Machine Embroidery 101: Saving Money, Cheap Designs + FREE Valentine's Design File!

Last week I launched my new series Machine Embroidery 101. Figuring out how to get started can be tough if you're new to machine embroidery, but once you do it's SO fun & simple. My goal is to make it a littler easier for others to get into, so they can enjoy it as much as I do.  Now let's get to the latest info on how machine embroidery saves you money and where to find cheap or FREE designs!

In my previous post about What's Needed to Get Started in Machine Embroidery, I shared all the gear required. While it can seem like a bit upfront, the reality is you can save money big time going forward.  How?  Consider this:

How Machine Embroidery Saves $$

Personalizing is now cheap.  All those retail premium-priced personalized products are a thing of the past when you can embroider any name yourself in any color you want: 

Custom Decor Matching Is Easy.  Struggling to find towels, throws and other fabric accents with the colors and/or theme to match your kitchen, bathroom or a particular season is a thing of the past. 

Team With The Theme For Less.  If there's a particular motif, themed character, especially if it's not super main-stream, it can be tricky to find merchandise or custom themed fabric that isn't $$.  Not so with machine embroidery files.  Sky's the limit with what you can find - I made these patches with some favorite characters that aren't common on fabric or mass produced items: 

Even these old school Fraggle Rock themed bags were a cinch to do (please forgive the grainy photo - of course I forgot to take beauty pics before I gifted them!):

Inexpensive Kid's Clothing.  Adorable embroidered designs on clothing adds up.  With 3 kids I used to spend a lot.  Embroidering plain things yourself is a fraction of the price and just as beautiful.  This shirt cost me under $5 total:

as did this one, which gets compliments everywhere we go:

Simple, Yet Striking Gifts.  Instead of shopping or DIY'ing for hours, you can embroider the wow factor onto a basic item.  This basic drawstring tote went from boring to beautiful with a little embroidery appliqué:

A Christmas file + felt scrap + plain mini hoop became a pretty gift topper ornament in under 20 minutes and still has a high end feel:

Now, the real question:
Where to find cheap & free embroidery designs?

There are tons of places online.  A quick Google search will probably find you lots.  Once you buy a file you can use it as much as you want and change colors to make new looks.  Which sources are good?  Here are a few I use (and FYI no one is compensating me to be promoted!):

Breezy Lane Embroidery.  Loads of cute individual and bundle designs for kids (or kids at heart) here and for just a few dollars.  The I Want It All membership is totally worth it since you have access to every design EVER for a small flat price.  Coincidentally, I see there's a big sale on the membership today, so it's a good time to grab it for a great price. The number of designs I've used vs. what I paid has made it a smart buy.  There are also some nice FREE designs available there too.   

Embroidery Library Inc.  A massive selection of individual and bundled designs (tens of thousands) in every style imaginable and low prices.  Frequent sales, plus quantity, Happy Hour and free with purchase discounts.  There's also a changing selection of a few FREE designs.

EmbroideryDesigns.com.  Huge selection of designs, fonts and bundles, including licensed designs and digitizing services.  Many unusual designs.  Prices vary more, but they also offer your choice 3 FREE designs per week from several thousand options.  

All these shops have a variety of file types and design sizes to work with most machines.  The free files are a great way to build up an embroidery file library, so go for it!

What about design cards?  I've got a few of those from my early days with a machine that didn't have a usb port, but I don't buy them now.  With all the other options being , unless there's some rare designs you just can't live without, they really aren't worth buying.

There are also several options of embroidery digitizing software out there.  With them you can turn a digital image into an embroidery file, which is awesome.  Like the machines, software prices can be all over the place though.  I've just started getting into making my own designs using software, so I thought I'd offer my very first made-by-me design file for FREE right here since Valentine's Day is just around the corner:

It looks a little pixel-y in the jpeg, but here's how it looks stitched out:

This design fits a 5x7 hoop (or larger) and is in PES format so it will work in a good number of embroidery machines (consult your manual to be sure).  I feel like it would look super cute on kid's shirt, pillow or tea towel.

Here's where to download my files for FREE:

Sew Can Do Bee Mine PES 

Sew Can Do Bee Mine JPG Image

Sew Can Do Bee Mine TXT 

I'd LOVE to see what people embroider this on, so if you try it, please share!  It feels so cool to be able to digitize my own files and share them.  

If you've got some great sources for embroidery files, add them in the comments below, because I'm always looking for new places to try. 

Got embroidery questions? Add those in the comments too and I'll try to answer them in an upcoming post.

New Crafting Possibilities: Doing Machine Embroidery

I'm always looking to expand my crafting horizons and acquire new skills.  I've spent the past couple of months honing my latest crafting love & finally got my act together to share it: Machine Embroidery.

Yes, that is a giant Dalek I embroidered on my little guy's shirt.  He LOVES it.  In between my other usual sewing/crafting projects, I've been busy making lots of machine embroidered lovelies like these:

and these:

It's become super addicting!  Not only is it lots of fun to do, it feels so good to be able to create such professional looking things in my own little craft room.  It's really gotten my creative juices flowing with more project ideas too!

What I'm loving most though, is how I've been able to make cute things that rival what's in the shops, but for a fraction of the price, and in my own preferred color schemes to turn blank shirts & the like into goodies like this:

I've created custom matched goodies from scratch as well, like these fleece pants with a fun embroidered pumpkin bum:

It's also come in handy when trying to work with tricky fabric prints too.  I'd bought this worm & apple fabric a few years back, but the color scheme was hard to pair with anything... until I found a kawaii-style apple embroidery design.  I made the fabric into some pants and whipped up a fleece shirt for the apple design to turn it all into a matching outfit. The embroidery totally kicks sewing projects up a notch:

My Embroidery Backstory: My very first sewing machine from 8 years ago was a hybrid Brother sewing/embroidery machine (originally an SE 270-d, now SE400).  In fact, the idea of doing machine embroidery was what drew me in to even trying to sew in the first place.   Yet, it seemed intimidating and still took me a few years to finally try some pre-programmed designs on the machine:

They turned out pretty nice and I gained some basic know-how (shared here), but I did have a few flops and frustrations that held me back. I always felt like I was tempting fate trying to do more & was pretty baffled at out how to wriggle a store-bought item onto my hoop without disaster. Plus, I was limited by the size it could do (nothing bigger than 4in x 4in), so I kind of paused my machine embroidery dreams.

Then a couple of months ago I made my impromptu little Magical DIY Tooth Fairy Pillow and I got the itch to try embroidery again:

I thought maybe if I had a machine that did bigger designs, I could get serious about putting in effort to getting better at it and then just make all the kinds of fun stuff couldn't find in stores or that just cost too much.  I saved up a bit & decided to take the plunge and get this lovely Brother PE-770:

This machine wasn't too pricey and had all the key features I wanted - namely, minimal learning curve, can do 5x7 hoop size and the ability to upload design files.  Nearly all the cheaper models only do the smaller 4x4 like I had or required expensive (and limited choice) design cards.  I nearly fell over when I saw how many 5x7 or bigger machines go for over $1,200 or a require a serious several thousand investment (like multi-needle machines), so this was definitely more my budget speed at this point.  Its size also fit in my limited-free-space small craft room a lot better too.     

I think the big misconception out there for most crafters is that doing machine embroidery must be expensive or complicated.  Sure, it can be, but like any craft, there are many options and for this thrifty crafter, I think it's becoming a money saver.  And, you don't even need to know how to sew to do it!  

Key example, besides my lack of fun and inexpensive wearables, I couldn't find hand towels in the style & color I wanted (or any good quality decorative ones that were reasonably priced), so I made some instead.  It took less than an hour, saved me some $ and wasted shopping time and they're just what I want:

I've been practicing, researching and trying out materials and what's surprised me most is how much key info is pretty hidden if you're just starting out.  You can save a lot of time, materials & frustration if you just know how to do things right at the start, but there isn't one key place to easily find it.  I've been compiling my findings so I can share them and help make it easier for others starting out. Today's just a bit of a preview, but I plan to do a series of machine embroidery posts with what I've learned and all the crafty know-how, like:

- How to get started machine embroidering

- Ways to use machine embroidery (that save you money)

- What stabilizers give the best results 

- Great embroidery-friendly sewing patterns 

- Where to find awesome designs (design cards, files, subscriptions for FREE or a bargain price) 

- How to embroider on all kinds of materials and shapes

- Where to get blank items for CHEAP


I can't wait to share more & hope I'm not the only one out there all excited about doing embroidery.  If you've got any particular questions or info you want to know, let me know in the comments and I'll try to add that in!  

Magical DIY Tooth Fairy Pillow Tutorial

Sometimes the best projects are literally the ones done with barely any planning and at the last minute.  This project was done hours before we needed it in action and I winged it the whole way, but I love it: my DIY Magical Tooth Fairy Pillow.

There's no mistaking who it's for.  Even if you can't read you just know;)

And of course there's a little pocket on the back for the teeth:

This pillow has quite a backstory too.  My littlest one was finally losing her first tooth, which also happened to be the same day her biggest brother was having two teeth extracted at the dentist.  We discovered the one tooth pillow we had wasn't going to work.  The tooth fairy forgot to come when all three teeth were in the one pillow the first night (sometimes she falls asleep waiting for them to fall asleep....), so it was critical to them that we have a separate pillow for the next night.  Of course Mom will make one, right?    

And, of course, I procrastinated until evening and realized I needed to rock something out ASAP.  I wanted to make it a little different than all the others I'd seen, so I thought making making it a tooth and adding the fairy would make it extra special.

I'd actually bought this adorable fairy embroidery file a couple of years ago, but never figured out what I wanted to do with it and now here was the perfect use for it!  

Materials:
- White felt
- Embroidery thread
- Fairy embroidery file* (mine was from Breezy Lane Embroidery)
- Ribbon  
- Notions: disappearing marker, pencil or knitting needle for turning, hand sewing needle

*Note: If you don't have a machine that does embroidery you could always buy a patch or appliqué a fairy from fabric on it or, if very ambitious, hand embroider one, but investing in being able to make your own machine versions is so worth it.  You can make them whatever colors you want, whenever you want.  I made our tooth fairy brown haired to match my brunette daughter:



New to machine embroidery?  I've got a basic how to HERE.   I might do a more in-depth, updated version if there's interest (let me know in the comments if you want to see that). For machine embroidery I have a Brother SE-400.  It's both a sewing AND embroidery machine, so it's very useful and also very reasonably priced. Bought mine years ago and I've used it for loads of projects with embroidery and without:

Machine Embroidery How-To, Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Hat Tutorial, Happy Mushroom Applique, Bunnykins Dress

For the pillow, I did the embroidery first - even before cutting anything out.  It's way easier that way.  I find embroidering on felt turns out great and I already had some white felt in my stash.  I used tear away stabilizer on the back when I hooped it:

For my machine I use a usb cable to transfer the files from my laptop to the machine.  It walks you through each thread color as a separate step and usually the files come with a jpeg listing them all out separately.  I picked out a bunch of blue shades from my embroidery thread collection.

I am not exaggerating when I say I was literally stirring a pot on the stove, then running down switching to a new thread color, and leaving the machine to stitch up the next section. Not a method I recommend, but desperate times, desperate measures.

Once my pretty fairy was ready I freehand drew a tooth shape on the felt with disappearing pen and cut it & a matching back piece out.  I know my photos aren't super magazine quality, but when you're working at the 11th hour, in the evening, a perfectly lighted & staged photo shoot isn't top of mind:

I took cut a little rounded pocket from the scrap and stitched that to the middle of the back piece.  

I also basted a length of ribbon to the top.

With right sides facing, I pinned the tooth layers together:

I stitch all the way around, leaving a 2 inch gap on one side.  To easily clip the edges so it'll turn right side out nicely around the curves, I always use pinking shears.  Much easier that doing a million little clips and no chance of accidentally cutting the stitches either:

I turned it right side out and stuffed nice & full with poly-fil.  I slipstitched the opening closed by hand and the pillow was ready for it's inaugural tooth:

And my little lady was thrilled that mom had saved the day and cooed over her pretty new tooth fairy pillow.  She left a note explaining her tooth was here.  We know the tooth fairy was digging it too when the next morning the teeth were gone from both pillows and some shiny coins were left instead.  She even left a note back:

It looks like magic can be done at the last minute!

Crafty Gear 411: Learning to Machine Embroider

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Machine embroidery is a real perk of home sewing.  Being able to do your own personalizing, monogramming and stitched designs really adds a special touch to things you make or add extra style to store-bought stuff.  It's also a lot cheaper than paying to have it done.  It's actually the reason I chose my first sewing machine, a Brother SE-270D, nearly 4 years ago (I've got a full "meet the machine" here).  I'm just a bit embarrassed that it's taken me almost that long to get going on embroidering!

Truth be told, I was a bit afraid to get started & kept putting it off. Getting some of the new Pellon embroidery stabilizer finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to give it a go and I discovered how much fun it is to do.

There are some fancy, pricey embroidery machines out there that can do just about any design and size imaginable.  Which is nice if you've got a big budget.  My sewing/embroidery machine combo was really reasonable in price at just a couple hundred dollars.   It came with a load of programmed designs (even licensed Disney ones) and has a card slot to be able to download more (which more than meets most people's needs and means).

After 4 yrs of serious daily sewing use that machine finally died, but I immediately bought the Brother SE 400 model to replace it, which is even better (it has the ability to download embroidery files as well as use cards).

Now, I'm going to share what I've learned so machine embroidery isn't so scary for anyone else wanting to give it a try.

Ready?  Let's embroider!!

The first step to successful embroidery is setting up the fabric.  The stabilizer always needs to be larger than design being embroidered.   If using something like a fusible or stick-on variety it can be adhered in place on the wrong side of the fabric.  For non-adhering stabilizer, cut a piece larger than the hoop so the hoop will hold it in place:

The fabric is placed over the stabilizer and hoop bottom and the top of the hoop pressed in place on top.   Then the hoops are tightened together so the fabric taut like a drum (pulling the fabric at the edges to remove any ripples):

Then the hoop is locked into place on the machine.  Next the design is selected.  My machine has a digital screen where it's easy to choose the font, lettercase, size and letters:

I threaded my machine with embroidery thread and hit start.  After about 6 stitches it's time to pause the machine to clip the thread tail (so it doesn't get tangled in the design):

The machine does it's thing for all the letters:

And when done the thread is cut and then the threads connecting the letters are cut off too.  Using variegated or ombre thread is a way to add a colorful look without any extra work.  My kids were thrilled to see their names sewn into their stuff:

Doing more complex, multi-colored designs is just as easy.  The machine will tell you which part of the design to load first (I wasn't using lime green thread, but knew from the image which leaves would be done first and used my own color choice accordingly):

Follow the same steps as for the letters to get the design going.

When the machine stops, cut the thread, load the next thread color and repeat the starting steps.  Do the same for each color change until done:

Then clip any of the connecting threads that are not part of the design: 

Gently tear away the stabilizer on the back if it's a removable variety. There are also some water soluble ones or leave-ins (great for baby & kid's wear for a soft underside).  You can choose which ones to use based on preference and fabric type.  

And a beautiful, made-by-you custom embroidery is done! 

  

I'm really excited to be able to add some pretty & fun designs to clothes for the kids, on cloth diapers, when I make bags for me and for personalizing gifts now that I finally figured out machine embroidery.

Sharing this with my FAVE LINK PARTIES too so click HERE to check them out!