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Wrap Your Machine in Style!

You love fabric.  You love thread.  You love to personalize everything.  After all, that’s what our skills are all about.  We don’t have to settle for anything.  Want to change the neckline of a tee?  Done. Want to splash embroidery over a pillow? Done.  Want to transform a window?  Done. Want to make over your sewing machine?  Now, you can!

If you have a Bernina, you can transform it into a piece of art.  (Ok, ok, all you Bernina lovers, I know, it already is a work of art!).  Check it out for yourself – go to http://www.berninausa.com/DesignSkins and click on Click to Start. It’s easy to customize the skin, but be careful it’s addictive. Not only you can use Bernina’s beautiful images but you can upload any photo – just make sure it’s under 5 MB and larger than 100kb.  File formats are jpg, png and gif.  The price is reasonable – under $40.00 and proceeds go to Cancer research.

I had a lot of fun – doing this. I decorated four machines then asked my staff to personalize one of their own.  Here’s what a few key strokes did for our machines (click on images to make bigger):

Eileen’s machine makeovers!

Denise’s machine makeovers!

Lorraine’s Machine Makeovers:

Stephanie’s Machine Makeovers:

Sam’s Machine Makeover:

Amanda’s Machine Makeover:

Visit http://www.berninausa.com/DesignSkins to give your machine a makeover!

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28 COMMENTS

  • Bertie L Stringfellow

    I have trouble with towels, I follow all the directions and still have trouble. I was hooping stablizer only for a while, now I am trying to hoop the towel and everything. Always worry the towel will pop out……

  • LeAnne Law

    I have trouble hooping sweatshirts or anything that I have to get close to an armhole or the shoulder. Since I am not a garment sewer, the thought of ripping out a seam and having to restitch it terrifies me.

  • Elsie Jarry

    The makeovers on the machines was very innovated but I think I will stick to my the way it came from the manufactor. I am always wanting to learn new techniques and enjoy my magazine (Designs in Machine Embroidery) for the up to date articles and new ways to look at embroidery. I have the magna hoops which helps me do a perfect hooping every time.

  • Mary Garland

    I think my biggest hooping challenge is when I use a polar fleece blanket. I don’t want to use a sticky stabilizer because it leaves a residue on the back of the blanket. But I then have trouble making it stay still in the hoop. It seems to swim around when stitching. The embroidery then sinks into the plushness and it doesn’t look very good. I know … practice, practice, practice. I’ll get the hang of it eventually.

  • Enis Blizman

    Oh, hooping challenges — well, that would be small items for me — baby socks, cuffs, ribbon and the like. I have the hardest time keeping them in place.

    Oh, and love the machine make overs. Just so creative!

  • Judy Inhoff

    I have trouble hooping thick items like towels or sweatshirts. Thanks for a chance to win some threads.

  • mitzi

    My biggest hooping challenge is sock cuffs….and lining up multiple hooped designs. Love the Bernina skins – wish it was available for my Artista!

  • Jennifer Mead

    My biggest hopping challenge so far, although I am still fairly new at machine embroidery, is denim. I LOVE embroidery on denim, but cannot seem to get it right, whether hooping the denim or using adhesive to place the denim on stabilizer.

  • Shirley Hill

    My hooping challenge is lining up multi-hooped designs. My machine maximum design is 5″ X 7″ and I am “multi-hooped” challenged!

  • Karin

    My biggest hooping challenge is pre-made jacket fronts and sleeves/socks. I’d LOVE to be able to do little girls’ socks, but between the itty-bitty cuffs and the fact that they’re usually big time distorted by the time I finish, I just go buy ’em already embroidered instead. And as many greens as I have, it seems I never have just the right one (or 2 or 4). Thanks for the opportunity to win some more!

  • Susan Spiers

    Even though I haven’t done a lot of machine embroidery, my biggest challenge was in using the right stabilizer, when hooping, to get professional results. My first mistake was using iron-on stabilizer on silky materials, bad idea – but I’m learning! Thanks for this great giveaway!

  • Jackie

    My most challenging hooping is hoodies, really anything that is zippered or buttoned. I get one side perfectly aligned and the other side looks perfect but once stitched and zipped up is a smidget off, of course everyone says it’s perfect but everytime I look in the mirror it looks off.
    I’m with Susan as well, I’m sure I’ve used the correct stabilizer but I’ve been known to be wrong.

  • Jean Beckstrom

    My problem is remembering to float that extra piece of stabilizer under the project before actually beginning to sew out the design. When I feel I have enough in the hoop and just need that little extra to make sure there is a correct weight stabilizer enough for the stitch count, I usually float that extra piece under the hoop. It gets picked up and carried along. I hate when I forget it and start without it.

  • Laurie

    Towels are my biggest challenge too. It never fails if I have a few to do, one will always end up being slightly crooked, no matter how much time I spend trying to center it! And as everyone knows removing stitches from towels is not fun nor easy to do!

  • Cindy Davies

    My biggest hooping challenge is multiple hoopings. There is also the challenges of hooping towels, and tshirts. I have not done a whole lot of embroidery so I welcome any kind of instruction.

  • Kathy Meyers

    Two things I do are hard to hoop. The first one is towels. I like to use the sticky stabilizer so the towel doesn’t move, but trying to get the stabilizer off without pulling the loops on the towel is horrendous!!

    Baby things are equally hard to hoop. They are so small you usually have to turn them inside out and then hold the item.. like onesies… the whole time the design is sewing. I have accidentally sewn a few onesies together making them sacks instead of onesies! LOL

  • Gail Beam

    I gave up on multihoop designs as I could never get them aligned correctly, no matter how many different methods I tried. I never hoop towels, but use a sticky stabilizer and the fix stitch. The only problem with this is that it is often difficult to pick off the stabilzer, as it tends to pull on the loops of the towel. Embroiderying on small t shirts is difficult as it is hard to keep the rest of the t shirt from getting under the design that is being embroidered. I rarely hoop anything, but prefer to use a stitcky stabilizer and the fix stitch as there are no hoop marks with this method.
    Thanks for the chance to win some great thread!
    Gail

  • Katrina

    I always find small baby onesies tricky!

  • Melinda

    Hats are my biggest problem. I have a hat hoop, but somehow, I still have problems. Getting the design centered and straight and having it stay flat. I cringe when I’m asked to embroider a hat because I know I’ll have issues or stress out about it.

  • Vicki

    My biggest hooping challenge has nothing to do with the fabric. Unfortunately my machine hoops are fairly small so I have to do a lot of multiple hooping in order to do the designs in a size I prefer. I have finally settled on a sticky stabilizer to make the task of lining up the parts of the design manageable for me. I use sticky back stabilizer for hooping heavy or bulky fabrics too. It helps control stretching and hoop burn.

  • Kimberlee

    I have a small embroidery hoop size, so hooping stuff isn’t too hard, until I go to hoop something with some thickness to it. I do embroidery on saddle pads for horses, and find that it takes me a lot of time to hoop the cutaway/tearaway, and then make sure the pad is lined up with the arrow marks on my hoop since the saddle pad is much larger than my hoop, LOL.

    I would love to win the green threads, just in time for Christmas designs!

    ~Kimberlee
    [email protected]

  • Cheryl Ruhnke

    My biggest hooping challenge has been finding my hoops!
    They always seemed to be scattered in my sewing room ,under fabric, by my machine or the inner hoop one place and the outer another place.So I got creative and purchased those sticky hooks like (on Command) and attached it to the side of my bookcase near my hooping station or could be put on the wall.Now I can see them and find them easily and they are out of the way and no holes in the wall , plus I can easily rearrange them for if and when I get other hoops.

  • Debbie

    Onesies for sure, and garments. I am like many I am not a garment sewing so the thought of taking out seams, I once had to go back to the store four times when I was doing a design for my oldest daughter on a T-shirt. I finally learn with the onesies to turn them inside out and make a little nest, by the way I learn that from the Sewing with Nancy show on machine embroidery.

  • Rebecca Grace

    OH-MA-GOSH!! Eileen, I’m GIDDY with the possibilities! My sewing machine can have a Fall Harvest outfit, a Halloween outfit, a Lady In Red outfit, and of course some animal skins for those wild, late nights of sewing… I think you’ve created a monster! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  • BibiG

    MITERED CORNERS

    I too had been wondering how to make mitered corners on quilts, etc. Fortunately, on the “Sewing with Nancy” program, Nancy showed how to get perfectly mitered corners on quilts. I saved the show on my DVR. It is called “Already to Cut, Ready to Quilt,” and it’s from 2008. Unfortunately, I stopped it before I got the episode number. Maybe you’ll be able to find it if you call them or on their website. Good luck!

  • Jean Cardinal

    About 3 years ago, I began to embroider blocks for a Night Before Christmas quilt. The first few blocks went beautifully. The next one was so dense that the needles kept breaking. I know this must be a stabilizer problem, but wasn’t able to figure it out. I don’t have the software to make the designs less dense, but have tried various needles and added stabilizers none of which worked any better. I have put the whole project on hold hoping that soon I will find a solution.

  • Bronwyn

    Tell me who makes the difference in your hobby? Is there someone you turn to for help, for inspiration or even mechanical assistance? Tell me your story by leaving a comment and you just might win

    My girlfriend Monica is who gave me the inspiration to even start embroidering. everytime i get in trouble its a phone all to her and she helps out. when i needed help with some t-shirts, she was there. even when she was going through major medical, she was still there ..thankyou

  • Phyllis Hiles

    My biggest challenge would have to be when I am doing applique and take the hoop off the machine to trim, it pops out of the hoop. I have a really hard time getting it lined up correctly.