Introduction
I first encountered free motion machine embroidery in Nepal in 1998. These were produced by pedal-powered singer sewing machines and I came home with a number of these. Since then, my treasures t-shirts have been misplaced in several moves, so I decided that I could probably make my own.
I gained further impetus from my travels in Japan and Taiwan, where I admired a myriad of streetwear with beautiful oriental-themed embroidery. Alas, I am a plus-size model and nothing in Asia fits me, so if I want to rock-out with fabulous threads, then I have to make them myself.
So why not normal machine embroidery, I hear you ask? Well, I did try this but found that I spent most of my time digitising designs on my computer and changing thread colours. The size of my designs were also limited to three rather small hoop sizes. Overall, this was less than satisfactory
Supplies
1. Tear-away stabilizer
There are so many versions of stabiliser and as you gain some experience, you may prefer to use the others, such as cut-away and wash-away stabilizers. These go under the fabric to be embroidered.
2. Fabric
I like to use natural fibres because I just have a bent for these and I suppose if my work ends up in landfill its biodegradable. For most of my projects I use cotton, denim or silk.
3. Sticky Fabri-Solvy
This is where I ‘cheat’ if you like. I use a product that can be put through a printer and then stuck to my hooped fabric. It then is essentially just colouring in with the sewing machine. You can probably find other stabilizer brands that work the same way. I have been meaning to see if there is a way to put wash-away stabilizer through a printer as it is theoretically very possible.
4. Embroidery Hoop
When I did normal machine embroidery, I was limited to three hoop sizes and most of the projects that I wanted to do were much larger. Now I have a much bigger range of hoop sizes that I can use.
5. Open-Toe Foot
This is a must-have.
6. Embroidery Thread
I recommend using reasonable quality thread. My old mechanical Bernina with a DC motor doesn’t have tension issues and rarely breaks my thread or ties it in knots in my bobbin case. My dedicated embroidery machine, however, would only work with the finest quality thread. I get good results with Marathon.
The Process
1. Design Ideation
All successful projects begin with good design. This starts with thinking about where your creation will end up or what its purpose is. Of course, your first few pieces will be practice pieces. I learned by using: Creative Thread Sketching – a Beginner’s Guide, By Deborah Wirsu. This book has six graduated projects that will get you skilled-up in no time. Otherwise, I usually make an embroidered patch and then apply it to a garment later.
Because I use Sticky Fabri-Solvy, my process is to create a moodboard of the images that inspire me on Pinterest. I then select the image that I know I will be able ‘sketch’ or ‘paint’ using my sewing machine; something that is not too detailed.
2. Printing on Sticky Fabri-Solvy
I have the pro version of photoshop, so editing and optimising an image that is A4 and 300 dpi is not a problem. Failing that, gimp is a great free alternative. The main technical skill is taking a small 72 dpi image and enlarging it to 300 dpi and A4. The other issue with Sticky Fabri-Solvy is that I think it must be US Legal size and so I have to trim it a bit before I put it through the printer.
3. Hooping the Fabric and Stabilizer
The size of the image you are using will determine the size of hoop, fabric and stabilizer. The image below right shows the sticky solvy, sticking to the fabric and the stabilizer is underneath the fabric. The lip of the inner hoop sits above the fabric and sticky solvy and the outer hoop is underneath (shown on the left) the stabilizer that is underneath the fabric.
4. Freemotion Technical Bits
– Drop the feed dogs.
When you drop the feed dogs, you then ‘paint’ your design by freely moving the fabric or hoop around. Because I use zig-zag stitch quite a lot, I find the feed dogs quite helpful when going up and down the fabric. This may or may not work for you, depending on your machine and embroidery foot, so as a rule: dogs down!
– Stitch-length zero.
Again, this is a good general rule. Thread sketching or painting is very much like colouring in with a pencil, but instead of moving the pencil, you move the fabric. So, just like the longer the stroke of the pencil, then the longer the stroke of the line; the further you move the fabric, the longer the stitch. So, the stitch length can be set to zero and then the size of the stitches is determined by how far you move the fabric. I have an old mechanical sewing machine and it doesn’t seemed too fussed about my stitch length, so please experiment.
– Try zig-zag.
My default stitch tends to be zig-zag, because I can achieve a satin-stitch effect, which is a mainstay of embroidery. I can even make the width bigger or smaller on-the-fly and even it out with the feed dogs.