My first cutwork embroidery

I have two cutwork embroidery cards for the Janome memory craft 5700.

Memory card no. 107 cutwork designs
Memory card no. 29 cutwork series

Today I tried a small design from card 29.
The sample used a lightweight cotton fabric with one layer of water soluble film.  The bobin thread was ordinary sewing thread and the needle thread was ordinary machine embroidery rayon.

Summer shorts Simplicity 7655 six made easy

Janome Memory Craft card 31

Penguin embroidery

I made view C, the elastic waist shorts and added a patch pocket to each side. I also lengthened them by about 5 cm.

They were fast and easy to sew but took longer than expected because I had to join fabric to get enough length.

I used Janome Memory card 31 birds to embroider a penguin on the back and on a pocket.

Fabric - a poly cotton gingham remnant

Machine embroidery bunting

I made this decorative bunting for my thread shelves using machine embroidery. I nearly always do a practice run to test colour, size and tension and it is these practice pieces that I used to make this decorative piece.

Janome Memory Craft 5700 borders

Today I followed the instructions that came with the border design card and embroidered my first actual border. It is a bit lumpy because I didn't use stabiliser and didn't have enough fabric margin on one side to completely fill the hoop.

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T-shirts from Burda Start III 3197

I have made three t-shirts from the Burda 3197 pattern. Each one has a slight style variation, and each one fits slightly differently due to the differences in stretch of each fabric.

These t-shirts also mark my first attempts at twin needle stitching which did not go well until the last shirt. I have an old Janome 5700 and to get the twin needle to stitch with minimal skipping took a lot of trial and error.

 

The three settings that worked for me were - 

• putting paper strips under the fabric and stitching through it
• adjusting the needle position two steps to the left of centre
• having a shorter stitch length of 2.8 instead of my usual 3 or 3.5

 

With those three settings in place I almost eliminated the skipped stitches that occurred previously.

Each t-shirt had to have the shoulders adjusted inwards by about 1cm. I did not use the facing provided in the original pattern. Instead applying a cowl type rectangle to the black top, folding over and stitching the neck of the purple top and applying a narrow band to the green top.

The seams are over-locked/serged. The sleeves of the green top were machine embroidered using large flower motifs.

 

I completely missed the indelible knit line when sewing the green top and it has not come out in the wash. So today I embroidered a line of stitching over it.

 

 

 

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Embroidered pocket nightie

Another nightie but this time with a monogram and floral stem on the pocket. I used a 100% cotton knit with a light print of sea horses, fish and shells.

The basic pattern

Short sleeves, velcro placket, a pocket and no neck binding
 (the edge was turned over and stitched)

Close-up of placket and pocket

Pocket detail - machine embroidered

Notes:
Reduce needle tension on the embroidery (there was some bobbin thread showing)

Machine Embroidery

I'm so happy with my recently acquired Janome Memory Craft 5700. It works well and the hoop my father made fits the machine and the designs from the embroidery cards I bought from Ebay turn out just like they should.