comes in handy ~ squirt it on any hoop burns and iron and they go away. Also, if you stitch an applique design on a shirt and feel as though your fabric is a little bubbly, squirt a little water on it and iron well. For me, it takes the bubbles out and fuses the applique fabric to the shirt. In case anyone is wondering, I do not prewash shirts, fabric or anything. No dryer/hanging to dry is probably good practice for applique shirts, but I have 3 kids and doing laundry is a daily chore. I dry just about everything and have no issues!

Please comment with any questions!