Video: Let’s Get “Crazy” with Fabric Part 1

I am stepping out of my software box and focusing on a machine technique with this two-part video blog. I love the 2500 Design Collection that came with the Brother Luminaire XP1 machine.
In it there are small designs that you can combine to make your own textured fabric. This is a fun and super easy way to get creative without using software! I am not going to focus on my finished project, as I don’t know if I could ever give you the correct dimensions. I ended up cutting parts of my created fabric up and sewing a piece of sashing to it until I had a finished project. It was freeing not to have a set end in mind and I enjoyed just letting the creative juices flow. I have some leftover fabric that I may use in appliqués or other projects. Some ideas of how to use the fabrics… Garment sewing, designer purses and bags, quilting. I can’t wait to see what you end up creating, both fabric wise and finished projects. The fabric is your blank canvas, embroidery thread your paint, and your embroidery machine is the brush! Have fun! This is a two-part video blog. In Part One, we will start with the basics of creating repeating patterns on the embroidery machine to create two fabrics.

Materials needed to embroider

• Fabrics that read as a solid
• Tearaway stabilizer
• Coordinating embroidery threads
• Brother Embroidery machine with Border function. These videos are completed with the Brother Luminaire XP1,
  but the operation is similar on the machines that have the Border function.
• 2500 Free Design Collection

The first step in this process is to locate small designs that will look nice repeated. In the 2500 design collection, there are quite a few of these. There are small designs in most all the categories. I found the designs I wanted to use in the Decors, Accents and Flower design categories. There are more in other categories as well as built-in designs on the machine. The category 5 (the character decorative stitches) on the Luminaire machine would be fun to use with this technique. Transfer the 2500 embroidery designs to a USB flash drive and insert the drive into the top USB port on the embroidery machine. I created all my fabric designs and saved them to the machine to embroider once I had them all done. We will create 2 fabrics in each of the blogs. Let’s get started! [youtube id="mgSgDmOlQmI"]