Adding Embroidery to a Basic Tee

My sewing machine has an embroidery unit, but I rarely use it.  I am not sure why I don’t, but I have a couple of theories.  The first one is I am always in a hurry to finish a sewing project once I start it.  I know it will take time to plan which design I want to use and to embroider a sample before placing it on a garment.  Those two things take time.  I think the second reason is I am afraid it will not turn out right.  I could place it on the wrong spot or the design might not stitch out without a flaw due to an operator error. 

In an attempt to make myself use the embroidery unit of my sewing machine more frequently, I joined the Embroidery Neighborhood Group of the Lansing Clippers American Sewing Guild.  I am so glad I did.  This group meets once a month at the Hen House Fabric Store in Charlotte.  The group is discussion only, which means I don’t need to lug my heavy machine to Charlotte to participate.   The discussions, led by Bev and Char, are super helpful.  We have a different topic each month and most months we bring samples of something we stitched.  We discuss our successes as well as our failures.  This is where all of us learn a lot and I get the courage to attempt to use my embroidery unit.

During our last meeting, we showed and discussed designs we stitched showing something from the sea.  That could be fish, whales, sea shells, coral, etc.  I planned to stitch a design showing sail boats in the distance with sea shells in the foreground.  It was a large design I wanted to place on the back of a sweatshirt jacket.  It had almost 35,000 stitches.  I was almost half done when I had to stop to change the bobbin thread.  This should not have been a problem, but it turned into one.  I hit the wrong button and caused the embroidery unit to go into the park position.  That also should not have been a problem; however, it was for me.  I was unable to get the needle back to point where it needed to be.  I won’t go into the details here, but I was unable to finish the design.  Now you might understand why I don’t embroider much.  I needed the design sewn out by my meeting the following day.  I decided to embroider a design with fewer stitches due to lack of time.  I chose a small sea horse and was able to get it stitched out before my meeting. 

Recently, I cut out a tee shirt from some inexpensive fabric I had.  I decided this would be the perfect time to try to add the sea horse to the top before sewing it together.   I also decided to place a design with sea gulls standing in water on the lower right side of the shirt.  I managed to get both designs embroidered on the shirt without a problem. 

I also recently made dark navy pants from Butterick B6910.  You might remember that is the pattern I used for the posts on how to fit pants.  I wasn’t sure I would like the pattern because it had a curved waistband.  I usually make pants with a straight waistband.  I will see how comfortable the pants are when I wear them.

The picture below shows both the tee shirt and navy pants.  I also took a closeup shot of the sea horse and sea gulls designs. 

 

Have you sewn your first project for 2024 yet?  If not, get started!  Is there a sewing technique or a process you want to try to improve or learn during this coming year?  If so, do your research and give it a try.

Good luck,

Judy