Today's victim is a yellow gingham kitchen/dish rag. It's been sitting at the bottom of my linen closet waiting for it's moment to shine. And now is the time...
This is my second embroidery project. I wanted to do something for my Alma Mater. Go Bulls! I wanted to do something a little different, something that you couldn't buy at the stores. Way, way, waaaaay back when I went to USF, people used to refer to it as the 'University of Suntans and Flipflops'. I always thought that was so cute because when you're roaming around on campus, that is pretty much what you see - suntans and flipflops!
Step 1: Research, research, research...I am very new to machine embroidery, so I spent a few hours reading other blogs and watching a few YouTube videos to help me get started.
Step 2: Create my USF embroidery logo - There are lots of sites where you can buy embroidery files. Why 'buy', when you can 'create'?! I downloaded a 30-day trial version of the SewArt application. This app converts images into embroidery files for you. With the help of this YouTube video, it was seeeeeew easy to use!
A quick Google search led me to tons of USF logos. I just downloaded one and ran it through the SewArt application. It spit out a .DST embroidery file that my sewing machine can understand.
Step 3: Transfer the embroidery logo from your computer to your sewing machine - Via USB, I connected my sewing machine to my laptop. I transferred my beautiful USF logo to my sewing machine.
Step 4: Create an awesome design - I'm still a newbie, so it took me a while to put the design together. But, it was a good learning experience with using different fonts, resizing, scaling, etc.
I used an existing font that was already built into the machine. But you can easily download fonts and convert them to embroidery fonts, too.
Step 5: Push the START button and watch the magic - After I was happy with my design, I carefully, laid my fabric and stabilizer through the embroidery hoop. I made sure the fabric was centered and the stabilizer was taut. I pressed the START button and let the machine go to work.
Step 6: After it's done embroidering, it's time to clean up the little stragglers. On both sides, I cut as much of the excess thread as possible.
Step 7: Gently, tear away the stability on the back.
TA-DA! Shine, little gingham rag, shine.
Lessons learned:
I had a little trouble with the thread. My machine came with some free embroidery thread. But it was hot mess when I opened it. I used it anyways, but the thread kept getting stuck. If you look closely, the letter 'l' is a little messed up. The moral of the story is - don't used messed up thread :)
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