At the bottom of our garden live a bunch of ducks, they do not belong to us, but they love to visit and see if there might be a treat for them, they are fascinating to watch, and listen to as they qwack to each other. No wonder there have been so many stories, illustrations and cartoons built around the duck family.

Another duck we see from time to time is the ‘plataduck’ or more commonly known as platypus. Unlike our usual qwackers, they tend to be very private and quiet, and if you live in Australia, near a billabong or stream, you might just find one at the bottom of your garden, and what a pleasant sight, to see them slip quietly into the water and get on with their day of living.

If you do not live in Australia, near a stream, or a billabong, you might choose instead to spend some pleasant time with your beloved embroidery machine, and put together an applitoon, featuring that beautiful little animal.
http://www.secretsof.com/content/3212

Marian 
http://www.secretsof.com/content/2549

Hello Carolyn. Since downloading the update for Embird, when I enlarge a design I get a lot of long stitches that show blank spots on the design in Embird, they are still there but the stitch is just too long. I have tried making sure the tension is ok to enlarge. Can you help me get it back to how it was before the change over? I loved using Embird to enlarge or make my designs smaller.

Kind regards
Karen Ritchie

Hi Karen

Thanks for your email. It sounds to me like the design that you’re enlarging may contain areas of satin stitch that when enlarged are appearing as jump stitches - as the stitches have been increased so much in length that Embird thinks they are actually jump stitches. What you need to do is make sure that you select Convert Column to Fill if stitch is longer than?. in the Stitch Density screen. Make sure that the setting is no more than 9.0mm. Then any satin stitches that are enlarged when the design is made larger will be converted to a fill stitch if the length of the satin stitch becomes too large to be recognized as a satin stitch.

I hope to do an updated “ Resizing Made Easy” tutorial for Embird 2006 very shortly and this should explain all these issues.

Best of luck. I hope this works for you

Kind regards,
Carolyn

Carolyn Keber
http://www.carolynkeber.com
Step by Step lessons for Embird and PE Design

Have a look at our new  Embroidery Tips area, it has been completely remade and has great articles on embroidery techniques, computer help, design placement, digitizing, needles, thread, stabilizers and adhesives.  Many thanks to Ananda who spent long hours re-making it all! Have a look and leave a comment - we love to hear your feedback!

Jann

Evy, I’m looking for a very small, delicate, redwork type font (not satin stitch) to embroider my granddaughters’ names and dates on a very lightweight cotton/poly dress. I hand embroidered their mother’s name and Baptismal date 30 years ago, but would like to use my embroidery machine to add their information to this heirloom dress. What will be the best way to stabilize the fabric? It is basically handkerchief weight.
 
Thank you for any help you can give me. 
Sue Hiatt

Dear Sue;
 
Kim at Secrets has found this font in their designer’s collections that will probably work for you: http://www.secretsof.com/content/1977 I’m not sure what size it is, but if you write the digitizer, Shelly Smola, I am sure she can help you with that question. Her email address is:  myfairladydesigns@hotmail.com  If the font is too large, it is possible that Shelly will be willing to re-size it for you. She is a very nice person to work with.
 
As your dress is a heirloom, and the fabric may be delicate with age, I would choose a stabilizer that you can leave in for continued support of the embroidered area. Try a sheer mesh cut-away. http://www.terradonunlimited.com/stabilizers.htm has a nice sheer cut-away that is very light. I use it to stabilize silk organza, when necessary. Polymesh, by John Solomon (sold at Secrets) is also a nice, sheer cut-away stabilizer. You can view that at: http://www.secretsof.com/content/896
 
I hope this helps!
 
Evy
www.abitofstitch.com

How does one make a continuous borders,like on the hem of a little dress or around a neckline,etc? Appreciate the help!

Hello!
 
Borders are so much fun…a little bit of a pain to align…but well worth the effort! Here’s my method, but keep in mind that there are other methods that work just fine too, and you may discover a new way while you experiment!
 
Print out a template for the border design. If you cannot print out a true sized image, stitch out a sample and mark the hoop placement guidelines. Mark the center cross mark, completely across the template both vertically and horizontally. If you stitch the template, stitch the design in the center of the hoop and mark the center cross marks directly across the design on the fabric. Cut the fabric in the exact size of the inner top hoop. This will give you a “cheat sheet” to check your work with as you go along and will also help you decide how many hoopings your border will require before you begin.
 
Draw a line down the fabric using a water-soluble marker that will show the location of the center of the border to be stitched. (I find it much easier to create a border for a garment before the garment is constructed.)
 
Decide how many hoopings will be required. Hopefully you have the clear plastic grid that came with your hoop. This little tool makes borders a lot easier to do! Compare the template you printed or stitched with the grid. Note the placement of the design on the grid. If you have printed a paper template, tape it to the underside of the plastic grid. Tape just the middle and ends within the design, then trim away the excess paper. (Another option is to print the template on clear plastic template material to begin with…like the type of plastic sheets used for overhead projectors.)
 
Line up the first hooping using the plastic grid to correctly place the hoop. The line you have drawn should be in the center of your hoop, aligned with the hoop marks on the hoop as well as the grid. Each design will be centered on this marked line. Your machine foot should also be centered on the marked line. Check each time to be sure it is. Stitch the first design. (If there is a certain portion of the border that you want to be centered on your garment, begin there and work outward from each end.)
 
Remove the hoop and press away any hoop marks in the fabric. Use the grid with the attached template of the design to correctly position the hoop for the next hooping. Keep going till your done! Collars are done much the same way. (It is easier to work with a drawn…with water-soluble marker…collar pattern on a large piece of fabric than to cut out the collar.) Mark your border placement line and use the templates to position each design. For collars, it is definitely better to begin in the center and work back left and right.
 
Two important things to remember…the top hoop usually fits into the bottom hoop only one way correctly, although it may fit another way incorrectly! Clear plastic hoop grids usually fit into the top hoop only one way correctly too. Be sure to check your machine manual for correct placement of both hoop and grid. Preshrink your fabric!
 
Happy Stitching

What kind of thread do you use for embroidery and what kind should I use for assembling clothing.  I was using the same for both but I was told that the embroidery thread isn’t strong enough for regular sewing. Do they only have prewound bobbins for embroidery and quilting? Thanks

A cotton/polyester blend of sewing thread is normally used for garments and other regular sewing projects. It is much cheaper than embroidery thread, launders easier, and takes wear and tear better. Embroidery thread is more expensive, not always color fast and requires a little extra care. (For instance, you can iron directly on cotton/polyester thread stitching without fear of damaging the fibers…but if you do this with most embroidery threads, you will flatten the fibers and sometimes remove the pretty sheen.)
 
Any pre-wound bobbin with cotton or polyester thread that fits your sewing machine should work for your regular sewing. However, for garments that you plan to wear often, I would recommend that you use the same thread in the top as the bobbin…you will have a stronger seam. Polyester thread blended with cotton is much stronger than just cotton thread. That is my favorite type to use for garment construction.
 
I hope this helps!
 
Evy
www.abitofstitch.com

Hi Carolyn, I have attached a design with a large fill area. It is created in PEDesign and I find that often with PED, when the design fills, it does not quite close. It looks as though one more row or so would close it up nicely. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can fix this problem?

Thank you,
Brenda

Hi Brenda,

I had a look at your design for you although by your good description of it I had guessed what was wrong with it before I opened it. The reason the fill doesn’t close properly is because there are quite a number of stitches in this object and the placement of the stitches into your fabric will have stretched the fabric ever so slightly which in turn has created a slight gap where the two areas of stitching should meet.

PE Design does not have a setting where you can tell the program to overlap stitching by several rows when creating objects such as this. One way this problem can be avoided though, is by ensuring that your fill stitching does one complete pass - rather than stitching part of the object on one side and then moving to another side of the object to finish the stitching - finally joining - or not joining in your case - the rows of stitching. To create a one pass stitch you need to change your start and finish point - where the design starts and stops stitching - to coincide with the angle of fill. This is easy to do with regular shaped fill but if you are creating an object with a variety of curves etc in it then it is known as a complex shape and then it’s not quite so easy to get a one stitch pass.

In Embird Studio there is a stitch setting that can be changed to allow for an overlap but sadly in PE Design, up to and including Version 6, there wasn’t such a setting. As I don’t have PE Design V7 I cannot say if this has now been added.

Another way to help overcome this gap is adjust your stabilizer and add basting stitches as well but the best thing to do is try to get a one stitch pass if possible.

Best of luck.

Kind regards,
Carolyn

Welcome to the Secrets Blog!

Hi everyone and welcome to our new Secrets Blog. Here is where you will find the Ask Evy and Ask Carolyn columns which used to appear in the fortnightly newsletters. You can use the menu system and categories on the right to find your way around.  Feel free to add your own comments and advice to the postings, and see comments from other people too.

Soon other Secrets designers will be adding more articles. Plus we’ll keep you up to date with other things that are happening on the Secrets website. Check back regularly to read something new … to leave a comment under an article just click the Discuss button.  We hope you enjoy blogging and look forward your comments.

Jann