Machine Embroidery: 2010

Monday, December 13, 2010

Machine embroidery community

Are you a newbie or an expert in machine embroidery, sewing and all things crafty? Do you have questions you would like to ask? Do you have wisdom to share? If so pop on over to http://www.eembroiderydesigns.com/forum/ and join in the conversation.

Friday, December 3, 2010

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When purchasing machine embroidery designs there are a few things that you should keep in mind. The first thing you must ensure is that the design you are purchasing will fit into you embroidery hoop. When you are downloading from a website the design information should be displayed with the design. It is good idea if you know your hoop sizes in both metric and imperial. for example a 4′x4″ hoop is the approximate equivalent to a 100mm x 100mm.

As embroidery design downloads are available from a very large number of websites it makes it so much easier to simply grab that one design that you are looking for without having to pay $100 or more for a CD that contains a multitude of designs you may never use. However buyer beware, there is nothing more disappointing than searching the internet for hours 2 or 3 days before an event for that special design for a gift, finally finding what you are looking for, stitching it out and it is poorly digitized the design is useless and you don't have your gift. Here are some tips to help you avoid this very frustrating experience. Firstly I can't stress this enough and embroidery is not an embroidery until it is stitched out, so if you are not looking at a photograph of the stitched design be very wary. I am not saying that these designs will never be any good I am just saying you can't be sure. A design can look OK in the digitizing software but may not stitch well due to stitching order and other factors. If you look at the image of the design you should be able to see the sheen of the thread and you will see that it is stitched on fabric. If it is an image taken from the digitizing software you will be able to tell if you look carefully.

The next tip is this, if you have come across a website with a selection of designs that you like check for the free designs, most embroidery design websites will offer a selection of free embroidery designs, download one or two of the freebies and stitch them out. Mostly you won't get the digitizers best work in the free sections but you will get a good idea of the quality of the designs in general. It is a good idea to keep a record of where you got your embroidery design downloads from and bookmark the website. this way you will be able to find it again if you like the digitizers work.

For a fun selection of embroidery designs check out E embroidery designs