Use those pattern weights!

Eliminate tedious pinning by using pattern weights! Pattern weights are small pieces of heavy metal encased in fabric. They are round in shape and slightly flexible. You can use them to hold down your template while you trace it or to hold your pattern onto the fabric while you cut it with scissors or a rotary cutter.

Place them on your sewing instruction book to hold it open. Keep your sewing and embroidery notes from flying away by holding them down with a weight. Use these weights as a paperweight at your desk or in the kitchen to hold open a recipe book. With the many varieties of uses, you will want more than one package! These little weights are great for many things!

Where can you stitch on a shirt?

There are so many designs that can be stitched on shirts to wear. Not only are the embroidery designs great in number, but also the places where they can be stitched. The first place we often think of stitching a design on a shirt is in the center front or left front.

But have you tried stitching on the sleeve or down the placket? What about the tip of the collar or the yoke in the back? There are many places to stitch embroidery designs that can make your designs look so creative and neat!

Busy with shirts and more shirts

The last couple of days (and more days to come later in July) I have been stitching company logos on shirts for a local business. These shirts were actually fun to do since I could match the thread colors with the colors in the shirts.

The plaid shirts turned out neat as I stitched a small logo on the collar and a larger logo on the short right sleeve. But after stitching over 20 shirts with the same design, I have to say I'm glad they are done and finished!

Selecting Embroidery Thread Colors

One of the great benefits of machine embroidery is being able to choose your own thread colors for whatever design and fabric you are using. Many designs can be stitched in one color or only a couple of colors. One fun thing to do is to take lettering and match the colors of the fabric to the thread.

In this design, I matched the mint green background in the shirt to the shading of the lettering. The blue thread for the majority of the lettering matches the blue flowers in the shirt fabric. This logo design creates a professional touch to the shirt without drawing too much attention to it. The colors you decide to put in your embroidery designs can greatly effect the image you want your design to portray. Have fun choosing thread colors and keep in mind the mental image you want the colors to represent!