Adventures With Embroidery

As if I didn't have enough to do with making plush, digital illustration, paper toys and custom fabric I had to add embroidery. The embroidery machine I bought last winter has been sitting idle taking up space for months now. I was beginning to think of ways to unload it on Craigs List. The machine sat there taunting me, reminding me of what colossal amount of money I invested, for nothing.

For some reason I thought I could plug in an illustration with a flash drive and it would magically embroider my illustration like a printer would printing ink onto paper. I could go about my business while the machine was happily stitching away. Hah! Not quite that simple. In reality you pretty much have to babysit the machine while its embroidering. With each color change you must change the thread color, cut the threads and make sure nothing else goes awry while it doing its thing. A design can take up to 45 minutes or more to complete.

The digitizing process itself is quite a bear. As with all new software there is a learning process. Slowly but surely I'm gaining confidence with the tools and have begun stitching my first samples. Although I have so much more to learn I'm starting to like the whole idea of adding embroidery to my list of crafty conquests. I think it fits well with my brand. My plan is to have finished embroidered artwork for my upcoming show in August. Let me know what you think of my first sample of Little Red.