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.

14 comments:

  1. LOVE!! good for you for tackling it rather than craiglisting it. :)

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  2. eeeeeep! She's so cute!! It sounds like kind of a pain, but I think it is going to be worth it.

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  3. I think she is gorgeous and I definitely think you should keep at it. I have been to scared of machine embroidery, so personally I stick to hand-embroidery. Good on you for giving it a good hard go.

    P.S. I, like you, thought that you could just "press print" and the embroidery would look after itself. Boy was I just as wrong as you!

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  4. Glad you didn't decided to Craigslist it. She may be a bear, but look how cute that turned out!

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  5. You've done great so far, Little Red is adorable! Can't wait to see more :)

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  6. Hola! Es maravilloso. Me encanta esta muñeca, luce preciosa y tierna! Felicidades el blog es bello, y la combinacion de color es fantastica.. Voy a tomar un buen tiempo en admirar vuestras creaciones preciosas. Dejo un besito (^.^) y saludos. Maika

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  7. She's gorgeous ! I think you should definitely keep going ;)

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  8. I saw your blog listed on the forum thread after the Etsy Crafty Blogging virtual lab tonight.

    Very creative, thanks for sharing!

    PS: I'm subscribed to your RSS so I can follow along

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  9. Thank you all for your support and encouragement! I'm starting to get the hang of it and hopefully will have some designs finished soon. :D

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