Last Thursday evening I embroidered my first garment.
Machine embroidered t-shirt
I told my daughter to pick something she didn’t mind tossing out if the machine embroidery didn’t turn out great. I’m still new to machine embroidery. She chose a t-shirt… smart girl! She decided on a cute rag doll from Urban Threads. As mentioned in yesterdays post, I didn’t follow the thread recommendations. My daughter chose her own colors for the Urban Threads design. The design cost $3.00. I plan to use it on a lot of different items.
Pressing the green circle starts the machine embroidery function on my Brother SE-400. The only thing left to do was to monitor the embroidery machine, as it created the embroidered design. Even though the machine does all the work, it’s smart to keep a watchful eye on it so nothing bad happens.
I really love my Brother SE-400. The maximum design it will embroider is 4×4, so if you want to embroider a larger design, you’ll have to look for another machine.
Embroidered design is almost complete
It took about forty minutes to complete the design.
Completed embroidered design
And it turned out perfect. A simple but creative way to dress up a plain t-shirt.
I started pattern drafting shortly after I learned to hand sew — I was six-years old.
Although I didn’t know the proper term at the time, I did know in order to make flashy Renaissance inspired clothing (my favorite period due to the elaborate fashions) I would need to do more than eyeball the fabric, cut, and hand sew the pieces together. Trust me, I tried (eyeballing and cutting) when I was six years old and the results weren’t pretty. And so I started making my own patterns.
I knew about the Renaissance period from the books I read. I started reading at four, and read anything I could get my hands on… I quickly outgrew ‘baby books’ at five and was reading at the college level within a few years. My parents thought it was important for my brother and I to improve our mind, so television wasn’t in our household. That might explain why I rarely watch it today. 😉 Naturally I turned to the books in my home, which included a healthy diet of my fathers books; Greek tragedy, Keats, Poe, Shakespeare and numerous other authors and poets mainly from the 1700s and 1800s. The Renaissance inspired fashions I saw within some of those books were extremely appealing and although I disliked playing with dolls I made exception so I could replicate the numerous designs I within the book pages. Several of my father’s books are old and many of them were published in 1700 – 1800s period. I learned at a young age to handle them with care. The words I couldn’t understand, I’d either ask my parents or take it upon myself to find the answer by flipping through a very old dictionary which helped me understand what the words.
Initially I used notebook paper to create my patterns but my father seeing my interest did a wonderful thing and somehow acquired photocopy paper. Photocopy paper wasn’t as easily accessible as it is now, since back in the 1970s home printers weren’t the norm– but somehow he managed. I appreciated that. I wish I’d saved some of my old patterns so I can see how far I’ve progressed since that time, but I still have my memories.
Today, I’ve been making a few patterns for my daughter’s Monster High dolls. I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s its ‘easier’ than creating patterns for myself or others, true it’s smaller scale but with my perfectionist mentality things have to be ‘just right’ before it’s accepted. Also,the Monster High dolls are oddly shaped, so the challenge will be to make outfits that are lovely, but also complement their unique figure. Next weekend I have some free time, so I told my daughter to sketch out some designs (which she’s doing right now) and next weekend I’ll turn eight of her sketches into finished outfits.
Repurposed clothing
When I cleaned out my closets, I set aside a few garments to cut and transform into ‘plain fabric’ to be used in various sewing projects. I know some other sewists do this, do you? Making fabric from unwanted clothing is economical and a great way to extend the life of gorgeous fabric. Knowing my daughter’s taste, I knew she’d love to see those prints gracing her dolls… and I was right. There was a big smile on her face when I showed her the items. Earlier today, I cut the outfits into fabric. I now have extra fabric and I didn’t have to spend additional money.
Urban Threads-Such a Doll
In other news…
I applied the above embroidered designs to a garment. Yes, it’s for my daughter. I purchased the embroidered design from Urban Threads. No, I didn’t use all the recommended colors. I asked my daughter to choose what she liked. If you embroider (hand or machine) definitely check out their designs. I love them since they aren’t frumpy. Since I’m a machine embroidery noob… I thought it would be a great idea to become knowledgeable about machine embroidery before making my own designs. I took a picture of the garment, which she loves by the way. Eventually I’ll upload and share it here on Celebrate Life. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, of course this means that now I can finally get around to mailing some packages… since I’m pleased with my machine embroidery skills.
This past week, I’ve had some free time and so I’ve taken advantage of that by playing with my Brother Se-400, working on my knitted blanket, and I even played World of Warcraft (although briefly). Here’s hoping you all are finding time to do things you enjoy too.
The past few days, I’ve been experiencing cold like symptoms. Besides upping my intake of raw garlic (which is anti-bacterial) I’ve also been increasing my intake of select juices.
This morning I juiced carrot, ginger, and garlic (all three awesome for cold prevention). And promptly drank the blend. It tasted great. Juiced carrots are sweet, ginger added a spicy kick, and garlic was added since its my go to ingredient when fighting a cold.
I started juicing religiously about seven years ago. I did a lot of research on the topic, and finally purchased a Green Star juicer. It’s a solid juicer that easily juices whatever I toss at it including the harder vegetables like beets and jicama. It’s a bit expensive costing me well over $300, but it has definitely paid for itself since purchasing freshly made juice would have been more expensive.
My daughter loves freshly made juices also, and seems to enjoy when I create something new. I like that she prefers freshly made juices/smoothies over the overly the sugary beverages (devoid of nutrition) that flood our supermarkets.
A few moments ago, I met with the the director of our Lutheran church’s Passion Play. Because of both of our schedules we haven’t had a chance to chat in person.
I didn’t say too much about my sewing history since he already knows that I started hand sewing when I was six years old. I started machine sewing at the age of eight. Had my designs featured in local shows, boutiques, etc., I can say all the things I can do. Anyone can say that… but the proof will be my creations, right?
Now that we’ve had a chance to meet, I can start making those costumes. Instead of four, I’ll now be making five. I’m looking forward to the opportunity since it gives me a chance to flex my costuming skills and more importantly sew!
It looks like my dreams of dressing the wealthy Mary Magdalene in first century finery is crumbling since her costume will be used for the scene in where the demons are cast out of her. But… I can have a little fun with that since he told me he wants the costume to have a jagged edge to the sleeves and hem. I’m thinking of using a tiny rolled hem on the jagged edges…
Unbleached muslin
But we’ll see… I’ll make a mockup of her outfit in muslin and play around with those jagged edges.
The fifth costume I’m making, will be for a demon; one of those that was cast out of Mary. I readily admit that demons and the role they’ve played within the Bible and throughout history has fascinated me.
The demons scene will be brief. Of course… the demon is evil, and the director wants him to be hidden within his clothing. I can do that. I ran a few ideas by him how that could be achieved and he seemed to like them. We’ll see how it transfers onto fabric. I’ll most likely will make a mockup of that costume too, before creating the real thing.
I must say I’m looking forward to this experience, since it combines a multitude of things I enjoy, history, costume design, and because I research everything it gives me a new look at some familiar figures of the Holy Bible.
I wish I could have more time to devote to it, but life has been busy and I haven’t done as much sewing or knitting as I’d like. However in one of my first adventures with my brand-new Brother SE400, I stumbled upon the following error message…
Brother SE400 sewing machine error message:
change the speed controller mode to off
I couldn’t sew/embroider! I opened up the user manual but couldn’t locate the error message… Uh Oh! But, when I looked at the sewing machines screen and found the ‘Sewing Machines Tools’ screen I was able to correct this issue. I changed the control speed to “Off”. That fixed the problem, and I was embroidering with no problems.
Last week I made curried hominy, it’s a favorite in our house and never remains long.
Hominy is corn that has had its outer shell removed. It’s then soaked in a mixture that makes it swell. This gives it a soft texture. It’s commonly thought of as a Southern dish, but plenty of non-Southern folks seem to enjoy the dish also.
As a child, my mother made hominy a few times each month… usually on Sunday mornings. Sausage, biscuits, eggs, and gravy were usually on that menu too. I liked the texture but I wasn’t too fond of the simplistic way it was served and couldn’t wait until I was older to spice it up a bit.
In my twenties, when I cut loose in the kitchen, one of the first things I did was to give hominy a makeover. Results? I loved the upgrade! I never went back to eating plain hominy again. I only prepare hominy once every few months. There’s too many foods we enjoy, that settling on a few dishes isn’t going to happen.
Curried Hominy
I prepared this dish in my lovely wok. I added curry, cauliflower, broccoli, curry, a bit of cumin, garlic, and salt to taste… simple but delicious. Occasionally I’ll add additional items like tomato, carrots… it all depends on what’s wanted.
This morning, my Brother 1034D arrived via Federal Express! I was busy hanging with my daughter and so I didn’t check it out until this afternoon.
One of the many features that appealed to me about this serger machine is that it can use regular needles and thread. The machine comes pre-threaded. The provided spools are the traditional sewing spools (not the serger spools) so if you have plans on doing a lot of serging (immediately after you receive your machine) you won’t be able to do it with that thread. But since you think ahead, you already are armed with additional thread, right?
Brother 1034D, spools on the machine are Gutermann Toldi-Lock
I like that the thread provided is in four different colors (yellow, pink, green and blue.) This was helpful since I could easily identify which of the four tensions (adjusted by using the colored dials above) might need to be corrected if I ran into any issues. Additionally using colored threads for each tension, helps someone new to serging (such as myself) quickly become familiar with what each thread (I’m using four spools) does on a serged hem. Gauge off? No problem, it’s an easy fix since the tension is represented by its own thread color. Thanks Brother! You really impressed me in this area.
Before I started serging with my Brother 1034D, I oiled it at the points recommended in the included manual. Afterwards I fed numerous scrap fabrics through the Brother 1034D. I played around with the gauge and occasionally, depending on the fabric texture, I had to tweak the tension settings a bit. I did this for a few hours, and learned a lot in the process. Finally, I serged scraps on the correct settings and am keeping them on file. In doing this, I can easily refer to the proper tension setting depending on the fabric I’m using. Several weeks ago, when I was researching this machine, I stumbled upon a fabulous article about this topic. It was written by Peter of Male Pattern Boldness. I’m so happy I stumbled upon this useful tip. Thanks Peter!
After understanding what all the threads did (and being impressed by the nicely serged seams) I took off the colorful threads and threaded my large spools of Gutermann Toldi-Lock. I currently have Maxi-Lock thread on order. Although I’ve never used a serger, or threaded one, I found this serger easy to thread and had no problem following the clearly marked guide that’s shown on the machine.
After my serger session was complete, I made sure I cleaned up the loose threads/fiber that was hanging out in my machine. I take great care of my items which might explain why my things last a long time. Today I used a vacuum attachment to suction up the lint that had made it’s way into the gears. You can purchase canned air, vacuum attachments, or tiny vacuums that make loose fiber cleanup a breeze.
My first impression about the Brother 1034D is positive. It’s sturdy, quiet, makes a neat serged hem at the correct tension and I didn’t have any issue threading this machine. I’m looking forward to many hours of enjoyment with my Brother 1034D… and of course I’ll be sharing some of what I create here on Celebrate Life.
Lovely stretch fabric that I’m making into an outfit (top and flowing pants.)
Today, I didn’t get to create anything for my daughter or myself, but I did learn a lot about serging.
I started pattern drafting shortly after I learned to hand sew — I was six-years old.
The past few days, I’ve been experiencing cold like symptoms. Besides upping my intake of raw garlic (which is anti-bacterial) I’ve also been increasing my intake of select juices.
I’ve been having fun playing around with my 
