lefty loosey!
It's been a while since I did any free machine embroidery rather than free machine quilting and it isn't easy to switch between the two. Yes in theory you are using the machine in the same way for both, dropping the feed dogs and essentially writing with the needle, but there is a world of difference between them. Something that I took a while to realise.
For free machine quilting you need to maintain a constant speed; not too fast; not too slow and move your fabric "sandwich" smoothly in time with the speed of the machine. The aim is to keep all the stitches the same length and keep a flowing line of quilting without crossing over any lines. You need to look ahead of your needle so that you can see where to go next until the space you have chosen is filled.
For free machine embroidery, the technique is very different. You still need to run the machine at a constant speed, but much faster and as you don't necessarily need the stitches to be a constant length, you can move your fabric as quickly or slowly as you wish. In fact you can keep the fabric still and not move it at all which creates lovely blobby lumps especially if you are using a zigzag stitch. You still need to move the fabric smoothly as its easy to break the needle if your motion is too jerky. If you lower the bobbin tension, you can get the bobbin thread to show on the surface, or you can use a thicker thread in the bobbin and sew upside down. This gives you an opportunity to create lots of texture and if the stitching is dense enough, you can distort your fabric to create three dimensional effects. A really good book that describes the techniques is Machine Embroidery stitch techniques by Valerie Cambell Harding and Pamela Watts. Possibly now out of print, but worth searching for as it is very well written and gives really clear details of each stitch and how they can be developed.
In this little sample, I've used perle cotton in the bobbin and ordinary white cotton in the needle to create the surf and turned it over so that I was stitching on the back. This can be a bit of a challenge so it's an idea to draw your design on the back of the piece so you can be sure you're in the right place.
This little sample was sewn on dissolvable fabric with perle cotton in the bobbin.
These little seascapes used all of the bobbin techniques to create lots of texture.
These are only practice pieces, but they will help when I come to do seascape for real.
But, and there is a big but! Fiddling with the bobbin tension can cause no end of problems and there are those who say, "never do it"! I say, well if you want to create lots of texture just using threads, then sometimes you have to! What you need to do is keep one bobbin case absolutely unmeddled with and use another one to play with. This way you can use your machine to its fullest when free machining, but still know that if you want to sew a seam with a balanced stitch you can without any messing about with a screw driver.
It's been a while since I did any free machine embroidery rather than free machine quilting and it isn't easy to switch between the two. Yes in theory you are using the machine in the same way for both, dropping the feed dogs and essentially writing with the needle, but there is a world of difference between them. Something that I took a while to realise.
For free machine quilting you need to maintain a constant speed; not too fast; not too slow and move your fabric "sandwich" smoothly in time with the speed of the machine. The aim is to keep all the stitches the same length and keep a flowing line of quilting without crossing over any lines. You need to look ahead of your needle so that you can see where to go next until the space you have chosen is filled.
For free machine embroidery, the technique is very different. You still need to run the machine at a constant speed, but much faster and as you don't necessarily need the stitches to be a constant length, you can move your fabric as quickly or slowly as you wish. In fact you can keep the fabric still and not move it at all which creates lovely blobby lumps especially if you are using a zigzag stitch. You still need to move the fabric smoothly as its easy to break the needle if your motion is too jerky. If you lower the bobbin tension, you can get the bobbin thread to show on the surface, or you can use a thicker thread in the bobbin and sew upside down. This gives you an opportunity to create lots of texture and if the stitching is dense enough, you can distort your fabric to create three dimensional effects. A really good book that describes the techniques is Machine Embroidery stitch techniques by Valerie Cambell Harding and Pamela Watts. Possibly now out of print, but worth searching for as it is very well written and gives really clear details of each stitch and how they can be developed.
In this little sample, I've used perle cotton in the bobbin and ordinary white cotton in the needle to create the surf and turned it over so that I was stitching on the back. This can be a bit of a challenge so it's an idea to draw your design on the back of the piece so you can be sure you're in the right place.
This little sample was sewn on dissolvable fabric with perle cotton in the bobbin.
These little seascapes used all of the bobbin techniques to create lots of texture.
These are only practice pieces, but they will help when I come to do seascape for real.
But, and there is a big but! Fiddling with the bobbin tension can cause no end of problems and there are those who say, "never do it"! I say, well if you want to create lots of texture just using threads, then sometimes you have to! What you need to do is keep one bobbin case absolutely unmeddled with and use another one to play with. This way you can use your machine to its fullest when free machining, but still know that if you want to sew a seam with a balanced stitch you can without any messing about with a screw driver.
Of course when you're going on a course where you know you're going to be free machining and using cable stitch, whip stitch and the like, it pays to take your fiddled about with bobbin case with you. Why didn't I do it then? Don't know. I do know that having realised that I only had my pristine bobbin case with me, if I wanted to get the best out of the course I had to bite the bullet and get out the screw driver! So I did and it has taken me two days to retrieve the correct setting for balanced sewing. At least I didn't lose the screw!
Well done for not losing the screw. I did a workshop with Dawn Cameron-Dick last year and she is a great advocate of taking the screw driver to the bobbin. She works in 90 degree movements and advocates making a drawing if each change so you know where to go back to. I suppose you could do the same what ever the angle, maybe following the 5 minute gaps on a watch face. I was a bit scared when she altered my bobbin for the fineness of the thread I was using but I managed to get it back. I do have a spare bobbin case for one of my machines. I love what you have done with the penultimate sample. Beautiful!
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