MAKR140-Embroidery

Tinkertech

February 13, 2024

Tools:
- Brother PE800 Embroidery machine
Software:
- - Inkscape
  - Open Sourced PES graphic
Materials:
- scrap fabric, terry hand towel, cotton kitchen towel

The biggest challenge

Threading that needle. Second challenge was choosing proper materials

What I am most proud of

I learned SO much. Now I feel like I could go into that room and embroider without much assistance. I still have to learn about what material works and what doesn’t. I brought in my own graphic and loaded it via USB, I replaced the bobbin, and backed up my stitch position afterward.

What would I do differently next time?

Next time I will make sure that I have acceptable materials before I start my project. Staff in the craft room can help, but I may need a lot of trial and error before I really learn what works. I would have chosen a solid towel without the distracting stripe down the middle. I am considering embroidering on a strip of material and sewing it onto a border on a more plush terry cloth towel.

I was intrigued by the beautiful embroidery work that Hilda posted in the discussion group, so I watched her work before class today. Although I have never gotten along well with sewing machines, I thought I would give it a try.

I worked with Mark Webster using Inkscape and learned that it has a plugin called InkStitch that allows you to export your design to a PES file compatible with the Brother embroidery machine that the Makerspace has in the craft room. I made a simple design.

The design as it existed in Inkscape at the top of this post.

Judy helped me get started with the embroidery machine. Unfortunately, the machine could not read my USB drive. The drive may be too large.

All I wanted to print was text. The Brother machine has several fonts built in and a text entry interface. Which meant all was not lost.. I used some scrap fabric to test my design and I was very pleased. I still want to duplicate this text on a towel. But this was my first run at it. I like it better than the Inkscape version.

I REALLY wanted this printed on a towel, as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans might understand. So I brought in a very thin terry cloth towel. This was for my bathroom so I wanted terry cloth. I was being a traditionalist.

Unfortunately, the terry cloth was not a good choice. Judy said that there is a dissolvable top sheet that can be placed on terry cloth and it will provide much better results. The terry cloth was pretty thick for the machine, even though it was thin for using as a towel.

I learned how to thread the machine. It’s done by numbers, so not too hard. But threading the needle was a challenge for me. The auto-threader did not work well, so I tried using a standard hand needle threader, the type with the little wire loop. The wire came loose from the threader and Hilda threaded it for me. That day yielded the failed terry cloth towel pictured below.

I still wanted a towel. I scoured the stores, unsuccessfully, to find exactly what I wanted and I decided to go with a kitchen towel I had at home. It turned out that the towel I chose was also a little thick for the machine, but embroidering it was still achievable if I pinned the fabric to the outside of the hoop.

I had come prepared with a few wire needle threaders and some magnifying reader glasses. I struggled to get the needle threaded using the threader. I gave it a half hour’s worth of effort, then gave up and tried to thread it without the threader. Wow! I threaded it with ease. The magnifying readers did help, though.

The first time I embroidered the pattern, I had the graphic upside down for towel-hanging. I knew it, but I was going to look for the setting on the machine to flip it. I had a difficult time getting the hoop set up and didn’t really want to change it. I started sewing and THEN remembered that I had forgotten to see if I could flip the graphic. I just continued the sewing.

When I was done, I repositioned the fabric and sewed it in the proper direction. No one sees the back of hanging towels anyway, right? I was relatively happy with my project, except for the line down the middle.