The Embroidery Sewing Machine

Some of you will know that my mum and I share an embroidery sewing machine. It usually lives at mum's and she is three hours car journey away from me, so I don't get to play with it very often. It is a complicated little beast and each time I go and play I have to learn how to do it all over again. I am on annual leave at the moment and the beast is living at my house. One of the main reasons for having the machine is so that we can both make tidy hands for dolls. We both find it difficult to make them using an ordinary sewing machine. I now have a fool proof method of preparing dolls patterns and turning them into patterns that can be read by the machine. I've also created a set of videos so we can both review them when we have forgotten to how to do it. I've stitched a pair of arms with it today and will be putting them together with the rest of the body tomorrow.

The other thing I have done is prepare a vermicelli pattern and also some shapes to make brooches (pins) and necklaces.

This is still work in progress. You need to use stabilizers in the hoops when using such a machine. It stops it from puckering. I used a layer of water soluble stabilizer followed by a layer of white silk. Next came some fabric and thread scraps, along with bits from a white plastic netting bag. Purple organza was then put on top along with another layer of stabilizer to complete the sandwich.

The vermicelli pattern is one that I designed and converted into a sewing machine pattern. I stitched it in purple and then moved the pattern two stitches to the right and stitched it again in pale blue. I fancy doing a small piece with vermicelli where I move the pattern a few stitches along and change thread each time until it gets too thick to work with. Finally, I created another pattern of shapes, added a layer of felt to the bottom of the sandwich and used the machine to satin stitch around the edges. These will now have some beads added and probably some stiffening. The finished results will be posted here some time soon.