Blog posts tagged with 'in the hoop'

Journal and book covers are quick and easy projects and are perfect for showing of your embroidery! They also make great gifts and can be customized for almost anyone of any age.

PROJECT NOTES

For these samples, I used designs from Victorian Crazy Patch in the Hoop. Related YouTube videos are available for stitching the designs and making the cover:

• How to Sew a Journal Cover
• How to Stitch Victorian Crazy Piecing In-the-Hoop

These links were correct at the time of this writing. If they don’t work, please visit my YouTube channel to locate them: https://www.youtube.com/ lindeegvideos

These covers were made for standard composition books but you can make them for just about any book by changing the measurements.

Mine are just basic covers with sleeves on the inside to secure the book covers. I’ve added a ribbon for a book mark, a narrow elastic to secure the book closed, and a wider elastic loop to hold a pen.

The inside sleeves ofer more real estate for extra pockets and personalizing. Plan for any extra embroidery because you may need to complete that before final cutting to size.

SUPPLIES

• Fabrics for project (you’ll need to determine what you need based on how many fabrics you use and how large your book is)
• Cove
• Lining
• Sleeves
• Pockets
• Interfacing. I just used Pellon ShirTailor for mine but you may want something stifer.
• ¾” wide elastic (or a fabric loop) for the pen holder (~2½” or circumference of your pen plus ⅝”)
• ¼” wide elastic to hold the journal closed (height of book + 1”)
• Ribbon for book mark (about 3” longer than height of book)
• Optional: charm for bottom of ribbon
• Basic sewing supplies

START BY MEASURING

You’ll need several measurements:

• Height of your book cover
• Width of book measured around the circumference of the closed book from front edge around the spine to the back edge (not a full circumference)

This book is 9¾” tall by 15½” wide. Add 1” to both the height and width for your cutting size. Cut one piece for the cover and a second one for the lining.

Although we’ll only be using ¼” seams, we’ll need a little extra room for ease. When cutting the front cover fabric, I added a 2” extension to the right side for hooping and an extra ½” on the other sides for squaring up after stitching.

• Inside sleeve depth, which will depend somewhat on how wide your book can open and how thick your book is. The wider your sleeves, the more difcult it will be to get the cover on your book. Also, you need at least a 3” space between the sleeves along the spine to turn the project right side out. (More if your fabrics are thick or heavily interfaced.)

I cut my sleeves to 14” wide by 10¾” tall. Fold each sleeve in half, wrong sides together for a 7” x 10¾ size, then edge stitch along the folded edge.

INTERFACING

While not strictly required, interfacing will make your project look more professional by adding structure and will help it wear longer.

Fusible interfacings are easy to use. Be sure to follow the pressing directions included with your project.

I interfaced the outer cover with Pellon ShirTailor, which is a medium light interfacing, before embroidering. I also interfaced the lining piece and one side of each sleeve. I didn’t interface any of my pockets.

The striped pocket was cut 10” wide and folded just like the sleeve and top stitched along the edge. The top pocket is narrower and was stitched to the striped pocket to form several smaller pockets. (Pockets weren’t interfaced.)

On other journal covers, I’ve just placed one small pocket for business cards. Consider making a larger, clear vinyl pocket for an ID pocket if you’re making a cover for a student.

PREPARING TO SEW

Cut all your pieces to size, interfacing as desired. As mentioned earlier, you’ll want to complete any embroidery before cutting to make sure you have enough fabric for proper hooping. Also, embroidery can distort your fabric so having extra fabric to square up is a good idea.

Sleeves and long pockets are folded in half right sides together and edge stitched along fold. Attach any pockets to the sleeve panels.

Patch pockets are edge stitched in place. Pockets that extend into the seam allowances can be stay-stitched into place.

If you want curved corners, use your book to trace the corners in place. Remember to trace them on the seam line and not just around the book itself.

ASSEMBLING

When I took these step-by-step photos, I was working from the front cover. However, in the video, you’ll see me working from the lining side.

Working from the lining side seems a little easier because you are layering all the elements face up with only the outer cover face down. Plus, you can do all the stay stitching in just one pass. It really makes no diference to the fnal project which way you work.

STAY STITCHING

Stay stitching is another thing the pros do to reinforce various areas that are likely to get more abuse, such as the bookmark ribbon, elastics and pockets.

Stay stitching is done within the seam allowance. On the ribbon and elastics, I stitched forward, back and then forward again for extra security. On the pockets I just stitched them down once Stay stitching in this manner has the added beneft of holding everything in place when you have so many layers to stitch through.

Place your ribbon pretty side face down if applying to the front, face up if working from the lining side.

I only inserted one piece of elastic to hold the book closed. However, you could add a second to the back and then use the elastics to hold the book open to a specifc page.

Finally, layer on the lining, face down and then stitch around the outside edge using a ¼” seam allowance, leaving an opening on the bottom edge between the sleeves for turning.

Trim the corner seam allowances to reduce bulk. Turn right side out through the opening, taking care to push out the corners smoothly. Press well, tucking in the seam allowances at the opening; edge stitch closed.

WHOOPS!

Did your sleeves or pockets end up on the outside instead of the inside? Don’t panic! This can happen during turning. Simply flip them over to the inside.

OPTIONAL

Add a small charm or bead or just tie a knot at the end of the ribbon.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH!

Now all we need to do is dress our book. Fold back the covers and slide them into the sleeves, then pull on the cover.

NOW THAT YOU’VE MADE ONE, MAKE ANOTHER!

Once you’ve got your measurements worked out, making multiples for books of the same size is pretty speedy.

Having an embroidery machine along with some basic sewing skills makes it easy to make a gift stash so that you always have some little something on hand. Finger tip towels, kitchen towels, and journal covers are perfect for stocking that stash because they’re small, quick and easy to make, and can appeal to a wide range of people without having to deal with sizes!

Piecing in the hoop replicates the process of foundation piecing, also known as paper piecing. If you’ve done foundation piecing with the sewing machine, you will immediately grasp the concept. While a little more intensive than regular embroidery, this technique really only requires attention to detail.

Use the patterns to pre-cut all your pieces. You can spray templates with TESA, swipe with a glue stick, or print on fusible paper and apply to the front of your fabric pieces for cutting. Be sure to keep the pattern piece attached until ready to place the fabric in the hoop to avoid using the wrong piece.

Skill Level

Basic embroidery and rotary cutting skills

All squares finish the same even though their dimensions may vary slightly due to some stitching lines extending beyond the finished seam line. Similarly, all small triangles finish to the same size and large triangles are the same size.

What You’ll Need

• Suitable fabrics for blocks, pre-washed and pressed (Tip: If fabrics are especially soft, starching can reduce distortion when stitching.)
• Printed block patterns and templates
• Rotary cutter, quilting ruler, and mat
• TESA (Temporary embroidery spray adhesive) or water-soluble fabric glue stick
• Stabilizer—I used Sulky Soft n Sheer. You’ll be using heat to press the pieces in place and water-soluble fiber stabilizers can shrink with heat.
• Appliqué tacking iron
• Double curve appliqué scissors
• An embroidery machine with a minimum sewing field of 5.75” x 5.75” for the blocks

What’s Included with the Collection

• Twenty-two designs digitized for piecing in the hoop
• Full size patterns and templates for each block
• Color sequence PDF with images of sample block
• This instructional PDF
• Quilt-As-You-Go Basics ebook
• PDF for making a journal cover
• Basic notes for

Watch How-Tos on YouTube

If you’ve never done piece-in-the hoop or paper piecing before, the process can seem overly complicated.

You can watch me stitch the heart from this set in the following YouTube video:

• How to Stitch Victorian Crazy Piecing In-the-Hoop
Also, please check the website for new projects using these designs as well as specials and informative blog posts. At the time of this writing, there are two blog posts on this set:
• How To Embroider Victorian Crazy Patch In-The-Hoop
• How To Make An Embroidered Journal Cover

Preliminary Notes

If you’ve done foundation or paper piecing, you’ll notice there are a few variations:

1. In paper piecing, fabric is applied to the back side of the printed pattern and the sewing is done on the printed side. When embroidering pieced blocks, all sewing is done from the fabric side.
2. In paper piecing, excess fabric is trimmed off as you go by folding back the pattern and rotary cutting. When embroidering pieced blocks, excess fabric is trimmed off as you go with double-curved appliqué scissors.

Understanding the Patterns

Each design in this set except the border has a PDF pattern sheet.

For the border, cut 22 pieces 8” x 1”; the pieces are applied from the top down.

All pattern pieces are numbered with an arrow pointing to the side that will be initially attached.

This number indicates what order the pieces will be applied.

The first piece has a reminder to place it face up; all other pieces will be placed face down (right sides together)

Exact cutting is not required but I recommend not getting too sloppy about it. The outer edges have a ½” seam allowance while all the inner seam lines are ¼”. This extra bit gives you some “fudge factor” around the outside.

There are no digital cutter files included with this set, only the PDF for hand cutting. Because of the variety of fabrics you’ll be using and the simple straight line shapes and the fact that these aren’t appliques that require precise cutting, I found it easier just to cut these pieces with a rotary cutter or scissors.

Understanding the Color Sequences

All the designs except the border sew in generally the same order:

1. A placement line is sewn that indicates the seam line for the finished blocks. This line will only be seen from the back of the project.
2. Color 2 sews a numbered guideline for the placement of all the pieces. The seam lines will be sewn directly over these lines.
3. Color 3 is an “edge guide” to help you with placing the fabrics. This line is set at a 1/4” offset from the seam lines. This is a handy reference particularly if you aren’t very precise with cutting or placing your pieces as it can tell you right away if you’re fabric isn’t going to get caught in the next seam.
4. Color 4 will tack down the first piece of fabric in the design. This piece is always placed face up.
5. Before color 5, place piece 2 face down along the indicated line. (Refer to the included pattern guide.) Color 5 sews the seam line.
6. Before color 6, flip the fabric over and finger press the fabric smooth and flat. You can hold the fabric in place with a bit of glue stick. Color 7 will sew a tack down that will get covered by subsequent pieces or be enclosed within the seam allowance.

Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all the pieces are placed. Although I’ve set different colors in the design, I typically sew all of this first part in 1 color. The extra colors are to force the machine to stop.

It’s totally possible to stop the design at this point; all the piecing is done and your block can be used as is (exception is the heart, which requires the next to last color to stitch the appliqué).

The remainder of the design is all the decorative stitching. I’ve used a variety of colors here for flexibility. Color stops not only make it easy for you to match threads to your fabrics, they also make it easy to skip or delete areas.

Refer to the included color sequence guide for additional color information.

All seams are double pass so there is no need to use construction thread for the piecing steps. You may want to use polyester embroidery thread instead of rayon for strength.

Preparation

1. Print the pattern pieces.

Open the corresponding design PDF in Acrobat and print the full size pattern and corresponding pattern templates. Make sure Acrobat does not scale the pattern. For your convenience, a 1” square is printed on the first page of each block’s templates for easy verification.

You might want to print 2 copies: 1 for cutting and 1 for placement reference while stitching.

2. Cut your fabrics.

Loosely cut out the patterns, swipe the back with a glue stick and press it to the front of your fabric. Cut out neatly.

While absolute precision is not required, avoid getting too careless with your cutting and making the pieces too large or too small.

3. Hoop the stabilizer.

Piecing in the hoop is a floated technique. Because of all the extra embellishments, a tearaway may break down during stitching in some areas. And, since the designs are relatively open and delicate, tearaways can be difficult to remove.

On similar projects I’ve used heat fusible to hold the pieces after stitching but I didn’t for these designs.

Hooping a thin stabilizer may not be secure in your hoop. If it isn’t use some method to make sure it won’t slip. I prefer duct tape for this.

4. Stitch the placement lines.

The first 3 colors are placement guides.

Color one outlines the seam line. Use this as a reference for cutting your finished pieces. Note that after stitching it may no longer be straight due to push and pull.

Color 2 defines the stitching lines along with sequence numbers and color 3 indicates a ¼” seam allowance.

Sew these in color that won’t bleed through your fabrics but can still be seen. The numbers are within seam allowances and will be covered by several layers of fabric. Indeed, they are likely to be covered by the time you have to place the corresponding piece to having a copy of the pattern by your side as you stitch is a handy reference.

Note that none of these colors are required and can be skipped, which is why they are all separate colors.

5. Place piece 1.

On all designs in this set, piece one is placed face up. On the border design only, piece 2 is also placed at this time, face down (noted on color sequence guide)

The next color will do a zigzag tack down to secure this piece in place

6. Place piece 2.

All subsequent pieces will be aligned, placed face down, and stitched along the seam.

After stitching, the piece will be flipped over, pressed into place and then secured by a tack-down stitch via the next color.

7. Continue with the remainder of the pieces.

All remaining pieces are applied in the exact same manner: check alignment, place face down, stitch, flip, press, and tack down.

8. Sew the decorative stitches.

Once again you’ll have many color changes. Choose colors that work well with your fabrics.

Extra color changes mean more flexibility. It’s easy to skip one at the machine delete them in software.

9. Trim to size.

When the design is complete, remove from hoop, place face down on a cutting mat and trim to size using the seam reference (color 1) as a guide.

Exceptions

The first and last design have a few differences.

The first design is a heart and is finished as an appliqué. The last two colors of the design are the finishing edge around the heart. Before those colors sew, remove the hoop from the machine and trim off any fabric beyond the tack down.

The last design in the set creates the striped border. All the pieces are identical and numbered placement guide is omitted. The guides for this design are the raw edge of the seam allowance.

Because this design is simpler, pieces one and two are placed together with piece on the bottom face up and piece two on the top face down. Only the seams are stitched and are double pass as in the other blocks.

Project Notes

Full instructions are included for the journal covers.

For the quilt, I stitched all 5 of the squares, the 4 large triangles and 4 small triangles. I stitched each one through the batting.

For the borders, I stitched two hoops of the border, stitched them together on the sewing machine to form one long strip and then rotary cut them in four 1¾” strips.

The blocks were pieced together using a quilt-as-you-go method with 1” strips of sashing (½” finished) using the twin sashing strip method after adding a backing fabric to each block. See the included Quilt-As-You-Go Basics ebook for more details.

(Some items included with the set art not available with individual design purchases.)

Summary

Piecing in the hoop produces a highly consistent and accurate result provided you follow the steps precisely!

Detailed instructions and patterns are not included with individual design fle downloads. Please refer to the color sequence information for a basic guideline for stitching. You can print the design using any embroidery software to make a template. For a fully illustrated step-by-step tutorial formatted for printing along with actual size printable patterns, please purchase the full collection. Free instructions can be found in the following blog posts:

• One Hoop Wonder: An In-the-Hoop Zippered Accessory Bag
• How to Make a Quick & Easy ITH Mini-Zip Bag
• How to Customize A Basic In-the-Hoop Project to Make Your Own Designer Bag

HOW TO DETERMINE FABRIC SIZES FOR ANY BAG IN THIS SERIES

1. Using your embroidery software, print the design at the actual size. You’ll use this as a pattern to cut all your pieces.

2. If you don’t have any software, then stitch out color 1 on the cutaway to use as a template and add the same seam allowances.

3. I added an extra quarter inch to the sides and top and an extra half inch along the bottom for seam allowances. Precision cutting is not required, just don’t make them too small

4. The outer line is the initial placement line, and the final seam allowance is a mere 2mm inside this line so cutting them larger than I did for the photo sequence makes the final steps easier. The measurements listed here and shown on the cut-out pattern pieces to the right are sufficient and will work for the other bags that use this construction technique.

5. Batting may be cut slightly smaller than the placement lines to reduce bulk in seam allowances. Batting is only cut for the front pieces and as a single layer (not on the fold)

Appliqué is a very versatile machine embroidery technique. Creating free-standing ornaments is fun and easy!

Skill Level

These instructions assume that you already know how to work with templates printed on fusible tearaway, a method I use most often for machine embroidered appliqué. If you’ve never used this technique, detailed instructions are included in the Appliqué Basics pdf that is included with most Lindee G Embroidery appliqué collections

What You’ll Learn

• How to use simple yet creative techniques to expand your embroidery options
• How to make double-sided free-standing designs with appliqués

Selecting a Design

This technique works best when the satin cover stitching that finishes the appliqué sews last, as it so happens in the gingerbread designs on Gingery Christmas. There are 4 small ginger cookie appliqué designs and 4 larger ones that work well with these instructions.

You’ll also want to select a design that does not have any stitching extending beyond the fabric appliqué area. If you’re using the “bitten cookie” versions, the crumbs will be lost during the finishing process.

If you are using other appliqué designs, you may want to resequence some stitching or wind matching bobbins for each color change in your design so that the back looks as good as the front.

What You’ll Need

• Small scraps of fabric for front and back of appliqué
• Cutaway stabilizer (medium to heavy weight)
• Washaway stabilizer (fiber, not film)
• Light-weight tearaway stabilizer for printing templates
• Double-stick (pressure sensitive) fusible web for appliqué (Steam-A-Seam II or Pellon Easy Steam II)
• 6-8” piece of ribbon for hanger
• Cellophane tape
• Small gingerman design from Gingery Christmas by Lindee G Embroidery with templates
• Suitable embroidery threads
• Regular embroidery bobbin thread
• Bobbin of matching thread for the outer gingerbread color (last color in these designs)
• Temporary embroidery spray adhesive (“TESA”)

Print templates onto fusible tearaway and loosely cut around shapes to separate. (See technique in the Appliqué Basics instructions if aren’t familiar with this process.)

Fuse a piece of cutaway to the back of each piece of appliqué fabric using fusible web. Press one template to front of one fabric and one to cutaway of other fabric to make a reversible ornament.

While the cutaway isn’t strictly necessary, it adds extra body and dimension to the design.

Cut out appliqués just to the outside edge of the pattern lines

Hoop 2 pieces of washaway stabilizer. Sew first color of design (outline).

Fold a loop of ribbon in half, place cut edges within top outline about 1/2”. Tape in place out of range of needle.

Spray back of top piece with TESA. Remove template from piece and position in hoop within outline.

Inspect the design to see if any areas extend beyond the tack down and trim off.

Don’t sew last color! The last color attaches the back of the ornament.

Remove the hoop from machine. Spray cutaway side of back appliqué with TESA, remove paper template, position appliqué in place, reset the hoop, replace the bobbin with the matching thread, and sew last color.

Trim off excess stabilizer close to the stitching. Remove remaining bits with damp paint brush or sponge. It is not necessary to soak out the remaining stabilizer