Archives for January 2011

Quick Post…

Posted by on January 30, 2011
I’ve gotten TONS of response from the HNBL post and I’d like to follow up on some questions (quickly, before I head to church). I can go in to more detail later if need be!
Mainly, “what kind of stabilizer do you use?”
Answer: MEDIUM CUTAWAY

You can check out this post to see where I went over HOOPING:
http://rosemarygulledge.blogspot.com/2010/02/hooping-101.html
I use medium cutaway on all shirts and I hoop all shirts. Well, I did use a fast frame, sticky stabilizer and added medium cutaway on ONE SHIRT recently, but that’s a different post. 99.9% of the time I HOOP. Shirts, that is. I buy my cutaway from www.sewingmachine.com – 2.2 or 2.0 oz precut squares and the 15″ x 25 yard roll. They call these type stabilizers “commercial” and they are super cheap! I highly recommend checking them out!
The other main question was on the Comfort Cover. There are several brands of them and I included links in my post last week. I USE Comfort Cover from www.Sewingmachine.com. I have used Floriani Dreamweave before too, and Sulky makes a version of it too. It’s basically a protective add-on to your shirt. It protects the thread and it protects sensitive skin from the back of the applique and thread. You’ve probably seen it on the back of Carter’s clothing with appliques and I noticed it on a J. Khaki (Belk) dress Mallory has that has an applique on it. It does come off in the wash sometimes, or it does come loose I should say. But… I think it’s a nice touch and it has come off of my Carter’s stuff before, so I think it’s just the nature of the product and your washing machine! Not that it comes off every time and is a waste of your time and money, but I have heard that it eventually comes off and that’s fine. It’s really personal preference as to whether or not you want to use it. I’m sure if you had a heat press you could fuse it on there better than my Shark iron!!
We showed our house this week (for the umpeenth time) and I took a picture.
This is our dining room when I’m in the thick of WORK:
This is our dining room when the house is shown! The machine stays, but the rest of the thread, iron, ironing board, fabric, stabilizers, trash can, computer, pens, scissors, shirts, football?, etc etc etc is PUT AWAY!! You can imagine how old this gets!
For this reason I’m not doing a whole lot of customer work right now. It’s really a matter of timing and if I happen to have a little bit of work to do and I think it’s possible to take more in (when you call). Right now I have 4 shirts to do for this week and I’ve had a couple of  people ask about bringing stuff. My goal is to NOT let 50 shirts pile up. A, I have no place to put them (my closet is full), and B, that is added stress with the house for sale AND if for some reason it sells and I’ve got 50 shirts piled up to do. When we do sell the house I would imagine I’ll be out of commission for a while!
If I continue to get Q’s about the stabilizer and such I’ll try to do a better post! I enjoy all the comments and have gotten tons of comments and questions on Facebook!
Filed Under: How To, Products | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

The SECRET to a Better Applique!

Posted by on January 26, 2011
I’m calling this a SECRET because I see and hear every day that there are people out there, embroidery people nonetheless, who don’t know about this product.
It’s called HEAT N’ BOND LITE!! Add it to your get-it list!! It will change the way you do applique and rock your world! It will IMPROVE your applique and make all the difference in a good looking shirt, and maybe a so-so looking shirt. (I’m not an employee of Therm-O-Web nor do they pay me to promote this product. I get nothing from this product but great looking appliques!)
Did I mention I love this product? That’s why I have a drawer full of it friends (see below)! I buy mine at Joann (without an ‘s’). When they have SEWING NOTIONS at 50% off, I go in and stock up. I also get 50% off coupons all the time in the mail and on my phone (Iphone App is available) so I always take advantage and stock up! You can also buy it at some Walmart stores (although I have never seen any in ours), and by the yard at Hancock Fabrics. They may sell it off the bolt at Joann but I’ve honestly never asked or looked for it. I’ve also talked to Steve at www.Sewingmachine.com about this product and I used it when I did my little class there in October. They will hopefully be selling it soon. Anyway….
It comes in this package and is simply a roll ~ one side is paper and one side is shiny and a little textured.
Make sure you get LITE and not ULTRAHOLD. I’ve been using HNBL for a long long long time and it has never gummed up my needle.

First… you’ve sewn your marking stitch for the applique you are working on. Mine is the zig zag tiara. HNBL works especially well with zig zag designs because without it, your fabric will most likely fray.
I cut my piece of fabric large enough to cover the design.

I iron my piece of fabric. Notice my iron is on about medium heat.

I cut my piece of HNBL so that it’s about the same size as my fabric. As you can see mine hangs over a bit which is why my ironing board looks the way it does. Notice the HNBL is paper side up.

Iron the HNBL light with the shiny side down. Again, you are ironing on the paper side.

Peel the paper away, and your fabric will now have the HNBL on it. Throw the paper away! It now appears shiny and is like a coating on the fabric which the camera didn’t quite capture.

I lay the fabric shiny side down on the marking stitch and now you’re ready for the tackdown stitch. (I do not use any type of spray adhesive to stick the fabric to the shirt at this point. Some people do but I do not.)

Now it’s time to trim around the tackdown stitch. You might be able to see in this picture that the fabric underside is shiny. That’s the HNBL. It also helps in this trimming process ~ there aren’t any loose threads, as the HNBL is like a coating on your fabric. (Notice my Gingher 4″ curved embroidery scissors – love them!)
The applique is ready for the final stitch, and in this case it’s zig zag! As you can see the cut is very clean!

Here is the applique after the zz stitch. You might notice the fabric is a little bubbled up. I’m not done yet…

Again, the applique is finished, but now it’s time to FUSE the applique.
Iron over the applique. I keep my iron on medium heat. I iron over the applique and also let it sit on it for a second or two. If the applique fabric doesn’t seem like it’s fusing (still bubbly), I spray it with the iron water and then iron over it again. The applique fabric will “harden” a tad and you will be able to tell that the fabric is “set”.
You might see a difference here ~ the applique is FLAT. The fabric is fused to the garment.
Lastly, I finish the back side of my applique with Comfort Cover, aka Floriani Dreamweave (there are a variety of different brands of this product, including Sulky).
Here is your finished product!
Does your applique look like this??
I recommend this product all the time to people and no, I am not getting paid to do so! I have found it works great so I recommend it whenever possible! If you’re appliques are bubbly, you need this! If your appliques sometimes come loose after washing, you need this! EVERYONE NEEDS THIS!! Get some if you don’t have some and see how much better your appliques turn out!
Filed Under: How To, Products | Tagged: Tagged With:

Valentine Designs and more FABRIC!

Posted by on January 25, 2011
This week I have still been working on setting up my *new* computer. It took me until yesterday evening to get it right! I THINK everything is now on it and it’s functioning with my embroidery machine and software like it should. In case you didn’t know, Windows 7 is so cool, but a little bit of a headache for the older programs and software! I’ve been doing a few shirts here & there and have like 5 to finish up today. After those are done it’s CCE time. I haven’t gotten the first thing out for consigning. I have until Monday to get it all together. Plenty of time!
Here’s a cute Valentine shirt I did with the AC OWL. The customer wanted “owl be yours” or “hoo loves you” below the design. CUTE!
I also did this shirt yesterday on one of the Just Blanks shirts for one of my carpool peeps’ little sister. I have done this design twice this week and it’s from Embroidery-Boutique.
This is a great Valentine’s Day design! Who doesn’t love pink & purple!
Lastly, I got a goodie box this last week from TJs Fabric. What day is it today? I’ve blogged about TJ’s before and it’s a Pharmacy/gift/FABRIC store located in OPP, AL! It’s right off Hwy 311, so I always say if you are heading to Destin, FL or any beach near there and you travel 331, FIND THIS PLACE! GPS was invented for this reason! This past summer we stopped on our way to the beach and I only had about 30 minutes to shop (as Jeff and the kids were left in the car). Every now & then I get a surprise package from them and it’s like CHRISTMAS! I hope to make another trip down there with my camera. The good news is…. they are now selling a lot of their great fabric online! I believe their goal is to offer every fabric they sell online, but as you can imagine it’s quite a task to get it all listed. CLICK HERE to view the online store! Thanks to Teresa for the surprise and I hope you got my e-mails!! 🙂
You can imagine my squeals when I opened the box and found this!!!!
These are from the Riley Blake Quite Contrary group and it is even more precious in person!! My grandmother always loved strawberries so this reminds me of her! LOVE LOVE LOVE the bottom 2 on the right side too!
More cute fabric. This grouping is Riley Blake LOVE BIRDS. So pretty!!

The dots below are Oval Elements by Art Gallery and the chunky looking ginghams are Michael Miller. The top right circle fabric is from Riley Blake. All cute and I can’t wait to use them!

By the way, what a great website ~ http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/ ~ I’m always trying to figure out the name of Riley Blake fabrics so this is a great site to keep in mind. It’s so *pretty* too! There is a RB Blog too! How awesome! Why have I not found this before??
Today is a yucky rainy nasty day where I live and a good day to do nothing! But, I must sew (or applique)!!
Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Design, Fabric | Tagged:
Next Page »