Hello Stitching Sewcial! Please put your hands together for our newest Brother Sews Ambassador, Tabitha Sewer (and yes, that is her real last name! She married into it!) Tabitha brings a fun funky style that is certainly eye-catching and dramatic and we think you will enjoy her sewing and fashion sense as much as we do! So, we are pleased to present to you, Tabitha Sewer! Hi everyone! Thanks for the warm welcome! You know, everyone wants to feel LOVED! In this tutorial, I will share how easy it is to create a fun and colorful appliqué. With this technique, you can create this playful sweater and customize it to your style.

Supplies:

• Brother Sewing machine (I used the Stellaire XJ1
  for this project).
• Thread
• Sweatshirt
• Fabric (I used a washcloth)
• Sewing notions

1. Frame your sweatshirt or shirt into an appropriate size embroidery hoop and start by setting up machine for embroidery with the W+ embroidery foot. 2. Choose an appliqué font that you like. Remember, for an appliqué font, it must be the outline of a letter/number that’s created in three steps. You can find fonts on the web. Save this to a thumb drive. 3. Once you have your font, create your design on a sheet of paper to use as a guide. When creating your layout on your machine, remember to keep it simple. 4. Let’s move on to the layout. Insert your thumb drive into your Stellaire (it is on the right side of your machine). 5. Turn your machine on and tap ‘Embroidery’ 6. In the bottom right corner, tap on the USB icon and a folder of your new font will be displayed on the screen. 7. Tap the folder to open it and one at a time, click on your desired letter and lay it out the way you want. 8. Move and rotate each letter using the Options in the menu. Also, this is time to choose the color of each letter. 9. Once your letters are laid out the way you want it to look, tap on the ‘Embroidery’ button in the bottom right corner. 10. On the front of your machine, click on the sewing foot button to lower your sewing foot. 11. A button with an UP arrow will light up green. Push the green button. 12. Your machine will start to create an outline of your letter. 13. While it’s doing that, take your desired fabric (I’m using washcloths) and cut it into a rectangle about a .5 inch wider and longer than the letter you just outlined on your machine. Press a medium weight stabilizer to it (I’m using Brother brand stabilizer). 14. Once your machine has completed the outline, place your fabric onto your sweater exactly on top of the outline. • Repeat steps 10-11. 15. Your machine will start to create another outline of the letter to attach the fabric to your sweater. Once this is finished, remove the embroidery hoop from the machine and cut off the excess fabric around the outline. Cut as close as you can to the stitches your machine made. Be careful not to move your fabric within the hoop. 16. Place your embroidery hoop back into your machine and repeat steps 10-11. Your machine should now start creating a satin stitch around the letter. Note: Make sure that the appropriate color is in the machine before you start sewing. 17. If you’ve created a design with more than one letter, your machine will move on to the next letter. If not, remove the hoop from your machine and you’re finished.