Stress Relief Through Embroidery And Cross Stitch

We all lead very busy lives in today's modern world, so why am I suggesting that you should seriously do what was once considered just a genteel activity for aristocratic ladies? Those of us who work in offices, retail or other inside careers need physical activity to keep up our health. But there are times when the gym circuits, the weights or the running don't take away the stress of meetings, demanding customers or exacting managers. Often the body does not need any more excitement or exercise, but the mind will not stop buzzing. Or how about the times when you are stressed out but you cannot exercise due to geographical, injury or time constraints?

At these times, the rhythms of simple stitching, watching the pattern grow stitch by stitch, is very soothing. Embroideries do not have to be large works involving thousands of stitches, working a small bookmark or embellishing a handkerchief will take your mind away from the day?s anxieties and provide a wonderful sense of achievement when finished.

Embroidery is also very forgiving; it can be picked up, worked on for a brief time then put down again. You do not need a large workshop or bulky equipment. In fact, small pieces can be tucked into your handbag for working on when traveling. It is usually an in-expensive activity, only needing a few skeins of thread, some remnants of cloth and a needle. Of course you can work with fine silks and pure gold threads if your budget allows!

The technical skills to start are neither complex nor difficult to learn. Simple cross stitch and back stitch are the basis of many wonderful designs but only take a few minutes to learn. Concentrating on stitching evenly, counting the stitches or covering a printed design calms a tense mind and allows you to put your worries into perspective. You may even find that concentrating on the stitching has allowed the back of your mind to work on your problem without stress.

There are lots of simple and quick to do cross-stitch samplers available, you may also develop your skills to complete modern designs using sophisticated shading and differing types of threads. Your interests may lead you to exploring the full range of counted thread techniques developed over the centuries or even move from counting to totally free form stitching of beautiful textures.

Embroidery can be as simple or as refined as you wish, but in all cases it will let you escape from the tensions of our everyday working lives.

Annette Garcia is an embroidery enthusiast with a day-job of managing projects involving construction and information technology for the manufacturing industry. She runs a website, http://www.xstitchandbeyond.com providing her original designs in blackwork, cross-stitch and other counted thread techniques.

Finding Your Niche With An Embroidery Digitizing Business

You have everything in place to start an embroidery digitizing business. You've done all your research. You have a business plan in place and have contracted out for your own website.
With all of the competition out there, how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd?

When you are first starting out, you may decide that you want to focus on a certain type of image to digitize into an embroidery pattern. You may choose dragons, flowers or frogs. If you focus on similar pictures at first, you will get faster at doing these type of images. Not only will you get faster at digitizing these pictures into embroidery patterns, but you will get better at it.

If this is how you decide to start out with digitizing embroidery patterns, you will want to choose a niche that you are interested in. When you are digitizing a new design, you will need to embroider it to make sure that it turns out okay. If you don't like dragons or faeries, and that is the type of image you are digitizing into embroidery patterns, not only will you have samples around that you aren't interested in, but you won't feel the urge to get the images as close to perfect as you would if you love flowers and you are digitizing flower images into embroidery patterns.

If you are going to offer to digitize images that people send you into embroidery patterns, you will eventually want experience at digitizing a variety of images, not just the type of images in your niche. When you work by request, you will be working with a wide variety of images to digitize into embroidery patterns, not simply one specific type.

Something that really needs to be mentioned any time that you talk about doing specialized work for customers. With people sending images to you to digitize into embroidery patterns, you may face another issue that you haven't seen mentioned before. When you buy a digitized embroidery pattern file at the store, the company who digitized these patterns will have paid to use any trademarked images.

That's is something very important that you will want to keep in mind. The NFL, collegiate teams or large corporations such as Disney will sue anyone using their trademarked images without permission. You will get a letter before they take you to court, but don't count on being able to just slide by. The big companies have lawyers and are always looking for people who are breaking copyright laws.

There are plenty of legal ways to get around the copyright laws, however if you have any doubts about whether you are violating these laws, your best bet is to play it safe.

Sahel is the Sales/Support representative of Cheap Digitizing. You can find more information or ask him questions about Embroidery Digitizing on www.cheapdigitizing.com

The Steep Learning Curve Of Digitizing Embroidery Designs

So you have your own embroidery machine and you want to use your own picture or pattern. Now what? How do you get your design digitized for your use?

The answer to that will depend on many things. Are you planning on embroidering as a hobby or will you be embroidering as a business? Is the program something you will use often, or will it sit unused on your hard drive for weeks or even months at a time? How much money do you have to spend? How much time do you have to spend? Remember, like any software, you can't return embroidery digitizing software once you have the package open.

If you are embroidering as a hobby or even if you have your own business, you may decide to contract out to digitize your embroidery pattern. After all, digitizing programs can be expensive. Not to mention, how difficult it is to learn all the ins and outs of the program and the steps to digitize a pattern.

Most digitizing programs promise 'auto-digitizing' features. This is great in theory. However, if your graphic isn't clean enough then you may spend a lot of time frustrated with your project. Many times, even if you have a clean graphic, you can't just input the graphic and expect everything to turn out exactly how you planned it. Most likely, you'll wind up wanting to go in and change something about how your design turned out.

Quite honestly, unless you know exactly what you're doing, or what stitch type you need where, you may end up totally frustrated at the end of the day. Your best bet is to learn everything you can about digital embroidery. You need to know about registration, compensation, stitch angles, underlay, stitch types, fill patterns, tie-offs, in and out points, and so much more. If you don't know these important points, not only will you end up frustrated, you may end up blaming yourself for the poor designs being generated by the digitizing software.

Before you spend your hard earned money on digitizing software, ask about classes in your area. Ask about digitizing classes in your area, or tutorials and training videos online. You will need the help and pointers. Be sure you fully understand all of the capabilities of the software you are considering. Make sure it is the right fit for your needs. Don't be pressured into buying something that isn't a good fit. Don't be lulled into all the hype on the package or in a high pressure sales pitch and think that all you need to do is install the program, import the graphic and you'll be ready to go.

Embroidery digitizing can be rewarding and fun, but it is an art form. Like any art form, be it playing the clarinet or painting a picture, practice is the best way for you to get more proficient at what you want to do.

Sahel is the Sales/Support representative of Cheap Digitizing. You can find more information on Embroidery Digitizing on www.cheapdigitizing.com.

Fashionable Embroidery Fabrics

There are many types of embroidery fabrics so logos can be embroidered to any type of apparel or accessories. Materials used for embroidery can be chosen to suit any fashion style from athletic to corporate casual. The types of fabric used may require embroidery to be done a little differently. Below is a listing of the many types of fabrics used in embroidery and the differences in types of fabric.

Basic Cotton. Basic cotton is the one most popular choice in embroidery because T-shirts are a great way to display a logo and are inexpensive. Basic cotton is a lightweight material so it requires fewer stitches than heavier fabrics

Basic Cotton/Polyester. Cotton/Polyester blended fabrics are another light-weight material, also very popular for embroidery. Again, it uses fewer stitches because the fabric simply cannot hold that many stitches.

Woven. Woven fabrics like twill, chino, and tweed use a diagonal weave to create a stronger fabric with diagonal lines for a more dramatic effect. Woven fabrics are thicker than basic cotton and therefore can take more threads for a given embroidery pattern or logo.

Knit. Knit fabrics use a complex interlocking pattern that makes it more flexible than woven fabrics. It can stretch is all directions, so most knit fabrics are made with acrylic material for shape retention. Logos must be specially prepared to be embroidered onto knit fabric due to the many threads and loops in the knit fabric.

Fleece. Fleece is a thick and springy fabric made from synthetic materials. Since fleece has a raise fuzzy surface, proper underlay stitching must be used in order to keep the stitches from being lost in the fabric. If not embroidered properly, little bits of fleece may come through the embroidered logo.

Nylon. Nylon is another synthetic fiber used in a number of apparel items. Jackets and vests are very popular items for embroidery.

Leather or Suede. Leather and Suede are very thick materials, rich representation of group or business. Leather jackets used for embroidery are engineered for easy access for embroidery machines in the left pocket area. Letterman jackets of leather and suede are a classic look to include in corporate apparel.

Denim. Canvas, Denim, Twill and Poplin are all woven fabrics that are very thick and look great with embroidery. Denims and Twills and others come in a variety of shades and colors, and seamless denims are perfect candidates for embroidery.

Micro-fiber. Micro-fiber is a material made from very thin fibers of synthetic material that resists water and wind, so it's perfect for staying dry and looking professional. Micro-fiber is perfect for professional or athletic outerwear.

Sweaters. Sweaters made of various materials including cotton and polyester, and are ready for embroidery.

Backpacks, Duffle bags, Totes. Tote bags and other bags are made of cotton twill, 100% cotton, polyester, nylon, and a variety of other materials that are used for embroidery. Carrying cases are useful for a number of reasons and are a fashionable way to stay organized.

Pricing of embroidery fabrics depends on the type of material, while some are relatively inexpensive, others materials of higher quality are worth a higher price. There are also a great number of apparel items available in many different kinds of fabrics.

Angela Oliver is an author for EmbroideryAuthority.com, offering competitive pricing for all custom embroidered logos, apparel, and accessories. Get your company or group logo on hats, shirts, caps, and more. Visit www.embroideryauthority.com for a full selection of embroidery fabrics.
 

Applique Tutorial for Machine Embroidery

Machine embroidered appliques are not only fun and easy, they also allow you to really get creative by using up any stray pieces of fabric you've kept around. No leftover fabric? Then you can have even more fun by grabbing your scissors and cutting up those clothes you still have but haven't worn in years.

Use appliques to embellish an inexpensive gift or to create something unique for yourself very quickly. Try it yourself and see how much fun it is. Here's how:

1. Of course, the first thing to do is load your applique design into your embroidery machine.

2. Next hoop the material your finished design will be on. Be sure to stabilize it just as you would for any kind of machine embroidery.

3. When you push the 'Start' button the outline of the applique stitches first. Because it's going to be covered later you can use any thread color you want but it's a good habit to select a thread color close to the fabric color.

4.Once the outline is complete your machine will stop. Place a piece of your applique fabric over the outline. Make it large enough to adequately cover the outline but not so large as to be cumbersome. You can safely remove the hoop from your machine if you want to position your fabric but don't unhoop!
You'll need to hold the fabric in place over the outline so it doesn't pucker or bunch up on you. You can try using double-stick tape but usually it's just as easy to hold it down. Watch your fingers!

5. Now the tacking stitch will sew, tacking the applique fabric down.

6. Then remove the hoop from the machine but once again, don't unhoop yet. Cut away the excess applique fabric from around the tacking stitch. Get close to the tacking stitches but take your time and try not to cut too many of them.

7. After most of the fabric is cut away it's easy to trim off the stray pieces.

8. Put the hoop back in the machine and push the button one more time.

9. Your machine will now run another tacking stitch around the pattern. It's usually a V stitch or an E stitch and is like a double check in case you cut a stitch or two while trimming your fabric.

10. When the second tacking stitch is complete your machine will apply the final outline stitch, usually a satin stitch, putting the finishing touch on your applique.

11. You're done already! Now unhoop it, admire your creativity, and do another one using a different fabric and create something entirely different.

See how darned additive machine embroidered appliques are?

Deb Schneider is an embroidery design digitizer offering her machine embroidery designs, Redwork designs and appliques on her website: WindstarEmbroidery.com.