Elvistoo's new owner - finding her way

[Flobear]

Having finally hemmed the landing curtains yesterday, I felt justified wheeling out Elvistoo to see if I could 'go it alone' without my mentor 

I'd thought of stitching out small Christmassy designs to make festive cards and had a practice go. It went well but when I took off the stabiliser then pressed it a bit, the fabric went wiggly around the design. I'm guessing the fabric was not ideal - it was a spare bit of something that is thinner than usual quilting cotton and a bit polyestery - and the design was fairly dense in places. Wondering if I should have left the stabiliser in place as it's only for a card.

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If anyone can offer useful advice, I'd be grateful.

PS. I did fit the fabric into the hoop as tightly as I could.
PPS I can see the pic is sideways but it doesn't matter for the question 

[Ploshkin]

Can't advise but a good first attempt I would say.

[realale]

I usually put a bit of wadding between the stabiliser and top fabric when I'm doing embroidery for cards. Also the denser the stitches the more stabiliser I use so for heavy stitches like that I would use double. Also there are different stabilisers so I would use one of the stiffer/heavier ones - at the end of the day though it's only for a card so I don't fuss too much!! 

[Bodgeitandscarper]

Yeah, thinnish polycotton is not good for embroidering on, especially a dense design.  I expect there is a way, but I gave up with thin fabric!

I've had success with embroidering directly onto card as long as it's a light stitch design, if it's cards you want to do.

[Lachica]

I had the same problem but using 100% cotton. Rather than buying lots of different thicknesses of stabiliser I double or triple the thin stuff. Dense designs are trickier than the light sketchy ones but I'd say this looks good, and fine for a card.

[Hideout Hen]

I don't do embroidery, so feel free to totally disregard this, but could you heavily starch thin fabric before stitching. Then wash out if needed?

[Flobear]

A good question @Hideout Hen . I starch cotton for patchwork if it feels a bit thin or loose.

[Flobear]

I know this is the machine embroiderer's equivalent of 'Ooh, look, I can spell CAT' but I'm rather chuffed that I'm managing to put  circle round the Green man I've just stitched out 

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[Ohsewsimple]

@Flobear thats a nice design.  As already said thin poly /cotton fabric is not ideal.  Polyester has some stretch in it so not ideal.  I would leave off trying to iron/press it all afterwards. Make sure the fabric used is nice and flat and crease free first of all.  I’m also not a great one for hooping stuff.  Sometimes if you have hooped it very tightly the fabric relaxes after being released.  This can result in it the puckering.   I prefer to hoop the stabiliser and lay the fabric on top and use a basting stitch to keep it in place.  I smooth it out as it’s stitching the basting.  A dense design like that needs a cutaway to hold it all.  Not all stabilisers are great. 
Lots to learn but you’ll get there.  I’ve been embroidering since the first machines came out and I can still make mistakes! 

[Flobear]

Thank you for that useful information @Ohsewsimple . There's nothing like hearing from someone experienced to learn new stuff 

I've used some reasonably solid tearaway stabiliser, is it better to use cutaway?

Off to find out how to get Elvistoo to do basting.

[Ohsewsimple]

@Flobear i prefer cutaway for dense designs or designs with a large stitch count.  I generally use cutaway for light designs.  A good cutaway should look the same all over when held up to the light.  If you hold up a tear away you may find there are patches where the stabiliser is  thinner than other areas.  This can lead to poor and uneven stabilising.  My usual stabiliser is Floriani.  I use their cutaways and no show fusible mesh.  This is great on knit fabric as it basically turns a stretchy fabric into a stabilised one and then I baste the knit on the hoop which has cut away hooped up.  I’ve never had a problem doing it this way.  All my Appliscape pictures are done using cutaway. 

[Ohsewsimple]

@Flobear page E84 of your manual 

[coffeeandcake]

I think you did very well for your first solo run. I like your green man. Just a note - where you've got the longish jump stitches, they can be automatically cut in your settings. Page E-32
Isn't it quite satisfying to watch these machines?

[Mamashep]

Polycotton embroiders better with a sticky stabilizer, hoop stabilizer, then stick fabric to stabilizer, then slide a piece of tearaway or cutaway underneath. You can also use regular stabilizer and temporary spray adhesive, but this can make the hoops sticky, and I find sticky stabilizer much less hassle

[Flobear]

@Flobear page E84 of your manual 

Now, where did I put that manual