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How I got my first sewing/embroidery machine

When I got my first machine, it was actually a sewing machine! I had an older machine because I wanted to see if I would like it or not. I instantly fell in love! I had that same sewing machine for about three years before I got my first embroidery machine. I started to sew more and I was realizing that I couldn’t do everything that I wanted to do on that sewing machine because of its age. I started to do some research for sewing machines, and that’s when I found the brother se600! I continued to look into the machine, and the more I looked into it, the more I loved it! I just knew that I would love machine embroidery and it was a huge sewing upgrade! But the best thing about the machine for me at the time, was that it was an amazing budget machine. I’ve been using the brother se600 for a while now and I absolutely love it! And I love sewing and embroidery. What’s your first embroidery or sewing machine story?

What I use to slice my 3D print files

Don’t know what slicing is? Read this article all about it! Now to the beef of this tiny but very important article.. To slice my 3D prints I use a software on my laptop. I buy/download my STL files online from other designers, and to slice them I use Cura! What is cura you may ask? -Cura is an open source slicing application for 3D printers- So basically, you import your STL file to cura, look at the basic settings, change them a little (you don’t even have to know how to do this, you just look at the description of the design your downloading and the designer will tell you the settings to use!) and you get your GCODE. Put that GCODE onto your SD card, eject it from your laptop, put it into the 3D printer and click start on your 3D print. And I mean I would say watch the magic but uh let’s just say it takes a little bit of time…!

What is slicing in the 3D printing world

Slicing when 3D printing is online. It’s when you take your STL file, which is the file for your 3D prints that you will download online but this format is not compatible with your machine, yet; and you slice it into individual layers. After converting your STL file and slicing it into individual layers, you will be give a GCODE file of the design. The GCODE is the tool path. This file format is then compatible with your machine. Wait a second, but what do I use to slice my STL file? Here’s an article! You can then save the GCODE to an SD card, then place the SD card in the 3D printer and start your long awaited print! And you might just have to be patient for a little longer… 3D prints take longer than you would ever expect!

What is pul fabric

Pul stands for polyurethane laminated fabric. It’s a type of specialty utility fabric. Pul is often used in wet bags and diapers due to its waterproofing properties. It’s flexible and easy to sew with as well as lightweight and breathable. It is also durable enough to withstand use and machine washing/drying. Many people will also use laminated cotton for this purpose as it as a layer of polyurethane film attached to one side. There is also another very useful attribute to this fabric, when checked to be food safe, you can use pul fabric to create snack bags! It’s important to make sure that if the fabric is going to be in contact with food, that you make sure it’s food safe. Once you know that it’s food safe you’ll want to know which side of the fabric should be in contact with the food. The side of the fabric that is smooth and has the most colour to it/ has the design, is the side that does not touch the food. The side that is not smooth, looks shiny/laminated is the right

What are feed dogs

What are feed dogs? How can that be on my sewing machine? Why am I feeding dogs?? No no no! You’ve got it all wrong! Feed dogs are on your sewing machine, and they are not actually dogs (lol of course they can’t be real dogs). You don’t feed them, they actually feed your fabric through the machine! -The feed dogs are the short thin metal bars that have ridges like teeth. They are placed underneath your fabric and used to guide the fabric through your machine. - Now feed dogs believe it or not are actually optional, you can lower them, meaning that they are underneath the needle plate and they will not move your fabric at all. They are very useful in sewing, for without them you would just be sewing in the exact same spot over and over.. which would create a huge knot.. which you would have to then try to cut.. ahhh I’m getting nightmares already. But, and that’s a big but, there are times in sewing when you want to lower the feed dogs, this is for when you want to free motion quil

Should you use prewound bobbins for machine embroidery

Not sure if prewound bobbins are worth it? Find in this article! No matter what, when you machine embroidery you’ll have to use a bobbin. You have two different options, you can either wind your own bobbins or you can purchase prewound bobbins. Convenience Most of the time prewound bobbins are more convenient, but if you go and wind a whole bunch of bobbins and put them in a little container, both are now very convenient! But, you still have that added work of having to wind all the bobbins yourself. Cost For winding your own bobbins there are two things you need to purchase, the thread and the bobbins. For prewound bobbins all you have to buy are the prewound bobbins themselves. Problems that might occur Often times prewound bobbins come very full and you might have to pull off a few yards before using it or problems like bobbin thread on the top may occur. It is much more likely for problems to occur if you’re using bobbins that you wound yourself. For reasons like the bobbin bei

What is bias tape

Bias tape is a long strip of fabric that has been cut on the bias of the fabric, rather than on the selvage or cut edge. This strip is then folded once or twice, hence ‘single fold bias tape’ or ‘double fold bias tape. Multiple strips can be sewn together to create larger stripes. When sewn together, they often are sewn together on diagonals to reduce bulk. The bias tape is first folded by having the two sides of the length meet together in the middle. The next fold in the the top comes down to match the bottom. Double fold bias tape is commonly used on the edges of quilts for a nice clean finish.

How To Sew A Basting Stitch

A basting stitch is a great way to put in a temporary stitch. For holding together to pieces of fabric temporarily. The trick is that you want the stitch to be easily removable, hence the word temporary. To to this, you can just sew with the regular straight stitch on your sewing machine, but set the length to it’s max. The max length on my machine is 5mm. But also make sure that you do not backstitch, as this will make it more difficult to remove! You should now have a nice, and easily removable, basting stitch!

How to sew an overcasting stitch

An overcasting stitch is like a serging stitch on a home sewing machine. It looks very professional and is easy to do. You’ll need a different sewing foot than you normally use. On my brother sewing machine, i use the G foot. Important to note: you don’t want to back stitch with this foot and when lifting the foot and removing the fabric, remove the fabric towards the back do not remove the fabric towards you. Place the fabric so that the stitch with go just over the edge of it and use the overcasting stitch on your machine. On my machine, the brother se600, I use 1-14. Do a couple reinforcement stitches and start sewing, you should end up with a nice finished seam!

Milestone reached: 300 sales!

Thanks so much to all of you for helping me reach this milestone with Lizzsews. I’m very grateful for all of the support and wouldn’t have been able to get this far without all of you! Coming up in the summer will be even more articles! 3D printing, sewing, embroidering and even more crafting!!

3D printer

Recently, I purchased a 3D printer! Along with it the filament, which is pretty much just the raw plastic. I’ve been playing around with it and learning a lot! I’ve done tons and tons of research for this printer. I got the Anycubic Mega Zero 2.0. On 3D printers, the nozzle tip goes all the way to 200 degrees Celsius, and the bed to 60 degrees Celsius! To create an object, the 3D printer melts the filament and creates the object layer by layer. One that was a big surprise to me after getting my 3D printer, was how long that it takes to print! This small little owl that I made, which came as the tester pattern with my machine, took 3 hours! Along the way I have come over multiple speed bumps and made many mistakes. Would you be interested in me sharing my learning process through this 3D printer? Share what you think in the comments, it helps me know what type of content you guys all want to see (read)! A few of the speed bumps/learning process main points: - Changing the filament - pa

How to sew a fabric tray; the quicker way

In one of my previous articles, I shared how to make a fabric tray. These are one of my favourite projects for they are so fun to create and the final result is always so beautiful! The only thing that wasn’t as fun with making the trays was that bindings are a lot of work sometimes. So, I created this pattern. This new fabric tray is just as beautiful, but can be made quicker! This leaves more time for free motion quilting if wanted and also makes the perfect last minute gift. But the one receiving the gift would never be able to tell it was last minute! What you will need: Cotton fabric Iron and ironing board Batting Rotary cutter and cutting mat (or scissors) Seam gauge or measuring tape Sewing machine Sewing machine thread and needle Free motion quilting foot Optional: pins and safety pins The steps: Cut two pieces of fabric and a piece of batting to 13” x 13” Optional: you could embroider one of the pieces. ‘Sandwich’ the pieces together. Place the two pieces of fabric right si

How to sew pattern weights

A very simple, yet quite helpful and important sewing project. Pattern weights are essential for sewers and are such a fun project. You can make them as colourful or as plain as you want! Have fun sewing! And remember, unless otherwise stated, or if it’s a different type of stitch or seam, sew right sides together. What you need: Cotton fabric Iron and ironing board Rice or other filling Rotary cutter and cutting mat (or scissors) Sewing machine Sewing machine thread and needle The steps: Iron and cut 6 squares of 2.5”. Sew 4 of the squares together in a line, and iron. Sew one square on top of and one square below the second square in the line. Iron. Sew the left side of the square on top with the top side of the first square in the line. Sew the right side of the square on top with the top side of the third square in the line. Sew the left side of the square below with the bottom side of the first square in the line. Sew the right side of the square below with the bottom side

How to sew a fabric tray

After spending a bit of time figuring out how I could get a fabric tray to actually stay up by itself and be rigid enough to actually be called a tray, I ended up with this pattern. What you will need: Cotton fabric Iron and ironing board Batting Rotary cutter and cutting mat (or scissors) Seam gauge or measuring tape Sewing machine Sewing machine thread and needle Optional: pins and safety pins Optional: walking foot (makes it easier to sew all three layers) or free motion quilting foot (if you’d rather quilt it than sew in the ditch) The steps: Cut two pieces of fabric and a piece of batting to 13” x 13” Optional: you could embroider one of the pieces. ‘Sandwich’ the pieces together. With one square of fabric on the bottom, the batting in the middle and the other square of fabric on the top. With the right sides of the fabrics facing away from the batting. Optional but recommended: using safety pins, pin the three layers together in multiple places. ‘Stitch in the ditch’ using

Making the winter soldier book

I don’t know about all of you, but I know that I’m a huge marvel fan! (And Star Wars too!) And the new Marvel series, Wandavision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier just got me even more into Marvel! And that gave me the idea of creating the winter soldier book for myself! What I used: Printer + paper Black twill fabric Red cotton fabric Notebook (mine was about 7” x 5”) Sewing machine + supplies To start , I came up with a basic idea of what I wanted, what I was looking for. I decided that I wanted a tightly fitting book cover that fit as if it was the cover of the book. And I wanted it to resemble the book from marvel. I started by creating a basic book cover design with the size of 10” x 29”, it ended up being very large. ( Here’s what I did for the basic book cover: I took the strip of fabric and folded in the short side two times, both sides and sewed along the edge. I then folded each side towards the middle with a gap in the middle of under 3” 1” down from the top I