Blog posts tagged with 'sewing'

Elegant or cute and whimsical, the choice is yours! These in-the-hoop mini stockings take only small bits of fabric and are quick to make. They’re perfect for your holiday table or for mini treat bags.

This set includes 9 stockings that can be completed in the hoop with just one hooping. Each stocking is fully lined with no exposed seams. The cuff is free at the bottom, the way a cuff on a sock would be.

Four additional designs are included for adding text to the cuff. These must be stitched separately and before the main stocking. Matt down stitching is included for stitching on textured fabric. Skip this color change if not needed.

The stockings can be completed in a 130 x 180mm ( “5x7”) sewing field hoop. The personalized cuffs will work in a 100 x 100mm (“4x4”) sewing field hoop.

Skill Level

While this project is simple, it has a lot of steps and you’ll need to pay close attention to what goes where and when.

Some of the stockings include appliqué. If you aren’t familiar with this technique, you might want to watch this video: How to do Machine Embroidered Applique.

Please read through all instructions before starting your project! This project, while complex, is not really difficult because the embroidery takes care of all the construction. Cut and place carefully and you’ll have a successful result!

 Resizing is not recommended

Fabric Choices

I used a mixture of quilt weight cottons and polar fleece. For most of the stockings, I applied a thin cotton batting behind the front. Stockings that didn’t include batting were interfaced.

The cutting list included in the design worksheet calls for folding the cuff wrong sides together before stitching to the front of the stocking. If you use polar fleece, this will add a lot of bulk and it will be harder to get the stocking front smooth and flat.

Since this type of fleece doesn’t ravel, you can use just a single layer. With this method, you could cut the free (bottom) edge of the cuff with a decorative edge, as shown below

The key when choosing and preparing your fabrics is to keep in mind that the stitched project needs to be turned inside out twice so be aware of how thick and how stiff your fabrics are. For example, on the Santa because I used polar fleece for the beard so I omitted the batting and just interfaced the fabric.

Threads

I used mostly polyester embroidery thread. The holly design would look gorgeous in metallic. I did use gold metallic on Santa’s glasses.

About the Appliques

Applique patterns are included for the stocking shape as well as other elements for some of the designs. I did not precut the stocking shape. For the other pieces, I precut if I was using quilt cottons and applied fusible web to the back

Fusible web cannot be used on polar fleece so for Santa’s beard, I chose to use the trim-inplace method

About the Designs

Each design has a worksheet with a color sequence, actual size appliqué patterns, plus sewing and cutting instructions. Once you’re familiar with these more complete instructions, you should be able to follow the worksheet notes.

The stocking steps are the same for each design. The decorative parts all start with color 4. Assembling and finishing the stocking are the last 3 colors. I recommend you try making the Plain Stocking first so that you understand the in-the-hoop steps.

There are 9 stocking designs and 4 cuff designs. If you want an embroidered cuff, you need to sew that separately and before the stocking. The cuff design assumes you will be folding the fabric. Use this design as a placement guide if you wish to personalize cuffs with names

What You’ll Need

• Suitable fabrics, pre-washed and pressed. I used quilt-weight cottons and polar fleece. Tip: If fabrics are especially soft, starching can reduce distortion when stitching if you aren’t applying interfacing.
• Rotary cutter, quilting ruler and mat
• Stabilizer: I used Sulky Soft ‘n Sheer for knits (polar fleece) and wash-away tearaway for wovens.
• Batting: I used Warm and Natural (batting is optional)
• Fusible interfacing: I used Pellon ShirTailor
• Steam-a-Seam 2 for appliqué
• Steam-a-Seam 2: 1/4’ wide hem tape
• Scissors used:
• For trimming batting
• Thread snips
• Heavy scissors for final trim
• Suitable embroidery threads
• Optional: ribbons or decorative cord for hanging loops
• Tape (Scotch invisible, painter’s tape, or similar)

Getting Started

You’ll need to some prep work before starting the embroidery:

• Cut, press, and prepare all your fabrics
• If you’re making self fabric loops, make these ahead. (Instructions not included.)
• Stitch any personalized cuffs before stitching the main stocking design.

Stocking Cutting Requirements

• Stocking front: cut 2 4.75” x 5.75” of fabric & 1 of batting*.
• Plain Cuff: Cut one 3.75” wide by 3” tall folded wrong side together to 3.75” x 1.5”.
• Embroidered Cuff: Cut one 4” x 4”
• Back: Cut one: 4.75” x 11.5, folded wrong side together to 4.75” x 5.75” TIP: Applying a strip of fusible web at the fold line (on the inside) will reinforce the folded edge.
• Optional Loop: Cut twice as long as desired length + 1”

* Batting is optional and can make the project more difficult to turn and appear more puckered on the front

QUICK CUTTING TIP: If you’re using the same fabric for the front, back, and front lining, cut 2 pieces of fabric 5” x 12” wide. If your fabric is folded, this is just one cut. Cut the front fabric into 2 pieces

Optional: Embroidering the Cuff

The cuff design includes matt down stitches in case you are stitching on a textured fabric.

These should be sewn in the same color as your fabric. If you don’t need them, skip color 3

1. Hoop appropriate stabilizer and sew color 1 for placement

2. Place fabric. Sew color 2

3. Color 3 is a matt down stitch to flatten any texture. If you don’t need it, skip it.

4. Color 4 is the lettering

Remove from hoop. Mark center top. Cut out along tack down line. Remove stabilizer.

Fold in half horizontally, wrong side together. The lettering is positioned to align along the folded edge.

Embroidering the Stocking

1. Hoop appropriate stabilizer and sew color 1 for placement. This placement line allows for 1/4” seam. All fabrics should cover this line

2. Place batting (if using) and sew color 2. If not using batting, skip this color change.

3. Trim back batting to tack down stitching to minimize bulk in the seam allowances

4. Place top fabric right side up. Sew color 3.

This color will secure the stocking front to the stabilizer and stitch some additional placement guides:

• Top center is the center cuff guide
• Top horizontal guides are for placing the back fabric (top fold will match here).
• Bottom horizontal guides are for aligning the bottom fold of the cuff

Using a pen or pencil and rulle, extend these lines onto the stabilizer so they are visible later

Any decorative elements are sewn here. Refer to your individual design color sequences if not sewing the Plain Stocking

5. Place the cuff, aligning folded edge (or bottom edge, if you’re using one layer of fabric) with horizontal bottom placement guides and top center with top center guide. The cuff should be placed right side up

If you’re adding a loop hanger, position that at this time also. Place the loop with the raw edges toward the raw edges of the stocking fabrics and right side down. Extend it about 1/2” beyond the seam line.

Secure with tape in a such a way that the presser foot won’t “trip” or catch on any raised areas.

Sew color 4

.6. Place the folded back piece over the design aligning folded edge to the top horizontal placement guide. Sew color 5 to attach lining

7. Place front lining right side down over the design. Sew color 6

Finishing

Trim seam allowances leaving an extension at the turn opening. If you’ve included a hanger, leave it about 3/8” - 1/2” long to avoid raveling. (See photo later.)

Press back the seam allowances. Fuse a small strip of hem tape leaving the protective paper in place

Turn right side out through opening push out all corners and curves. Peel of tape on fusible web and fuse close.

Turn right side out and press.

Note: Polar fleece is damaged by heat so pay attention to what your fabrics can tolerate.

Variations

For the Holly and Snowman stockings, sew the decorative parts of the design after color 4 following the color sequence information included with the designs

For the designs with appliqués, pre-cutting the appliqués and using a fusible web is recommended for smooth, normal weight fabrics.

This method doesn’t always work well with polar fleece so you may wish to use the trim in place method. If you choose this option, you must trim right up to the stitching line! Only the snowflake stocking and Santa designs have been set up for trim in place.

For the Santa, the base stocking front fabric should be whatever color you want for Santa’s face.

On the stocking, I’ve set the toe and heel areas as separate placements to make it easier to use 2 different fabrics. The sample shows them in the same color

Getting Creative

You can add your own designs to the plain stocking or replace the text on the cuff. The small size of the stocking limits the amount of text you can include but many names could fit here.

On the Snowflake stocking, you can omit either or both of the additional appliqués (heel and toe) or keep the appliqués and omit the snowflake.

Experiment with different fabrics and threads.

Summary

As you can see by these samples, you can make your stockings in any color combination. Also, if you are experienced with software, you can add a monogram, name, other embellishment, or a design from your stash to the plain bag or the cuff. Any cuff personalizations need to be brief and kept to about 2.5” wide.

Be honest. We all know the perfect person for the “Perfect Man” apron and that person may be either male or female! I’ve also stitched this on sweatshirts without the doily and every time I give one, I hear a chorus of “will you make me one too?”

Shown here, the project can be sewn in a 5x7” hoop with three hoopings. If you have a larger hoop, you can consolidate a few hoopings.

The doily is not embroidered, it is simply a purchased one that I’ve zigzag stitched with my sewing machine using invisible thread. To keep the project moving along quickly, I used a purchased apron, which you can find easily on-line.

There are four variations on the appliqué gingerbread guy design and there are variations of the lettering to include “The Perfect Woman.” Also, there is a version of the phrase that uses the word “grief” instead of “crap” for those sensitive to the latter word. (What can I say? I’m not…)

Skill Level

Basic embroidery skills.

What You’ll Learn

• How to plan and layout a multi-placement design project.
• How to appliqué using templates.
• What order to sew combined designs.
• Why you should avoid color sorting. Supplies
• Gingery Christmas design collection by Lindee G Embroidery
• Purchased or pre-made apron
• Purchased doily (can be any shape desired; mine is square). The large gingerman is about 4.5” tall so find one the size you like.
• Temporary embroidery spray adhesive (TESA)
• Scissors, sharp double curve embroidery scissors best
• Embroidery threads as desired for designs
• Mono filament thread to stitch doily to apron
• Fusible web product for appliqué (I prefer double-stick pressure-sensitive products like Pellon Easy Steam or Steam-A-Seam II)
• Printed templates from collection for selected appliqués
• Appliqué tacking iron
• Ruler
• Stabilizers: Tearaway (I used washaway tearaway because it isn’t as crisp so it rehoops better), fusible tearaway for template printing
• Chalk marker or other tool for temporary marking
• Embroidery software to print designs for placement
• Cellophane tap

General Instructions

These instructions assume you already know how to appliqué using the template method. If you’ve never done machine embroidered appliqué using precut pieces instead of stitching down a larger piece of fabric and then trimming it away (what I call the “blob” method), please read the included Appliqué Basics first! Applique Basics will cover how to prepare your appliqué pieces for use in this project as well as explain the full process for machne embroidered appliqué.

Project Instructions

1. Select designs and prepare.

Start your project by selecting the designs you’ll be using.

Print your embroidery designs from your software with cross hairs for placement. I printed mine in gray scale on a laser printer; you don’t need color for this step. Cut them out so they can be used for placement planning.

Print the appliqué template and prepare and cut out your appliqué design

2. Mark vertical center on apron.

Using your chalk marker and ruler, draw a line down the vertical center of your apron. I like chalk because it is fine enough, visible enough, and temporarily permanent enough for staying visible no matter how long it takes to complete the project while being easily removable when the time comes. Also, pressing with an iron does not impact its removability.

3. Plan placement and mark horizontal guides.

Arrange your cut out embroidery patterns along with your doily on your apron using the vertical line as a guide. You may wish to tape the templates temporarily at this point to keep them from shifting during the next step

Notice in the photo that the horizontal center of my ginger guy aligns with the horizontal center of the doily. Don’t be surprised if your doily is not perfectly symmetrical!

While you can combine designs in your software if you have a large enough hoop, I didn’t. I simply sewed each design individually as you’ll see in the next few steps. (It’s actually easier!)

4. Mark horizontal guides.

Using the cross hairs on the printed design patterns, draw horizontal lines with your ruler and chalk. Remove the pieces from your apron and connect the lines through the center.

5. Prepare the apron for embroidery.

Baste a large piece of stabilizer to the back of the apron using your sewing machine. This piece should be large enough to fully hoop with the apron and accommodate all the designs.

I used tearaway for easy removal. Although there is quite a bit of stitching, it is spread out over a wide area and there is no dense stitching. Also, purchased aprons are quite stable. If you are stitching on another fabric that may not be as stable, consider a different stabilizer.

6. Attach doily to apron.

There are several ways to attach the doily to the apron. I first fused the doily in place using fusible web and hen I zigzagged around the outer edge with my sewing machine using invisible thread in the needle. This gives the best of both worlds and keeps the doily looking sharp over laundering without eventually peeling off. You may choose to do one or the other, however, the fusible web may not fully secure the crocheted edges of the doily.

7. Position designs for this hooping.

Replace the templates you removed earlier and tape them into place, only using the ones that will fit your hoop. I have a fairly large hoop shown below and have arranged the top lettering and the ginger guy. The bottom lettering will be sewn in the next hooping and I’ll position that when ready.

If you have a 5x7 hoop, you’ll need to plan 3 hoopings and rotate the hoop for the center appliqué

8. Hoop for first stitching.

Center your hoop over the center of the design and hoop making sure the apron guides align with the center marks on your hoop.

To keep the ties from getting caught in the stitching. I’ve tied them up. You may also want to tape or pin them out of the way.

9. Turn on your appliqué tacking iron.

You’ll need your mini iron in just a few minutes. Turn it on now to make sure it is hot when you are ready to fuse the appliqué

10. Align needle over design center.

Load the ginger guy design and using the arrows on your machine’s control panel, move the hoop until the needle is over the center of the intersection. You can manually drop the needle and sink it into the paper to be sure.

Remove the ginger guy template before stitching!

11. Sew first color.

The first color in all of the gingerbread appliqués in this collection is the placement line, which is simply a running stitch to define where to put your pre-cut fabric. Notice in the photo below that the top lettering paper template is still in place

12. Place appliqué.

Remove printed template from front of appliqué piece and back protective sheet from fusible web. Carefully and precisely align the precut appliqué within the stitched guides.

13. Fuse the appliqué in place.

With your tacking iron, lightly fuse the appliqué into place to prevent it from shifting during the tack down stitching. I fuse the center areas more firmly and the outer edges lightly enough to be able to peel up in case I need to trim off any excess.

14. Continue sewing the tack down then stop machine.

I prefer to slow my machine down during this step in case there is any fabric slippage. The tack down stitch is a zigzag, which I feel secures the fabric better while avoiding any pleats and puckers that are more likely to occur with a straight running stitch tack down.

Manually stop the machine when the tack down has completed a full pass around the design.

15. Inspect your design.

Now is the time to check for any fibers that may have raveled off or for any fabric that extends beyond the outside edge of the zigzag stitching. Trim those off now for a professional result when the satin cover sews later. It is nearly impossible to cleanly trim them close enough later.

16. Align needle for lettering.

When the first design is finished, load the design for the top lettering and align the needle over the cross hairs on the paper template. Remove the template and sew the design.

17. Prepare second hooping.

Remove your project from the hoop and tape the template for the bottom lettering into place. Rehoop aligning the apron’s guide marks with your hoop’s center marks. Position the needle and sew the final design.

Because I have a large hoop, I was able to place the hoop so that the top was between my two areas of stitching rather than over previous stitching. Although the ideal position for sewing is the center of the hoop, I was not concerned about registration issues on the letter so chose this position to protect previous stitching.

If you watch the lettering sew, you’ll see that one line goes from left to right while the next goes back from right to left. Keyboard lettering does not do that but you can certainly digitize letters that way!

18. Embroidery is complete

Tips & Cautions

1. Do not color sort!

If you are combining designs in software or at your machine, you’ll get the best results if you sew each design individually. There are some machines that will automatically “color sort” designs for you at the machine and this “feature” cannot be overridden.

Color-sorting will look through your designs and combine repeated colors where it thinks it’s a smart thing to do. In my opinion as a digitizer, color sorting is seldom a smart thing to do because it can often increase registration problems while reducing finished quality. I’d rather spend a few extra minutes changing colors than end up with a project that I’m not happy with!

2. Sew larger designs first and lettering last.

Larger more intense designs put more distortion on the fabric and can pull the fabric out of square. If you sew lettering first, the baselines may end up crooked from all the pushing and pulling from the dense stitching. Although that’s not an issue in this project, it’s a good thing to know.

3. Sew from the center out.

You may already know this from quilting or other crafts. Working from the center of the project to the outside tends to reduce puckering. If you followed these instruction, you’ll notice we started with the ginger guy, who not only is in the center but is the largest element in the design. Again, not a big deal in this project but a useful tip in other ones with more intense designs.

Recycle a plastic container with screw on lid for button storage that doubles as a pin cushion. This easy project requires only minimal sewing to attach the binding and the buttons; your embroidery machine does the rest!

Using embroidery designs to quilt makes it easy for anyone to create intricate designs quickly and easily. An important difference with embroidery designs is how the machine is tensioned. In normal sewing and quilting, the needle and bobbin threads are evenly balanced. This is not the case with embroidery. Here the top thread is pulled to the back and the back is likely to look rather messy—especially if your machine has automatic trimmers that pull all the thread tails to the back. To minimize this, match your bobbin thread to the top thread and choose a busy fabric for the back that blends well with your thread color. You may also wish to adjust your tensions for a more even balance. The back of this project is not prominent but neatness is always a good thing!

Most quilting motifs are continuous and will only have one pair of tie-offs.
Redwork designs with many distinct elements will have more tie-offs.

The Bluework Sewing designs collection from Lindee G Embroidery includes 10 decorative, redwork style designs with a sewing theme. Each design is available in 2 sizes: one for smaller hoops) and one for 5 x 7” hoops. Due to the amount of detail in these designs, I don’t recommend shrinking the smaller size, which all have shorter stitch lengths.

Additionally, I’ve included the design used in the jar wrap for your convenience. This design is a resized version of an existing design in the collection and it has had two additional basting runs added for placement. I’ve added custom digitized lettering and provided “Buttons” as a stand-alone design for other use.

These instructions are for machines with a 5 x 7” sewing field. If you have a smaller sewing field, adjust accordingly.

Skill Level

Basic sewing skills are required to piece binding strips, apply the binding (standard method used in quilting), and sew on buttons. Instructions are included for mitering corners on binding.

Designs Used

• Bluework Sewing lgs01205 Buttons
• Bluework Sewing lgs01221 Button Jar Bonus design

Fabric Requirements

I used scraps and bits from my stash. While this project doesn’t need much, depending on the circumference of your container, fat quarters may not be wide enough. I used two colors: solid white and a blue print.

Supplies

• Batting—Choose one that is not too lofty; I used a fusible one for quilts.
• Wash-Away stabilizer
• No-Show Mesh stabilizer
• Small amount of thin or round elastic for button loops
• 3 buttons
• TESA (KK2000 or similar temporary embroidery spray adhesive)
• Construction thread
• Embroidery thread
• Matching bobbin thread for embroidery, if desired
• Rotary cutter, ruler, and mat
• Plastic container with screw on lid (pick one with straight sides). This one is an Isagenix container.
• Tape measure
• Rotary cutter, ruler, mat
• Hot glue gun
• Heavy cardboard (I used a scrap of matte board)
• Basic sewing supplies
• 5 x 7” hoop
• 4 x 4” hoop

Preparation

1. I used matching thread in the bobbin. The back won’t show on the lid and the back will only show on the wrap if you remove it. This is your call. You won’t even need to wind a full bobbin if you choose to match your thread.

2. Measure your container to determine the fabric requirements for the wrap. My wrap just meets at the back and is slightly taller than the straight part of the container. (15-1/2” by 4-1/4”).

For the wrap, you’ll need:

• 1 front
• 1 back
• 1 batting

Layer these into a “quilt sandwich” with your back fabric face down, your top fabric face up, and the batting as the filling in between. If you are using a fusible batting, fuse according to package instructions.

3. Measure the circumference and height of the lid rim. This one is 1” tall. I cut a 3” wide strip on the bias. You’ll be folding this in half. The folded edge will be at the bottom of the lid rim and the top raw edges will be hot glued to the lid. Make sure you have enough excess fabric to wrap over the edge of the lid.

The checked fabric I used was printed, not woven. By cutting it on the bias, I avoided any off grain stripes, matched the bias binding on the wrap, and had stretchy piece with a little give to it for a snug fit. Sew the ends together with 1/4” seams, press open and fold the strip in half.

4. Cut a circle from heavy cardboard to loosely fit inside the center of the lid.

5. Cut a generous square of fabric for the pincushion cover. You can trim this down later after you decide how full you want the puffing on the lid. Cut a piece of batting to be hooped with the fabric for embroidery.

6. The binding strips for the wrap are 2” wide bias cut strips pieced to the required length and folded and pressed lengthwise.

Embroidering

For the pincushion top, you’ll be using the 4” x 4” hoop. Sandwich your batting between the top fabric and a piece of no-show mesh stabilizer and hoop together.

1. Load design lgs01205 and embroider.

For the wrap, you’ll be using the 5 x 7” hoop. The Baby Lock Ellisimo I’m using doesn’t come with this size hoop and I recommend getting one if one is available for your machine and you don’t have one. Many designs are sized for this hoop and best embroidery practices dictate using a hoop that most closely fits the design being sewn.

1. Hoop a piece of wash-away backing.

2. Load design lgs01221. The project design has been customized to sew a basting stitch as the first color stop. This is a shorter than normal basting stitch and it has four indents to help you with perfect placement.

3. When the machine stops, lightly mist the back of your quilt sandwich with TESA and smooth into place. In the following photo you can see I’ve used pins to mark the center. Line the pins up with the stitch markings, which should coincide with the center marking on your hoop. This technique will work on any machine. Be sure to remove the pins before sewing.

4. Sew the second round of basting to attach the fabric securely to the stabilizer. These basting lines mark a 4” wide area that can later be used as guides when trimming your fabric to size after embroidering.

5. Finish sewing the design.

6. Remove from hoop and trim way excess Wash-Away. Use a rotary cutter and ruler to trim the wrap to the desired size. You don’t need to add any extra for seams if you are binding the edges. Remove basting stitches.

Finish the Wrap

The wrap is held onto the container with buttons and elastic loops. The elastic loops allow for some give and require less precision (and work!) than normal button holes. Other options for fastening include ties. I used 3 mismatched buttons from the button jar.

1. Position the elastic loops at one short end of the wrap, matching raw edges. The top and bottom loops are 3/4” in from the closest edge and the middle one is centered. Stitch over your loops to secure. A shortened zigzag stitch works very well. Give a tug on the open ends of each loop to make sure they are secure.

2. Attach the binding, mitering the corners. If you don’t know how to miter corners, see separate steps below.

3. Press the binding open and fold over to back covering the raw edge. I prefer to hand stitch on the back; choose any method you prefer, such as top stitching or fusing, if desired.

4. Attach buttons, positioning them along the binding seam line to match the loops.

5. Soak out the Wash-Away stabilizer while you finish the rest of the project.

Be sure that all the TESA has dissipated before wetting your project. To force dissipate, press with a dry iron.

How to Miter a Corner when Binding

1. With raw edges matching and right sides together, sew binding to the edge of the wrap using a 1/4” seam. Start on a long edge at least 1” from the corner.

2. Sew to 1/4” from the next corner, back stitch and cut threads.

3. Rotate the fabric for the next seam and fold back the binding fabric so that it’s at right angles to the previously stitched binding.

4. Pin at the previous seam line.

5. Fold the binding strip straight down matching raw edges of the wrap. The fold line matches the raw edge of the previous seam.

Repin to mark the starting point 1/4” from the top edge and at the edge of the diagonal fold of the miter. Remove pin before sewing. Sew to within a quarter inch of the next corner and repeat.

Finish the Lid Rim

1. Stretch the rim cover you made in step 3 of Preparation over the lid. The folded edge is at the bottom of the rim and the raw edges should be sticking up beyond the top. Using the hot glue gun, squirt glue in between the fabric and rim and press in place.

I tried applying the glue before stretching the fabric on and this proved to be a mess. The glue just cooled too quickly and I couldn’t get the fabric positioned ideally.

2. Apply hot glue to the lid and wrap the raw edge of the rim wrap over the lid edge and glue to lid. You’ll need to glue each layer of fabric individually.

Finish the Pin Cushion

1. Cut a stack of fleece circles to pad the lid. The amount is up to you as to how padded and pouffy you want the lid.

2. Cut your embroidered lid cover into a circle large enough to cover the padding and wrap under the cardboard. I used a soup bowl (6-1/2” diameter) to trace a circle. Trim back the stabilizer and batting as required for your lid to allow a smooth gathering.

3. Run a basting stitch 1/4” or so from the edge. You can do this by hand or machine.

4. Layer the batting pieces on top of the cardboard, cover with the embroidery (face up), and then tighten the gathering thread over the cardboard side, adjusting fullness evenly.

5. When the cushion is covered, secure the thread and hot glue the fabric to the cardboard.

6. Hot glue the pin cushion to the lid by applying glue to the lid and the firmly pressing the assembled pin cushion into place.

Fill Your Button Jar & Enjoy

These little container covers are easy to make and are perfect for gift giving. With simple modifications and a design change, you can cover boxes and jars for all sorts of storage containers!

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!

Endless or continuous hoop designs are specially digitized for creating borders and other long connected designs seamlessly. Some collections may have corner connectors included to permit easier continuous borders around a corner.

Sewing these designs is quite easy, especially when using one of the specialty hoops that are available for most home embroidery machines with a minimum 5” x 7” sewing field. This How To covers tips for getting good results with specially digitized continuous designs and an appropriate hoop.

Many embroidery programs provide tools for building continuous designs. These instructions only cover working with pre-made designs intended for this use.

Supplies

• Design specifically digitized for continuous hooping by Lindee G Embroidery
• Appropriate hoop
• General embroidery supplies
• Fabric cut into strips and pieced if necessary
• Suitable stabilizer
• Starch (optional)

Design Notes

Continuous designs are easier to align when a registration stitch is included. I’ve found a line of basting stitches in the form of a “Z” is much more accurate than a single stitch point. The Z provides more stitches to verify placement, while a single point only provides a start point that is also a pivot point allowing the design to more easily get off track.

Each continuous design has a starting Z stitch and an ending Z stitch to make perfect connections easy. Some designs may have a pair of Z stitches at each end. These registration marks are longer, set as a separate color change, with one at the beginning of the design and a second at the end of the design. These stitches are meant to be temporary and removed after the embroidery is complete.

These stitches also make it easy to combine elements in software if you have a larger sewing field. The Z stitches are set in a different color for utility reasons. A color change will force the machine to stop and it makes it easy to skip these stitches or delete them in editing software, if desired.

I usually just sew the first registration stitches using the first color of the design (color #2) and the last set of registration stitches using the last color of the design.

While these designs are intended for a specialty border hoop, they can also be used with standard hoops. With standard hoops, you’ll need to pay a little more attention to hoop and aligning.

About the Hoop

Most specialty border hoops use a clamping mechanism to allow for easy rehooping. Simply release the clamp, slide the fabric to the next place, align the needle, and sew. Due to the clamp mechanics, it’s important to understand where you can place the embroidery—and that is within a few inches of the hoop side where the clamp hinges.

Fabric Preparation

When cutting your fabric, you’ll need to allow a few extra inches at each end to allow for hooping. Depending on your project, you may want to piece strips together either before or after embroidering.

For best results, plan your design to sew from one end to the other. If you try sewing from the center out, you’ll need to mirror one half for the pattern to match.

You also need to consider how you will stabilize the fabric. On washable fabrics, starching the fabric helps tremendously. For backing, I prefer to use a softer stabilizer like fusible mesh cutaway or wash-away fiber. Crisp tearaways will be creased by the hoop making it harder to rehoop without pressing. If a tear-away is needed, slide a smaller piece under the hooped and stabilized fabric.

When using a non-fusible stabilizer, I sometimes machine baste strips of stabilizer to the fabric (using a sewing machine, not a baste in the hoop feature), especially when working on extra long pieces or strips that will require a long period to embroider.

I also like to mark guide lines on the fabric using dressmaker’s chalk to keep the design from skewing over multiple repeats. I generally draw these guides to align with the Z stitches rather than the actual design center. Test any marking aid you use to make sure it can be completely removed.

If the strip is quite long, roll the fabric around a cardboard tube and use clips or pins to secure the tail around the tube. This keeps the fabric clean and reduces additional wrinkling. It will also reduce the possibility of the fabric tails becoming caught while sewing.

Sewing

Sew from the top of the strip to the bottom. When rehooping, the bottom of the previous design needs to be just within the upper edge of the sewing field so that the Z stitches can be aligned. This means the upper edge of the hoop will be over an embroidered area, which translates to uneven hoop tension all the way around. If you are using a standard hoop, make sure it is not too tight to avoid damaging the embroidery.

You can skip the first Z on the first pattern and the last Z on the last pattern unless you plan to connect the ends to each other. When the embroidery is complete, remove the Z stitches and stabilizer.

Other Notes:

If you want to mirror designs, be sure to test first to make sure they will connect properly. Also, you may need to edit the designs to add extra registration stitches.