Machine Embroidery with Embird: Merged design stitch out; second creation in Embird

This is the results of the stitch out that I did with my brand-new Embird software.

Let me say upfront that I ONLY merged different bits of other embroidery designs (created by other designers) to come up with my own. I want to get a feel for machine embroidery from already created designs before I put the time into  turning my own drawings into “embroidered masterpieces.”

What’s wrong with this embroidered design?

I purposely choose the embroidered files to create my own recreated merged design because of some of the comments that were made about the separate embroidered designs. They weren’t all positive.

My first impression, while watching this was being machine embroidered was…

1. The people who created the original embroidered designs were (hopefully) still in the learning stage. I would not be pleased to pay for something like this with the errors I’m seeing.
2. Perhaps they used a auto-stitch feature (some embroidery programs have that) in the embroidery program that they have. That could have explained some of the spotty stitching.

Why do I say that? Look at the above picture. There are  several gaps. Those gaps should have been manually filled with embroidered stitches. Also, if you look there is a red sewn line running from the bottom lip up to the upper lip. That running stitch should have been hidden under the main stitching and connected to the upper lip at the side so it would not be noticeable. I didn’t even talk about the eyes, those errors might not be as noticeable, but those have issues also.

The only reason I know what is wrong with this merged embroidered design is because I’ve stitched out machine embroidery designs that were “perfect.” I purposely worked with already completed designs, because I wanted an understanding on how machine embroidery works, so I’ve mainly used created designs for the past several months. If you’re paying attention while the machine is embroidering, it’s easy to spot when something is done incorrectly.

I did clean up what I could by snipping away the threads that really stood out (with my embroidery scissors) but it still needs a lot of work. It could be fixed if  repaired by hand embroidery, but I’m not doing that. I tend to keep “before projects” just so I can look back to see how I improved.

Now that this embroidery file is merged, it will be a great canvas to play around with as I apply some of the techniques I’ve learned with my machine embroidery program (Embird). The next step is to clean up this merged embroidery file and turn it into an embroidered pattern that will stitch out nicely. No, you won’t see an update tomorrow. There is still a lot to learn (after all) but I’m looking forward to stitching this out again and seeing how it’s improved.

Of course, now I’m just eager to learn as much as possible so I can start turning some of my sketches (and my talented daughters) into embroidered works of art.

And I can’t forget my desire to turn a WoW character into an embroidered creation!  I’m looking at you Aggra! Female orcs are my favorite in-game character. Although I haven’t played World of Warcraft in a while, the game still has a lot of great memories and I do keep in contact with a few folks through email and phone. I’m sure I’ll be touring that virtual world with some of my toons, someday…