Have you ever thought about how many embroidery designs you actually own? I know I try not to. I do however try to make the most of my current designs by eliminating certain elements or changing the appliqué option into an outline. Appliqué is a great technique to use when you are trying to cover a mistake or stitch a large size design without a high stitch count. However, it does take some patience and time to select the fabrics and trim excess fabric during the stitching process.
Recently I purchased an adorable pontoon boat embroidery design for a client and used the same design on tote bags and terry cloth towels. I had two reasons for eliminating the appliqué fabric. First, I was leaving for vacation in a matter of hours and needed to get the order out the door. Second, I thought the wear and tear of a tote bag (for a boat owner) would be more practical without fabric.
On my multi-needle embroidery machine I quickly changed the colors accordingly to “pop” on the different color tote bags and towels. The black tote bag was stitched with a gray thread color for the pontoon portion and on the white tote bag I used black thread for the pontoon section.
The terry cloth navy blue towels were embroidered with the appliqué fabric and will hold up well with repeat laundering because I pre-washed the appliqué fabrics and dark colored towels. I also suggest testing the design before stitching it on the final product to check the density.
Take a look at some of your current designs and use the tools in your embroidery software to change or alter the design as needed. I choose to delete the placement and tack down thread colors so the machine would only embroider the final satin stitch colors. As multi-needle embroidery machine owners we have the technology to quickly change the thread colors in an embroidery design right at our finger tips.
5 COMMENTS
Gail Beam
9 years agoLove the boat design and changing the applique design to an embroidery design turned out so neat.
Saundra Romanus
9 years agoWhen you do an applique on terry when do you place the topping on the design?
eileenroche
9 years agoI place the water soluble topper on the terry before stitching color 1, the placement guide. The placement guide will tack it down. Next, I add the applique fabric and stitch color 2, the applique tack down. The water soluble topper is sandwiched between the applique and terry and will protect the terry while I trim the applique.
MJ
9 years agoSuch a nice and seemingly obvious idea, but I don’t usually think of something like this. Thank you so much!!
suba suba
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