Thursday, October 24, 13

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3 *Accessorize Your Life (or a least your scarves)! Three ways to personalize your scarves, using your embroidery and sewing machine Shirley Schooley Jenny Haskins Acreditated Tutor Pfaff Certified Educator Owner:

4 Three Techniques Butterflies and Flowers on Silk: Using Three- Dimensional Embroideries on a scarf Embroidery on Silk: How to embroider successfully on washable fragile fabrics such as a scarf. Plain Becomes Beautiful with Decorative Stitches: Using those wonderful stitches on your machine to decorate a scarf. We are emphasizing scarves tonight, but these techniques can also be used on garments or special home décor projects.

5 Technique #1 Butterflies and Flowers and Silk Technique #2 Embroidery on Silk Technique #3 Plain Becomes Beautiful with Decorative Stitches

6 Making your own scarf when you can t find what you want ready made. Purchase 1/2 yard of silky washable fabric. If it feels like a nice scarf, then it will do! Hem all four sides. I prefer to do a serger rolled hem on my scarf. And here s how! Cut strips of wash away stabilizer 3 wide by the length of your scarf. Put rayon thread in the needles and both loopers. Set serger for a rolled hem. Check your owner s manual for how to do the on your serger. I used a 1.75 stitch length and regular tension With the scarf fabric right side up, put a strip of the stabilizer under the fabric, letting it extend an inch or so to the right. No need for precision. Just be sure you can see the stabilizer. When you get near the end of one strip, overlap the strips slightly and continue serging.

7 Making your own scarf when you can t find what you want ready made (continued) Serge to the end of the fabric, leave a long thread tail, turn fabric and continue stitching until you have serged all four sides. Soak out the stabilizer and let your scarf dry.

8 Use Fray Block on the ends of the stitching, and clip excess thread tails. 1. Lay the corners of the scarf on a piece of waxed paper. 2. Put a drop of Fray Block on each corner. 3. Move the corners onto a piece of white paper towel. 4. Cover the corners with part of the towel and press briefly. Your Fray Block will be dry and the corners will stay soft.

9 You can lay all four corners on the waxed paper at one time. Big Time Saver! Note: You may prefer to use your sewing machine to hem your scarf. If so, you can use the rolled hem foot that came with your machine to make a more traditional hem on your scarf. Refer to your owner s manual or your local dealer for help in using the sewing machine rolled hem foot.

10 Butterflies and Flowers on Silk Supplies Needed: Wash Away Stabilizer Krinkle Magic, Texture Magic, Fabric Magic, Heat N Shrink or another similar product. Rayon Embroidery Threads in your colors to coordinate with your scarf (NO polyester thread!) Invisible thread Nylon or polyester organza in your choice of color(s) Heat Cutting Tool Steam Iron Size 75 and 90 Embroidery needles Basic sewing tools: scissors, pins, etc. Embroidery designs: Three Butterflies and Six Flowers. (You should always use designs that are mostly open and light, not heavily filled or dense.) Embroidery machine and hoops

11 Designs in set: Three Butterflies and Six Flowers They have been digitized for light weight fabrics, especially for scarves, etc. Use a 75 Embroidery needle for most of the designs, but consider changing to a 90 Embroidery needle when stitching the dense centers of the flowers.

12 To stitch the flowers and butterflies, hoop 3 layers: 1. Nylon or polyester organza, right side up 2. Krinkle Magic or similar product. 3. Organza for back of flowers or butterflies, right side down. Use matching embroidery thread in the needle and in the bobbin. Use rayon thread only, as polyester will melt when you use the heat cutting tool. Keep in mind that Krinkle Magic reduces the final size by approximately 30%.

13 When embroidery is complete, take the hoop out of the machine, keep the fabric in the hoop, and put it on a glass cutting board.

14 Use the Magic Heat Cutting Tool to cut around the flower. After heat cutting the flower, you may find small little areas that need some touching up. Just carefully touch those areas with the hot cutting tool and those little fringes will melt away. Be careful not to touch the iron to the organza as you will melt that away also.

15 Lay your flowers or butterflies on an ironing board, hold a steam iron 2-3 inches above the flower and shoot steam out for few seconds. You will see the petals or wings begin to curl up. Steam until you like the way the flowers and butterflies look. However. I suggest you not steam these butterflies and flowers much just enough to add some dimension.

16 Put your scarf on a dress form or on yourself. Pin the butterflies and/or flowers to the scarf where you think they look best on you. Mark that position. Run a gathering stitch across the scarf at the position(s) you marked. Start about an inch in on both sides.

17 Put a piece of organza on the back side of the scarf where you ran the gathering stitches. Stitch across the organza. Note: I have used white organza to make it easier for you to see. You will want to use matching organza. Turn scarf to the right side. Position the butterfly over the gathered area Stitch the butterfly to the scarf, using invisible thread. Use an open toe foot to make it easier to see where you are stitching. Stitch around the body of the butterfly and a few stitches into the wings. Leave the rest of the butterfly free to fly.

18 The wrong side of your scarf will look something like this after you trim away the excess organza.

19 Use the same procedure for stitching on the flowers, stitching only around the centers of the flowers. Trim the organza around the stitching.

20 Enjoy wearing your beautiful scarf. Remember, you can put as many or as few butterflies and flowers as you desire. You are the designer!

21 Embroidery on Silk Supplies Needed Approximately 50 inches of sticky wash away stabilizer Embroidery threads for embroidering your chosen design(s). Butterflies and flowers design collection Silk scarf

22 This scarf is embroidered on only one end. You can, of course choose to embroider on both ends. The embroidery used in this example was about 10 inches high. Hoop one layer of sticky wash away stabilizer and peel away the protective paper. Carefully lay the scarf over the sticky stabilizer, being sure to smooth out any wrinkles. Peel the backing off another piece of stabilizer and place it over the scarf. You now have three layers: 1. Sticky stabilizer, face up. 2. Scarf 3. Sticky stabilizer, face down

23 Thread your machine with rayon thread in both the needle and the bobbin. Determine the center of your design. I print out and use a template for most embroidery projects. Embroider your designs, using a #75 embroidery needle for all but the centers of the flowers. You may want to change to a #90 needle when stitching flower centers.

24 Back of finished embroidery Front of finished embroidery

25 Wash away all stabilizer. Hang your scarf to dry. If needed, press embroidery from the back over a padded surface. Enjoy!

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28 Plain Becomes Beautiful with Decorative Stitches Supplies Needed: 80 Sticky Wash Away Stabilizer or enough to cover both the front and back of a 36 scarf (OR) use a nonsticky wash away along with a temporary spray adhesive. Washable Silk, Polyester, or Nylon Scarf, or fabric enough for an 8 wide by 36 scarf. Embroidery threads or other specialty threads in your choice of colors Selection of stitches found on your sewing machine. Select narrow or open stitches for best results. Size 75 Embroidery Needles Scissors and other sewing essentials

29 Lay your scarf on one layer of wash away stabilizer cut to fit your scarf, either a sticky type or stabilizer that has been sprayed with a temporary adhesive. Lay another layer of stabilizer sticky side down on top of the scarf. Note: Using a stabilizer sandwich allows you to control lightweight fabrics, resulting in easier stitching.

30 Select up to five different stitches of those on your machine. Stitched should be open, so you can avoid adding excessive weight to your scarf. I choose three stitches and repeated two of them on each side of the center stitch. Thread your machine with your decorative thread in both the needle and the bobbin.

31 Suggestions for success when stitching decorative stitches Use your Start/Stop button (instead of the foot control) if your machine has one. Your stitching will be nicer and easier! If you have a Stitch Restart or Pattern Restart button, use that to always start at the beginning of a stitch. If you have a walking foot, do a test sample to see if you like the results when using it. Know what you are going to do if you have a Oh, My Gosh problem Have a scrap piece of fabric available for sewing your stitch to the point where the problem occurred. Think about what to stitch over a stitching problem that cannot otherwise be repaired.

32 Select the appropriate presser foot for your stitches. For example, you must use a foot that has a groove on the bottom. Otherwise, your stitches will bunch up under your presser foot. Consult your owner s manual or your dealer for help, if needed. Many newer machines will tell you the required foot.

33 Start in the center of your scarf, using the decorative stitch you have chosen for the center position. Alternate stitching the side stitches, always working your way from the center out. For example, right side next to center, then left side next to center.

34 Always pay attention to what is happening behind your machine. Because your fabric is heavily stabilizer, you may want to lightly roll the part of the scarf that is already stitched. Use a very light touch with guiding your fabric. Using some type of guide, as I have done, will help you sew straight.

35 Stitch your rows of decorative stitches approximately 1 apart. Hint: Wider spaces between the rows means that slight differences in the spacing are not noticeable.

36 Enjoy wearing your beautiful scarf. And maybe making some more!

37 Thanks for being a part of my life this evening. I leave you with my favorite four-line poem (by William Blake) He who binds to himself the joy, Does the winged life destroy, But he who kisses the joy as it flies, Lives in eternity s sunrise. We all have butterflies to share. And perhaps we do it best when we share our love of sewing. And remember: Every day, at least once, Do What Makes Your Heart Sing! Shirley

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