Mary, they are so cute! Tell me about the mylar. Is it similar to the stuff you use to make gift baskets? I generally use organza but I'm thinking mylar is easier to snip off

Mary those are awesome! Love them all especially the snowmen. I follow Krystyna on the question how is it to work with mylar?

There is more info on the "Charming Station Embroidery" website
about washable mylar.

But here is some brief info.

[h=2]Where can I get this mylar? [/h] This is the most tricky question. If you are using the design on a craft item that will
not be washed and dried in a dryer (or ironed!), you may be satisfied with the kind
of gift wrap that you can get at a dollar store. This kind will not stand up to heat like
from the dryer or from an iron.


There is, however, a type of mylar that is washable and can be dried in the dryer
(on low settings). You can buy in packs of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 or 200 sheets or try out sample
packs of various colors and sizes.

US customers: http://www.heirloomsbysharon.com/ (Sharon)

UK and Europe: http://lucysmachineembroiderygallery.../c1884316.html(Lucy)

Either of these ladies would be happy to answer any questions you might have! Sharon ships
to other countries (including Australia).

[h=2]What "color" mylar should I buy?[/h] We used "Opal Translucent" on almost all of our sample sew-outs. This is actually almost
transparent and it simply reflects back the color of the thread that is used. That means you
can use one piece under an entire design and see all of your colors (as long as your background
fabric is white). If your background fabric is not white, we recommend that you purchase White
Mylar so that the background colors or prints don't show through your embroidery. To see an
example of a use for a colored mylar, look at the picture for the Autumn Fancy set below.
We used a bright orange for this sample.


Both Sharon and Lucy carry sample packs of various colors if you would like to try some out.

The web site quilty-louise posted are great source of Mylar info. Our teacher always brings our supplies. Yes, you need the special mylar and it can be washed and ironed. I have always used patterns special for mylar and just lay it on top of fabric and let the machine do it's work and yes it is very simple to take off the extra. I loved the way the orange and red mylar looked in the designs. I have also made greeting cards using the mylar patterns. Are really cute.

Very pretty. I'm just beginning to work with Angelina and since it's like angel hair before you iron it you can pull threads to make a mixture of colors which is great. You are just in time for the holidays.

I have a Babylock Ellissimo. Has anyone used the 7 in 1 frames? It may also be called the snap frame for the embroidery hoop. It looks good, but would rather talk with someone who has it.
Thanks, Jo Ann

OMG almond, those are darling!!

Mary; your table runners are absolutely darling!! Love each and every one of them!! Sewwww cute!! You mentioned Charming Station in one of your subsequent postings, are the designs from there??
Thanks for sharing!!

My sister & I just became proud owners of a Brother Pacesetter 8500D, it's an older used machine, but in excellent condition. We have never had anything but basic Singers so we have LOTS of questions :)

Can we do basic cleaning/maintenance ourselves or do we have to send it out to the repair shop! (they want more than I paid to clean it!)
If we can do it ourselves is there a 'how-to' somewhere?

A friend of a friend suggesting getting our first sets of thread off of eBay cheap, and moving up to more expensive threads as we go along. Anyone buy thread off eBay?

I need to buy the PED Basic set as we were unable to find the card reader or any cards(it was an estate sale and the family knew NOTHING about any of the stuff they were selling) I'm guessing they were stored in the sewing table that they sold separately before calling me.

Are the cards re-writable? or will I have to buy a new one every time I want to load something new onto the machine?

I'm so excited to get this up and running lol just wish I would be able to pick up the PED Basic as bit quicker, but I'll survive another month :)

I use a lot of thread purchased from Ebay. I like rayon, but lots of other prefer polyester. I would buy a small amount of whatever you get - small spools and a limited number of colors, just enough to do the type of designs you have in mind. Then if you don't like the look of the way the thread handles or the way your machine uses the thread you haven't spent a $100 or so in thread - which isn't at all hard to do. I would pick out the design(s) I wanted to do first, then buy the colors I needed to make the designs. In fact that is how I buy my thread even now. When I get a new color it is always because I need it in a design, not because I just think it is a pretty color.

Shana, I don't know about the maintence of your machine but you should be able to google it and find out plus there are groups on yahoo for just about every machine out there. Congratulations to you and your sister. Embroidery is addicting. I have an old machine that takes cards and there are some you can buy with designs on it and are write proof but then they have the ones that you can download designs to and you normally have to have a card reader to see the designs on the pc. I agree with buying small amounts of thread at a time. If I come across a sale and I'm buying to stock up I try to some of the ones that I know I use a lot of. I always buy 2 shades of the same color because just about every design that I've done ends up having shading going on. I do substitute threads from the orginal design either due to me not having it or likeing another color better. Good luck with your new machine.

Shana, if I understand your question re the PED Basic (I've owned it)..an easy to install, simple program that only moves designs from your computer to a re-writable card. Each time you want to use new designs from your computer, the reader/writer box erases the card to allow the new ones to be written to it. All your designs remain in your computer--they are not erased or lost! You can load quite a number of designs at one time, and since the 8500 uses different size hoops-- you can mix the design sizes onto your card. It's a Brother product, so it only works for .pes designs. When you buy the Basic from Walmart, AllBrands, wherever, you should not install from the disk unless it is the updated version. You could just go to the Brother site and install for your operating system from there---especially if you have other than WinXP. I think there are special downloads for Vista and Win7. After installing, connect the reader/writer box and drivers will then be installed for it. The serial # is verified thru the box. And be sure to register your ownership w/Brother for easy tech help in case you need it. I have a friend with the same Emb mach, and installed it for her. I let mine go with a Bernina I sold...and I had bought it on sale for $96. Absolutely worth the cost for you if you don't want to digitize your own designs right now. However, you must realize that it only transfers designs--no other options are included except resizing a wee bit --that's why it's called "basic". BUT..it provides you with ability to see images of your downloaded designs instead of just a little square icon with numbers.

Ohh...the October special over at emblibrary.com is GREAT :) :) I can see how I could spend WAY more money than sense would dictate lol

Shana check out http://www.cuteembroidery.com/designsbycuties for tons of freebies. If you click on community and look at the freebies section, there are daily links to tons of free designs.

Can anyone tell me a reason for using a zigzag stitch for appliquing instead of a satin stitch other than personal preference for the appearance? I have noticed that several tutes for machine applique use a zigzag with no reason given for the stitch selection. I have always used either a decorative stitch or a satin stitch and really don't care for the appearance of the zigzag. However, I am wondering if there is a technical reason for using that stitch.

Just personal preference and a matter of what looks best with your design!

Shana, you started me on the wrong path for today! :D:D But, thanks. I will have to whittle my shopping cart down below the $80 it is sitting at right now. Did you see all of the sewing machine designs they have... ? Oh, which ones would I like, huh?:D

Don't forget to shop the daily dollar specials at Stitch Delight!

On another note, I have two machines going to make tons of t-shirts and FSL jewelry for the Irish Day Festival here next weekend. I think I am going deaf! Does anyone have any terrific ideas for cutting down on the noise? I do have the machines on folded over towels to stop the racket on my desk, but not enough ...

Try the pads that are made to put under washing machines to stop their vibrations. I think that Lowes and Home Depot sell them.

OooH! I need one for my washing machine!!! Sometimes I think I was born in a cave. I am so ignorant of modern inventions.

They only discount the first 10 items in your basket...make multiple purchases of 10 to save the money :D :D and after 3 purchases they give you 3 for free :) :) but yeah, $80 goes quick LOL Just have to get a check from my new job to be able to feed my new habit lol

I'm thinking about purchasing a Bernina Deco 340. Anyone have any advise? I currently have a Bernina 440QE. But really want a machine that will do embroidery while I'm quilting.

Thanks!!!

I used to have the Deco 340 before I upgraded to the 640. I loved that machine! Very user friendly.

Does anyone here have the Viking Topaz 20 machine?? I have some questions about the embroidery part of it. Actually the program that comes with it.

I have the Viking Ruby; well now since Frid I have the Viking Diamond Deluxe but they all come with the organizer. What version so you have 4D or 5D. I've been taking classes for the 5D Pro but we started out with the organizer since all versions have that and we all use it so maybe I can help you. If I don't know I'll try to find out for you.

Thanks for any help you can offer. I have no way of taking the classes because my work schedule. I normally work 10 to 6 ..so it covers all class times. I have the 5D.. can we digitize a design with that one at all? Or do we need another program to do so?

I have to confess: I am addicted to collecting free designs and sets. BUT this morning I spent some time going through the downloaded but unsorted folders to dump formats I don't use and looked at a lot of them and thought ... when on earth am I going to use this? So ... delete, delete, delete ... Anyone else do this?

Yup, me too!

But do you dump the ones you'll never use? Honestly, some of the free ones are, well ... you get what you pay for! Jump stitches everywhere!

Yes. I have over 3,000 designs and do a clean out every once in the while.

The software that comes with the machines is the organizer. Even though its limited it is a great organizer. One of things that I love is that if you click on a design and then click on the pair of scissors at the top it'll add trim commands to designs that have lots of jump stitches that you'll have to trim off later on. You can't digitize as far as creating designs. I'm going to give you a website that offers so much. The guy has written books on the software and has lots of free tutorials and is even overing video classes for sale now. My Viking teacher says she loves his books and uses them herself even though she was trained by Viking. He has things for 4D and 5D; they are both pretty much the same. It's a good way to learn. I bought 5D Pro this past yr and I'm now taking classes for that along with my monthly embroidery club. I'll answer anything that I can. The website is mrpatience.com I hope this helps. If you need an answer right away then PM me and it'll let me know, instead of waiting for me to find this thread. Good luck. http://www.mrpatience.com/

If jump stitches are the only problem then no, I wouldn't delete. I have 5D and it allows me to put trim commands in those designs and gets rid of jumpstitches. My machine has the trim command feature so when it sees it, it'll tie off the ends which adds a couple of stitches but gets rid of alot of added hand work at the end. I've deleted designs that I say to myself, what was I thinking, I'll never use that and if a design has mulitple formats I leave them in the zip file and only save the one that I need to it's folder to be used. Zip files are compressed so they dont take up much room. I keep a copy of the orginal file in a orders folder with the companies name incase I ever have to download it again. Without the company name and orginal file name I may not be able to do this; especially if co has archived the file

I use an external hard drive for all my designs and I put the unlucky one in a special folder (just in case) and I do not delete them.
I do delete the unused formats, just because. Sometime I have some designs that only come in one format so I convert them to a format I can use. Then I dump.
BTW, I use a Brother 6 needle which I love. Not so many thread changes (YEAH).

As I await patiently for my new embroidery machine I've spent the last few weeks finally organizing my files. I use a usb flash drive with folders. I'm not well versed with winzip and though i've bought a new computer can I download that for free? I have plenty of room on my flash drives but wow I don't know how many designs I have right now. I'm going through embroidery withdrawals and can't wait to get mine up and going! In the meantime I've been researching the mylar designs for embroidery and really love the effect it has. But I'm not able to find the paper, I've gone to Party City (they have no idea what even cellophane paper is duh!), dollar tree and I have looked at several online ones with good prices. But when I get my machine I will be having lots of fun!

What kind of machine did you buy? I just traded my Viking Ruby in for a Diamond Deluxe. I've been in class for the past two days and haven't had time to even sew on it.

You should check out a product called Angelina; it looks alot like mylar. It is fiber though and not paper. You can mix them together and get different looks, colors. It's really cool.

Help from Other Machine Embroiders

I have been searching for an answer/fix to this issue for a while! When embroidering on satin (really poly satin), no matter what stabilizer/needle I use, I still get puckers. I've tried every combination I know!! I have the articles on embroidering on different types of fabric that Embroidery Library has on their site and have followed their suggestions but still the problem.

Anyone here embroider on satin and if so, how do you do it? TIA

PS: I have a Brother PE700II embroidery machine which does an excellent job on most fabrics.

I have some fabric that I have had to use as many as 9 layers of stabilizer behind it before it quit puckering. I had 2 layers of tear-away, then had the rest in wash away as I couldn't abide the thickness of having more stabilizers being there permanentlly. I think I may try using a wash away on top of the fabric in a test piece and see if that reduces the amount of total stabilizers needed, but I've never tried that before. This is in an embroidery piece with over 40,000 stitches. Have no idea if that contributes to the problem - if my hooping is off or what - but it was a piece of advice on a TV show where someone else said they had to use that many stabilizers that got me to try it.

Try hooping the stabilizer only. Then spray the stabilizer lightly with some temporary spray like KK2000 or embroidery spray. Lay the satin on top of the stabilizer and smooth it out. I don't hoop anything except stabilizer. This seems to work better for me. Hth.

Both excellent tips that I have used - light spray adhesive (but you'll want to wipe your needle with rubbing alcohol every now and then) and wash away on top. These two usually solve the problem.