Another post! 2 in a row. This is a follow up to my previous post on MONOGRAMMING VISORS using a CAP FRAME. Check out that post if you are just tuning in. A friend brought over several youth visors today so guess what I did all afternoon? My original thought was that the 6 year old daughter would love a monogrammed visor this summer. This thought came after she wore mine at the pool yesterday. It didn’t take long for my niece to claim one (and want it monogrammed right then and there) and the boys to claim theirs too. So that’s what I did all afternoon, and I figured out a trick or two I wanted to share!
First, when using your CAP FRAME, your machine (multi needle) knows you’ve installed the cap frame on there and assumes you are monogramming hats or caps. A) When “hooping” your cap or hat on a cap frame, the hat is actually upside down on your machine. SO…. your machine automatically flips your monogram upside down. B)When “hooping” a visor using your cap frame, the visor is actually right side up. This creates a problem when your machine flips the monogram upside down. Today I found myself rotating the design to right side up several times while editing my design on my screen (selecting and assigning colors, etc.)
LIGHT BULB!!!! After the 2nd visor, I formatted my monogram in Monogram Wizard Plus and saved it on my computer. I then opened the saved monogram in Sew What Pro, rotated it upside down, and saved the file to my thumb drive to stick in my machine. Are you confused yet?? Now, when I put the upside down monogram on my machine to stitch on my visor, when I’m done editing, it will flip it upside down for me, which makes it RIGHT SIDE UP for my visor!
Here is my MWP screen and I used Camp font. I also inserted dots in between my letters using SySerif Motif 26 so I could use 2 thread colors on my lime green visor. If you have MWP and don’t have the free motifs (punctuation), go to the Needleheads Sewing Studio and download them for free. So I saved this file on to my computer just like this.
I then opened the saved file in my Sew What Pro. I couldn’t figure out a way to rotate a design upside down in MWP. If there is a way, let me know!?
I rotated the design and saved it as upside down!
Another LIGHT BULB moment…
If you check out my last post on VISORS, I explain how when hooping a visor on the cap frame, the clamp that folds over barely grips the top of the visor. Here is a pic:
Today I found that this gives little room for your monogram on the visor. You are limited to like 2″ in height anyway, and with the visor up that high on the frame, I was having to shrink my monogram to make it fit and centered. So…. I decided to instead “hoop” the tearaway cap stabilizer strip and then pin my visor lower on the stabilizer on to the frame. It worked!! Below you can see where I clamped down my stabilizer on the frame. You can buy tearaway cap backing in pre-cut strips from sewingmachine.com.
I then pinned the visor to the stabilizer to keep it in place. You have to be gentle and careful, but it works.
The little lining strip is folded down on the visor and I pinned that to the stabilizer also.
Here is what it looks like underneath.
Here is a shot of the visor on the frame on my machine. I will line up the needle with the center mark on my visor before sewing.
First I want to assign colors to my monogram. As you can see below, I put the design on my machine and it’s upside down like I saved it in SWP and it will stay upside down for thread color editing.
I’ve assigned my colors, hot pink letters and turquoise dots.
When I click Edit End, my machine automatically flips the design upside down thinking it’s a cap. For me, it flips it right side up for my visor since I saved it upside down. I line my needle up with the center mark on my visor and now I’m ready to sew!
Here it is when it’s finished sewing. I unpin and remove all of the stabilizer.
Here is my lovely assistant modeling Mallory’s new visor!
And here are my 3 kiddos in their summer visors!! I used MWP Natural Circle font on the boys and MWP Happy on Mallory’s other visor.
Comment or email me with any questions! If you are familiar with the cap frame and visors then hopefully this will make sense and help! Recap: save your monogram upside down for visors AND clamp the stabilizer on your cap frame, then pin the visor to the stabilizer!
Rosemary,do you not have the extended features on your MWP? You might be able to rotate your monograms with the extended feature. I’ve not tried to,but you check and see if it will rotate.
I don’t have Extended Features! I’ve always used Sew What Pro – I got it before EF was ever invented. 🙂
Love the appliqué on the visor but my question is, How do you keep the tear stains off of your fur baby’s face?
HA! We put Angel Eyes on her food once a day. Some pet stores carry it – Petsmart does not, but Petland where I live does. I also heard about some tear stain chews that some vet clinics sell, but have no tried those. Our baby does have a little tear stain but it’s not bad. She needs a grooming and trim!
And I just googled Angel Eyes and you can buy it online for cheaper than in stores! 🙂
I was just wondering if you also use the clips that hold the caps and visors to the cap frame that attach on the sides?
I did not use any clips, but you could I guess to secure it a little more! Pinning it in place worked pretty well.
Loved this post! I recently monogrammed some graduation caps and used fast frames. It was very difficult due to the size of the top square piece. I had to go really slow to keep the hard square from bumping and hanging on the legs of the machine. I was thinking there must be an easier way! Now that graduations are over, I would like to find a method in order to be prepared for next year. Did you monogram any graduation caps? It is the new craze here. I’m thinking your pinning method on the cap frame may put the square top far enough away not to bump the machine legs. Any ideas? I searched all over and didn’t find any suggestions at the time.
I have never monogrammed a graduation cap, but I bet the same concept would work! Also Fast Frames might work?
Love, love, love everything you do! I have just recently tried to monogram caps with my Babylock EMP6 using my cap frame…..nightmare!! I keep getting an “Area over” error. This is supposed to mean my design is too big? But, I kept shrinking it down….no luck! I wanted the monogram to somewhat fill the area and it was only 2.5 x 2 to begin with. Help if you can would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Rosemary, will you be at The 2014 Everything Applique Conference is in Atlanta, Georgia at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center? I did not see your name listed for any of the presentations.
Nancy, I will not be there this year. I’m on vacation this week and realized I would not have time to get prepared and get to Atlanta by Thursday. June is hard for me to get away from the family! 🙂
I found this post so helpful. Thank you! I usually use fast frames and sticky backing from Souheast Sewing with my visors. Seems to work, but at times not really b/c you can’t get monogram low enough. Thanks for this smart tip!!! I will try this tomorrow with the cap frame 🙂
If you set it up in the baby lock programming then you should have a “hoop” that you can set the design in. My baby lock enterprise will go 2.25″ tall for sure and my brother 6 needles, depending on age, will either do 2″ tall or the 2.25″.
hopefully that helps 🙂
Cari