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If you're a modern embroiderer, you know that choosing the right fabric for your designs machine embroidery can be a daunting task. With so many types of fabric out there, it's easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. But fear not, this article is here to help you understand the three main categories of fabric used in machine embroidery and which fabrics work best with your embroidery designs. Nonwoven Fabrics: Felt the Way to Go Nonwoven fabrics, such as felt, are made by layering and bonding fibers together mechanically, chemically, or with heat. This creates a thick and dense fabric with no spaces between fibers, making it ideal for embroidery. Felt works well for embroidery because of its thickness and density, but it lacks drape and may pill, depending on the fiber used. While felt's uses in embroidery are limited, it's an excellent choice for creating patches and appliques. Woven Fabrics: Finding Stability Woven fabrics, such as cotton, linen, silk, wool, rayon, and polyester, are made by spinning fibers into yarn and weaving them together on a loom. The way the yarns are woven determines the fabric's weave, with the most common being the plain and twill weave. Woven fabrics have many variables, such as the fibers used, the weave used, and the thickness of the yarns. These factors change how much movement there is in the fabric, with looser weaves having more movement. To stabilize woven fabrics, use spray starch and lightweight interfacing to make them more stable for embroidery. And always use the right stabilizer for your project, as shown in the photos above, using the correct stabilizer can make a BIG difference in how your project turns out. Knitted Fabrics: Stretching Your Limits Knitted fabrics, such as French terry cloth, are formed by interloping one yarn and have a lot of stretch and movement, making them the least stable of the three fabric categories. To stabilize knitted fabrics for embroidery, use an iron-on stabilizer for where the embroidery will be placed. Hooping the fabric is also highly recommended as it reduces fabric movement while being embroidered on. Choosing the Right Fabric for Your Embroidery Designs Choosing the right fabric for your embroidery designs is crucial to creating something visually beautiful and functional. Understanding the properties of nonwoven, woven, and knitted fabrics will help you choose the right fabric for your projects. The Fabric Assist Tool: Your New Best Friend One of the greatest innovations available to modern embroiderers is the Fabric Assist Tool found in Hatch embroidery software. This tool allows you to change the dimensions of an designs machine embroidery at the click of a button to best suit the fabric type you're embroidering on. The Fabric Assist Tool is essential because different fabric types require different density and underlay settings for clean looking embroidery. Learning how to digitize your own embroidery designs or using intelligent software like Hatch can help you create the perfect design for your chosen fabric. In conclusion, choosing the right fabric for your embroidery designs is essential to create something both visually beautiful and functional. Understanding the properties of nonwoven, woven, and knitted fabrics, using the right stabilizer, and using the Fabric Assist Tool in Hatch embroidery software will help you take your embroidery to the next level. So, go ahead and experiment with different fabrics and techniques, and have fun creating unique and stunning designs machine embroidery !

Heart-shaped scissors holder with embroidery Want to learn how the simplest design, a couple of stitches and tools make a cute item? This tutorial contains a bare minimum of technique, a couple of tips and a step-by-step guide to creating an original scissors holder shaped like a heart. A gift like this will warm the heart of any crafter. And, if you have a really creative sewer/embroiderer for a friend, who owns lots of scissors, you may even give it to them instead of a Valentine. Heart-shaped scissors holder with embroidery. Materials: Sole-colored fabric (non-stretchy) Felt (thick) Tearaway adhesive stabilizer Upper embroidery threads Lower embroidery threads Scissors Machine embroidery design Heart-shaped scissors holder with embroidery. The making process Prepare the necessary materials. Load the design into your embroidery machine and attach the sole-colored fabric to the stabilizer. This will be our front (embroidered) panel. I usually prefer a tearaway adhesive, but in this case, a nonadhesive tearaway will do just as good, as will a cutaway stabilizer. If you use the last one, you may leave it in place after embroidery; in that case, you’ll have a strengthened front panel. If you’ll choose to make an entire holder out of thick felt, you may spare the stabilizer altogether. The next step is to attach the hoop to the embroidery machine and start the embroidery. Home embroidery machine will make stops for a thread change. Once the embroidery is finished, unhoop. Leave the stabilizer in place, if you wish. On the embroidered fabric, draw a triangle in such a way that the design fits exactly in its center. Keep in mind the size of the scissors, for which the holder is intended. Before cutting the triangle out, decide whether you will fold the edges or not. If yes, don't forget to leave some fabric for seam allowance (or fraying, as shown in this tutorial). Pick up a sheet of paper, draw the triangle and then add two half-circles to transform it into a heart. You may skip this part and draw directly on felt. It is easier to draw on paper, so, if you're not an artist (I’m not), do as I did. Press the paper template to the felt and cut the back panel of your holder. You’re almost done. The fabric I chose for my front panel frays a bit. I decided not to fold the sides in order to hide the edges. In order to prevent the upper edge from fraying more than it is necessary for decoration, I add a decorative stitch at some distance from it. Now I join the sides with the back panel. I use threads of the same color as the felt. One last thing: I pierce a hole on the side and tie the ribbon in a bow. A piercer came with my sewing and embroidery machine. If you do not own one, use a substitute. Voila! Your scissors holder is ready! Original text by Mary Stratan Pick the design you like from our store! https://embroideres.com/

Felt bag decorated with machine embroidery Felt is a wonderful fabric. You can decorate items with it or use it for sewing bags. I sewed this bag without a ready pattern or complicated calculations, by the eye. My pattern consisted of three rectangular panels and two stripes, cut out of felt. The bag was embellished with machine embroidery and decorative trim. A tip: you can choose any other machine embroidery design from our shop and make your bag look casual or romantic. Felt bag decorated with machine embroidery. Materials Decorative felt Bright cotton fabric Tearaway nonadhesive stabilizer Water-soluble stabilizer (film) Upper thread Underthread Machine embroidery design Embroidery or sewing and embroidery machine Embroidery machine hoop and template Felt bag decorated with machine embroidery. Embroidery process Out of felt, cut a rectangle size 18 x 22 cm. This will make a panel for your future bag. You’ll need three such panels. Two of them will make the bag, and the third will become a flap cover. Hoop the cutaway nonadhesive stabilizer, sprinkle it with a temporary spray adhesive and press the felt to it. Cover the felt with a piece of water-soluble film. In the embroidery editor, add a basting stitch outline to the design. Load the design into your embroidery machine and hit the start button. I used a common polyester thread; though it is not recommended for machine embroidery as a rule, you can use it in some cases. After you've used cotton or polyester threads, clean the shuttle thoroughly. Change the thread colors in accordance with the chart. Felt bag decorated with machine embroidery: sewing Before joining the panels, remove the water-soluble stabilizer: it will tear easily after the embroidery. Round the corners of the two panels constitute the bag. Round the corners of the panel intended for the flap. Finish the edge with decorative trim. Cut out a strip of fabric 4 cm wide to make a strap for your bag. Adorn it with a strip of fabric or decorative trim. Out of the fabric, cut out the lining. Turn in the seam allowance on the edges and baste. Attach the two parts of a magnetic clasp to the front side of the bag and the flap. Lay the lining and the flap together with their wrong sides facing each other and tack them down in order to avoid shifting during stitching. You may sew from the front or the back. When joining the panels, use a hemmer foot or an omni-purpose foot. Stitch your flap to the back side of the bag. Cut out a strip 6 cm wide for the side. Stitch this strip first to the back side of the bag, then to the front. Before sewing the felt panels, baste them first. Your felt bag decorated with machine embroidery is ready! Original text by Irina Lisitsa

I think that felt is one of the most common fabrics for doing machine embroidery samples. It is also used for chevrons, appliques, and in any case, it is extremely popular nowadays. It is a non-woven material that resembles valenki by its outer look. Felt can be made of a variety of fibers, natural (wool) as well as synthetic (polyester). The thickness and color of this material also vary greatly, which is very handy. I first came across this material quite a long a time ago and only then noticed that the embroidery looked different from that on any other kinds of fabric — all the elements became narrower. But that was when I didn't use any stabilizer, so the such a result was hardly surprising. In reality, if you follow a production process and embroider on a stabilized fabric, felt is one of the easiest materials. You can embroider on it with no difficulty at all, and design creation for felt is also easy (it is used for samples for a reason). You can embroider almost anything on felt — big and small details alike will look good on it. Like with any other fabric, digitizing a design for felt and embroidering on it has its undemanding rules: For the ordinary designs, use a middle-weighttear-away stabilizer. For large objects with lots of stitches, a middle-weight cut-away will be just right. You can additionally sprinkle it with a temporary spray adhesive. You'll need #75 needles, with sharp needlepoint. But if you're going to embroider small details with thin threads, you'd better change your needle for the one matching the thread (#65). When embroidering with thick threads, you should likewise choose a thick needle. But the needlepoint stays sharp in all cases. Density values can remain standard, enough for sufficient coverage (0.4-0.45 mm). Understitching is traditional and unpretentious. Pull compensation is up to 10%. Felt is a very easy embroidery material. The only thing I don't like about it much — it's quite thick and therefore hard to hoop. But the quality of the embroidery saves it all.