Braving the Embroidery Unit Again

I was so glad that I finally busted the embroidery unit out of its box last year. I chose a simple, one-color design for my jeans pockets, and it came out perfectly.

Let’s try a more complex design for our first Summer Skirt Smackdown project, OK? I picked out some summery coral linen for the Bernina My Label A-Line Skirt. I scrolled through the preset designs on my machine and landed on this hummingbird design:

I attract these ruby-throated hummingbirds to my yard every summer with a feeder that looks like a flying saucer. The design requires 12 colors – go big or go home, I guess. I rifled through my threads, and while I didn’t have the exact colors I had enough that were close – both embroidery threads and regular threads – to give it a try. I lined them all up in order and got to it.

Five tries later, I had it done!

Top row (left to right):

1. At first, I put the pocket piece in the hoop, but it wasn’t secure enough and tangled up. In trying to remove the tangle, I cut a hole in it.
2. Next, I got the first color started just fine on a larger piece of fabric. The phone rang, so I went to answer it. I thought I had set the machine so it would stop and cut the threads when the color was done. Nope. I came back a few minutes later to see it had started sewing the design entirely in this dark green color.

Bottom row (left to right)

1. The bobbin ran out. I wound a new bobbin but screwed it up somehow – got a thread nest again and again cut a whole in the project trying to fix it.
2. Made it halfway before I encountered a mishap! I had reduced the size of the design by 15% so it would fit on the pocket nicely. I didn’t realize, however, that when you do this the design saves in the computer as a temporary new design. I took a break from the project to eat lunch, but when I returned the size display was showing 100% instead of 85% – because it was 100% of the temporary design – get it? I didn’t. I dialed it back to 85%, so now it was 85% of 85% (whatever that is). The design sewed askew and I could not fix it. I eventually gave up only to start yet again. I dumped the temporary design, unplugged the machine, plugged it back in, and started fresh.
3. Finally, a perfect one! Only took about 4 hours!

One down, one to go. I flipped the design to a mirror image for the other pocket. Worked perfectly the first time – only about 25 minutes!

Whew I am tired! And I didn’t have to do a stitch by hand.

Author: shoes15

I live in Connecticut, USA with my husband and my dog, in an old house outfitted with a sewing room, a garden, an orchard, and a big liquor cabinet. View all posts by shoes15