Experiments with Embroidery
If you’ve ever been to MADE Makerspace (which, if you haven’t, get you there!) you’ll know that they have an extensive textile area which is effectively my home-away-from-home when sewing up the custom purses and handbags that I sell.
Ever since I started there, there’s two machines that I’ve wanted to know how to use: the Babylock Enterprise 10-thread Embroidery Machine, and the long-arm quilter. The long-arm I will learn once I finish the quilt top that I’ve had in progress for … a while. But I just needed a good excuse to plunk down the cash for a class on the embroidery machine!
For this story, it may be helpful to know that I sew bags with flags. Gay pride flags, transgender flags, country flags - if it’s a set of colours, I can sew them together. So when a customer asked if I could make a Sicilian flag-themed wristlet, of course I said “I got you”! … aaaaand then I Googled the Sicilian Flag:
…. yeah. That’s a little more complicated than just sewing stripes together. 😂 I briefly contemplated trying to do an applique with my Cricut, but with all those teeny tiny lines, I just didn’t trust it to stay looking nice in the long-term for the exterior of a clutch that’s designed to be really used and tossed around. So I guess here’s my excuse to learn that embroidery machine!
I took a class with Carly at MADE, who was awesome as always. We found a couple of different embroidery designs on Etsy and stitched them up over a couple of days of trial and error. I learned about the various under-and over-layer stitch types, how the vinyl that I use reacts to the zillions of tiny stitches when compared to machine stitching on fabric, and what kind of interfacings I need to use.
This new skill opens up a whole new world of custom purse and bag sewing for me, and I’m so excited to see what I can come up with next. There are so many amazing embroidery designs that I’ve tee’d up to play with (a Jack Skellington face on a white circular purse, anyone?!) so watch this space to see what comes next!