How to embroider on a home sewing machine

hi guys this is Lou from blue London sky studios and today I thought I'd share with you an applicant technique that I taught myself it's basically embroidery without an embroidery machine and it's really helpful for those of us who don't actually have an embroidery machine or somebody to do the embroidery for us now it does require some simple techniques and things like that but by the end results you can create some really neat stuff it's how I did all the embroidery actually all of it on Mayas old of Tabard from Ireland between worlds Elda you can see this here it really needs to be iron but some really nice results using this type of technique so I'm really hoping you guys find this helpful so it does require some basic supplies and the first thing that you really want to look for when you're trying to create something like this or using the with this method you really want an embroidery hoop like this no I'm sorry my cat but my brighter hoop is 7 inches in diameter and you don't want anything too much bigger than this because it has to be able to fit in between your needle and the body of your machine so you can rotate it around and move it when you're working on your design now the next thing that's really important to what you need for when you're trying to use this method is water soluble stabilizer tada now this is the brand called sulky and the type is called solve a really fun name haha water soluble but it can come in tubes like this now this is rather large it's all it's a lot of some water soluble stabilizer you might not need this much water soluble stabilizer you might want something a lot smaller it comes with text like this as well because this is kind of expensive to get the whole - something like sixteen dollars you want something smaller this is only like two or three dollars for this pack you're only going to do a couple little things or if you're just experimenting with it for the first time now the next thing that you're really going to need for supplies is tool tool is actually going to be the fabric that once you rinse out the water-soluble stabilizer it's the fabric that's holding together the design so it's really important you get some nice tool don't get can can because the whole size can be a little bit too large to hold the design together well so tool is really nice because that small holes that hasn't it sorry at the camera shaking my cat just lay down the pace of it but get something that's in the color of your fabric I made the mistake the first time I did this and so did my sister where we got different colored tool from the fabric and it could show up really well on the fabric itself when you actually attach your design so mixture it's about the same colors the fabric they are trying to attach the design to so it doesn't stand out too much now the next thing that you really want when you're creating your design is actually the design itself which is really important I've just drawn my design here on a piece of paper you can print it out or whatever makes you feel comfortable you can draw print it off the internet there's a whole bunch of ways you can do this but I just as well just draw up my design on paper so that I can trace it onto the stabilizer when I get to that point and uh the next thing you're really going to need because you're working with water-soluble stabilizer that means you shouldn't use any type of pen or marker that is water soluble or it's made with a water base because it's going to go right through your stabilizer which is not good so you want to use something that is alcohol-based like sharpies sharpies are great markers so they come with alcohol base and the permanent acquittal coat permanent means you just can't remove it with water you can remove it with alcohol so if you fudge and you get a little bit on your table just get some rubbing alcohol out and wipe it right off it works like a dream now aside from your water not water-soluble markers your alcohol soluble markers of course you're going to need thread in the color of the design that you want to actually create I'm just using this green right here because I haven't have a lot of it and it's really easy for me to come buy a whole bunch of green in my thread stock but make sure you have enough thread especially if you're doing a really big design for my zealot a bird I actually bought the big cone of embroidery thread I wish I could reach behind you easily guys my machine but I got the big cone of embroidery thread and hand wand that onto an empty spool like this so that I could actually use up a lot of thread without actually making it cost too much so make sure you budget for your thread amount that you're gonna because if it's a big design it's going to use up a lot of threat smaller designs or thinner designs won't use up as much thread now the last thing aside from your sewing machine the most important thing in your arsenal for creating these types of designs is actually a really unique little foot called the to the quilting foot now I'm quilting feet are really unique they actually actually have to remove the lower mechanism to your sewing machine to put these guys on but it's really easy to do and this little guy what it does is it just makes this up-and-down motion so that this the bottom part of the actual foot usually stays flat on the fabric at all times when you're moving it just why it's called a quilting foot now the quilting foot that usually lives that little bitty slit right there so the stitch we're going to be using mostly is going to be the zig-zag stitch and it's really really helpful especially if your machine has different size zigzag stitches or you can program it for that or if you just have a basic machine just learning how to use your zig-zag stitch and your straight stitch together you can create a lot of designs I mean the world is our oyster at this point but once you have mastered this technique you can pretty much make any embroidery design without too much trouble it just takes a lot of practice so I'm going to go on ahead and show you guys how to set this stuff up hope you enjoy alright guys so I have my design all set up here it's the Kokiri symbol from Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time I just wanted to use this because it was a nice symbol and I had a lot of green thread so I wanted to use that now I did trace out my hoop size first just so I could keep it centered in the hoop but it's possible to do designs that are bigger than your hoop you just have to have some patience and be able to stretch out your fabric accordingly and well enough that it's not going to bunch all up I went on ahead and cut out some tulle that I would be using now with the tulle it's really important to have two pieces of it actually so that you can sandwich your water soluble stabilizer in between those layers kind of like this like make a sandwich with it and that just really helps your pattern or your scheme your design that you're made it helps it have a backbone more or less and it's a really nice way to do it without making sure that your tool is going to rip while you're doing this now first things first since I've already cut all that you guys love to do that by yourself I'm sure you can figure out how to do it but the first things first that you need to do is you need to trace out your design on your stabilizer woohoo so I have my cut piece of stabilizer here over the design I'm trying to Center it as best as I can just looking at it you could measure this if you really wanted to but since this is an example I don't really feel it's necessary and I'm going on ahead and start drawing my design on the stabilizer I'm going to go really slow to make sure that I don't mess it up too much and I'm trying to keep this fabric tight let the fabric the sit the stabilizer taunt with my hand there's a little mess up so that it doesn't shift around a lot while I'm drawing I find that doing short little strokes with the marker is a lot more beneficial than making one big long line because that can bunch the stabilizer up pretty well now the edges aren't going to be as crisp but as long as I keep in mind that this is the actual design and I'm not trying to vary from what I've drawn here I keep it as out of the drawing as an actual reference out I'm doing this it should work out just fine if you feel the need to have more control over this you but of course can pin this down on like a cork board or something but like I said this is just an example so I'm not honestly too concerned with keeping clean edges go almost done and I am using the blue sharpie here it honestly doesn't matter what color sharp you use as long as you can see it really well when you're stitching it might be beneficial to use something of a different color if you're using tool that isn't white so you can actually see your design I've never actually used anything other than white tool and green tool so I'm honestly not certain how that would affect it all right here we go tada traced out my design flaps up alright so next thing to do would be to sandwich it between the stabilizer between your tool layers already sandwich aim hope that didn't work okay this parts a little bit tricky because their tool wants to slide everywhere and stabilizer wants to slide everywhere and everything doesn't want to cooperate but with some patience it will work out just make sure that your edges are basically even with the tool this wasn't necessarily cut evenly I wasn't measuring it out or anything but just try and be patient with it and work it with your fingers as much as you can so that it lays out flat and it really helps to make sure your designs I'm going to bunch when you put it on your hoop now your hoop has a little tightening screw on it usually they kind of plastic and wood honestly I don't see the difference in what you use just pick something that you're comfortable with and that is the right size for your machine I'm going to go ahead and pinch both layers or all three layers I should say of the design here and flip it over this is the really tricky part keeping all three layers of fabric flat and smooth while you put your hoop over the top trying to Center that design here we go that's pretty good actually go ahead tighten it a little bit so that it doesn't slip off the hoop so this is the next part is just as important and that is actually making sure that your fabric is tight in the hoop you want to be kinda like a drum you don't want it to be so bouncy like the they're not bouncy but like pushing I guess I'm not actually sure the word user but you want to make sure it's really taut kind of like a drum and that makes sure that there's not going to be too much of bounce of the fabric when you're trying to actually embroider it and this actually is you would do the same thing with a real embroidery machine doing this and I don't know if the camera can capture it but there's little ripples and the fabric through here where it needs to be pulled better on others on other sides you need to just pull on the opposite side like it perpendicular where that wrinkle is occurring for that to just smooth out really nicely almost done yeah that sounds like a girl that's a good sign and it's tight enough all righty make sure it's laying down nice and flat and there's no puckering that is really obviously pleading almost around the edges so that my fabric lays nice and flat looks really good there's a little bit right here but I'm not terribly concerned about it seeing as this design only takes up a little of my fabric I go on ahead and tighten this guy some more usually nicer ones of these tips this one is a really expensive one I actually inherited for my mom but they usually have like a little screw knot right there here for just a regular shoot what are they called regular screwdriver not a Phillips head but the other one haha you just tighten it usually with those little guys and that really gets it down nice and tight but here we are we're ready to start embroidering this guy but first thing we have to do is set up the machine so low on just a second while I read just the camera and I will show you guys right guys to first start setting up the machine it's a good idea to go ahead and put on your quilting foot so I would go on ahead and get your a little your machine should have come with one of these if not just grab a flathead screwdriver I remembered what that was called haha but grab your little piece of a flathead screwdriver thingy that your machine comes with and going ahead and just loosen up the screw there just on the side of the machine right over here I haven't hard to have done this this camera in the way because I can't see her come on camera there we go all righty so I just went ahead and loosen up the little screw I'm going to see if I can alter the camera here angle a little bit but there's a little screw by the bottom right here right here and that's what I'm using to remove the actual foot off the shank of my sewing machine and readjust this guy there we go ahead and loosen that up so I looked up the pressure foot it just comes straight off tada there's my regular sewing foot for my machine I went on ahead and just took off the whole assembly because it's not needed for the quilting foot now the quilting foot has a little plastic sleeve right here that you just basically slip in place on the other side of that shank just like your regular foot should have been unless you have a little fan machine honestly I'm not sure how low shank machines work I've never owned one go ahead and just lower your presser foot to keep the quilting foot in place while you tighten this group and just hand tighten it at first just to make sure that it's in place you can lift up the presser foot a couple times to make sure it's not in a legal way loose and free and then just mechanically tighten the rest of that with your little screwdriver thing after you're done don't do it too tight you don't strip that screw that would be really bad alright so that's it that's the cool thing but on the machine you can see how house on lifting up the pressure foot all the way even on over extended it doesn't honestly lift up this bottom plate too much when you put it down it stays flat basically the whole time now doesn't necessarily touch underneath it doesn't like press down and touch the top of my plate right here but it's close enough that it's going to be helpful and we are actually sewing now put those guys in a set your your actual assembly for your foot you're a regular sewing foot and you're a little screw to everything put those in a safe place you really don't want to lose these the sewing where the quilting foot is not fun so try keep these guys safe now of course the next thing to do is going to be to thread your machine and hopefully I don't have to show you how to do that and you should know how to do that by now but if you don't that's okay I'm sure there's plenty of tutorials online or if you guys want to make you what I'd be happy to I'll go ahead and get that all set up and thread it I should mention that I did put a new needle on my machine I did not record that it is not a lightweight needle as one would suspect it's actually a mid-weight needle for my machine I think it's a size 14 if I remember correctly but when you're doing this with the amber right where you trying to embroider hear some of those thread portions are going to get really thick and you don't want a lightweight needle because that wouldn't go through those thick portions of thread very easily get this through without trimming the end yeah did it stabbing myself good job all right go ahead there we go happy-go-lucky trim those little guys looking good okay so to get your embroidery hoop underneath this it does not gonna fit so what you have to do is you've really got a like angle big hoop and get that edge just right underneath I can use the screw side for some shadowing but lift up the Urim quilting foot with your pinky finger while you have it your shank lifted all the way up as much as you can and go up to get underneath there and it should fit just fine just like that thread up some more good job all right put that pressure foot down okay now if you feel like this stuff your excess tool and everything on the sides is just too much to be around in this area where I trying to work you can trim it back I wouldn't trim it back too much because you still want to be able to grab onto that fabric in case you need to this right here is actually a little bit thin for me right here it's only like and it's a 5/8 of an inch wide and I think that's just a little too little for my taste but regardless getting that all set up so that's good alright now the next thing you really want to make sure you have in your machine is like clanky and around my apologies it's gonna get shaky here for a second but the next thing you really want to be able to set up is going to be the actual stitching my machine here as a oh sorry there we go my machine fiddle focus perfect okay from my machine I just have the up arrows to select these exact stitch which is number three right here and then I'm going to change the width I'm going to make it smaller to about a mm mm let's make it a 3.5 and then as for the length I'm going to make that a 1.5 as well now if you if you can't do that on machine you should be alright you just have to make sure that you're careful and very precise when you're stitching always go slow slow is the best because you have more control that way we'll go ahead and get this camera reset back up and then I will go ahead and start stitching okay I'm going to go ahead and start at the lower leg of the Kokiri symbol just because it makes more sense to me it's the smallest piece on the part and it's still connects to the trunk of the whole design but a really good thing to know when you are actually doing this is that this is how you move it around I mean literally you just move it around by yourself but you want to have a good firm hold on it so that when you're moving it around it just doesn't rambley Ohno goes off to the side you might have to race ditch a certain part of it because you wandered off too much now my presser foot crushers you make pressure foot is down and it's all ready to go so all I need to do is start stitching so here we go nice and slow all right with most sewing you want to use a back stitch to anchor your stitch down but since you are literally the one moving the piece of round it's not really necessary because as you can see I'm using a back and forth large motion here now another thing you might notice I don't know if the camera captures this but this is nice actually tightened up a little bit by the stitching so if you want to use a straight stitch and outline the engineering design first you can do that but for this I don't think it's doing this alright ease I'm getting closer to the tail here I want to make my stitches a lot smaller so that it actually points and it's not just one big line nice Chris point on that there we go I don't nice and slowly Oh sawing down need is like my airway wide my stitch kinda filling these edges really well make it a really crisp design I can see there's a portion right there that needs a little bit more stitching you want to make sure that it's really good and overlapped because if you have very thin portions of thread opposed to very fit portions of thread it's not going to hold up too well to it by itself when you actually rinse out the stabilizer so in this case obviously Moore is going to be better there we go that's looking pretty nice take that around yep I like how that looks I want a little bit more thread right here yeah that's all right next portion I'm going to start on is this main swoosh I'm go ahead and widen my stitch a little bit here now it's really important to go slow around curved sections like this because you naturally just going to go straight but this is obviously a curve so you have to rotate to go around that my thumb okay okay okay so I went ahead and room in stout the stabilizer so I have it the design that I actually embroidered on the tool a really good word of advice with this as soon as you rinse it out it tends to get a little bit wrinkled just because of the rinsing and drying process so I would get an iron and put it on its minimal heat setting so you don't burn the tool always test it on a corner first of course you don't actually melt your design that would be really bad but I just go ahead and iron it out a little bit make it nice and flat it makes it easier to stitch down later and this is the point actually where I would suggest either fusing this to a heating bond or something like that that'll make it a fusible like a feasible patch heat and bond does that it's really cool really like heat and bond it is really helpful for this sort of thing there's different types of heat and bond you can heat and bond it just temporarily so you can stitch it on easily or you can heat and bond it permanently and there's different levels of heat and bond just go to your local fabric store and you should be able to find what you need if you don't one of the assistants they're out they should know a lot and argue they should be able to help you know if you're not going to go the heat and bond route I would really suggest leaving it on the tool like this not all the tool just trim off the unnecessary bits most of the outside edge stuff but I would leave it on the tool so that when you actually stitch it to your project that it doesn't warp in to store it because right now the only reason that this is keeping it shape really is because the tools still holding it all together and even when you trim down the tool and everything it'll still pretty much hold its shape but these likely longer pieces right here can stretch out a lot easier and I've had personal experience with that where it has stretched out so i really suggest leaving it on the tool until you're done stitching it down and then moving the tool of the scissors off the piece but you're stitching it - very carefully of course you don't actually ruin your fabric but I feel like that's an easier way to keep it firm action is stretching out and distorting but otherwise I really hope you guys found this tutorial really helpful of if you've always wondered how people Wow I think at that applique without actually using a sewing machine and embroidery machine well it's easy enough to do with your actual home machine so I really hope you guys enjoyed this and if you have any suggestions for future videos or if you would like to see something particular or hey you did something really terribly or Hank if you did this all right you can just let me know I would really appreciate that guys but I again I really hope you enjoy this and I hope you guys enjoy the rest your day

Channel: Lou R.

Views: 1,441,099

Rating: 4.6025777 out of 5

Keywords: Embroidery (Interest), Sewing Machine (Product Category), Hobby (Interest), Do It Yourself (Hobby), Tutorial (Media Genre), handmade, Sewing (Industry), sewing machine

Id: lFk-PxDct6Y

Length: 27min 45sec (1665 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2015