Saturday, October 1, 2011

Did You Unplug The Iron? -- Tutorial


This photo is how I left this post quite a few months ago. It was an applique project I was trying, so I would have something to remind me to turn off the iron when I'm done sewing at the end of the day. I had no idea it would take me so long to finish the project, and then to get around to blogging about it. "sorry"


Here you can see that I started sewing down the first piece of the iron, the blue piece. I didn't need to sew down the left side of the blue piece. I just left it a raw edge, as I eventually covered it with the next piece of fabric. I really love those small applique pins. They don't get in the way as much as larger pins when making the applique stitches.



For embroidering the letters, I just turned to my computer. I tried out several different fonts till I found one that was just right. I felt this font would translate into embroidery pretty well. I liked the hand-written, almost scribbly look to it.


After I added the embroidered letters, I decided to add a few more little lines of embroidery, just to liven up the piece a bit (the heat lines beside the iron, and the steam lines coming out of the top). Then I added the yellow border pieces, and did a little hand quilting around the edge of the iron, and just inside the border.



Here it is, finished and bound with the same yellow fabric.

Now, I know we are not supposed to point out our mistakes to others. But I want to tell you what I learned in this project.

1. Finish all aspects of the picture portion before embroidering on the words, so that the words will be centered!

2. Also, always use a backing layer under the embroidery fabric. That can be interfacing or simply a piece of muslin. This will help a lot in hiding the tails of your embroidery thread, especially if you're using a fairly bright blue on simple unbleached muslin!

I really like my little hanging. It only measures about 7 inches wide, so it doesn't take up much space next to the door of my studio.

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