The EPIC embroidery features of the HV Designer EPIC

Today’s the day! We’re going to do some stitch-outs on the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC. And I’ll only be scratching the surface of what amazing embroidery techniques are available. More on those another day.

Let’s get started.

Here’s a quick tip about those stabilizers. Once you remove the plastic, that label is going to get misplaced and you want to keep it with the stabilizer. Simply tuck the label inside the center of the tube and you’ll always know what kind of stabilizers you have.

Remember, if you’ve never done machine embroidery before, all the steps are built into the Embroidery Section of the JoyOS advisor. Just follow the step by step instructions. Simple!

Here’s the design I chose. I’m doing a very simple embroidery, but there are a lot of color changes.

You want to start by cutting a piece of stabilizer that is slightly larger than your hoop. Layer your fabric (right side up) on top of the stabilizer. I don’t bother to cut my fabric down to smaller sizes, but you don’t want the piece to be too big either as it’ll be moving around as the hoop moves.

Next up, you’re going to open the quick release (the spring) on the outer part of the hoop and place it underneath the fabric/stabilizer combination.

Place the inner hoop on top of the fabric, making sure that the arrow at the bottom of the outer hoop is matching up with the arrow at the bottom of the inner hoop. Essentially, you don’t want that inner hoop to be upside down.

Press the inner hoop inside the outer hoop. I start at the bottom left and work my way around the hoop until I end up at the bottom right corner which is where the quick release and the screw are located.

Once the inner hoop is secured inside the outer hoop, close the quick release and tighten up the screw. There’s no need to go crazy on tightening that screw – you want it secure, not break it!

The outer hoop has a tendency to move around and if that is causing you problems, you can purchase a hoop grip that you can slide the hoop connector into, in order to stabilize the outer hoop. I must get one of these as I think it would solve a lot of my hooping issues.

If you’re going to do your embroidery on a garment or need the design in a specific location, then find the center of the desired design position and mark two intersecting lines across it. Those two lines will be used to line up with the guide markings on the hoop. I pointed those out yesterday.

In the sample below, I just drew those lines on with a chalk pencil, while it was already hooped. I know – a big cheat, but you get the idea. And note that the center of the design is NOT the center of the hoop. There’s a reason why the top half is bigger than the bottom half. That doesn’t matter, the centering lines are what matters. Don’t eyeball it – you’ll be disappointed.

If I’m using a larger hoop, then I can further stabilize the hoop by using clips at various points around the perimeter of the hoop. They’re easy to put on and easy to take off and I’ve never had one pop out during the stitch out process.

I’ve changed the foot to one that is appropriate for machine embroidery.

My design is ready to be stitched out. I can now proceed to the Embroidery Stitch Out mode. I get a screen reminding me how I need to set up the Designer EPIC for the stitching. Easy to follow instructions, easy to select the options and now I’m ready!

Remember I told you that the Designer EPIC wouldn’t let you stitch if you didn’t have the correct hoop? The design I’m stitching out recommends a 200 x 200 hoop. That’s the minimum size required to stitch the design. I don’t have a 200 x 200 hoop, so I choose the next largest one that I had. That was the 200 x 260. I can always go larger, but never smaller. However, I didn’t advise the Designer EPIC that I was using a different hoop and so I got a gentle reminder.

Notice that it wasn’t just reminding me to attach the hoop, but it was looking for the 200 x 200 hoop. AHA – now I understand. Once I changed the settings in the Embroidery Edit Mode to the 200 x 260 hoop, which matched the physical hoop I was using, I was good to go.

The list of thread colors now appears on the screen. The size of the color block is relative to the number of stitches in the design. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, you can see the total number of stitches in the design and beneath that number is the number of stitches for that color.

And notice on the bottom left, the hoop size is now 200 x 260.

I started the stitch out and went upstairs to edit some pictures while the Designer EPIC was stitching. WAIT! I forgot a very very important step to this embroidery stitch out process.

I grabbed my smart phone and downloaded an app – mySewMonitor App. I very quickly created an account with mySewnet. No machine on-line.

Shoot – I’ve already started the embroidery. Can I connect the Designer EPIC while it’s stitching? The answer is YES. I brought the sewing machine online and connected to my account on mySewnet.

There’s my account on mySewnet. Since I’ve just opened the account, there are no files to sync. BUT – look what happened next.

YES – the app on my cell phone now shows me the status of the stitch out. Isn’t that just the most awesome feature? I see the status of the entire design, I see the status of that particular thread color. Basically, the same information that is on the screen.

It means that I don’t have to be in the same room as the Designer EPIC, nor do I have to periodically hang my head over the staircase to hear if the machine is still stitching. I got a nice gentle reminder on the phone every time the thread needed to be changed. I think at one point, the thread broke and I was reminded of that as well.

Even when I took a run to the local coffee shop and my phone was temporarily off my home network, the moment I arrived in my driveway, I got a reminder to change the thread. I LOVE this feature!!!

I love that the “thread” on the spool in the forefront “emptied” to show the progress of that color in the stitch out. You have to remember that it doesn’t take much to amuse me.

The stitch out is complete!

The finished stitch out. He’s pretty cute. Notice that I didn’t follow the colors suggested in the thread color chart. Since it’s my stitch out, I can do what I want!

The plan now is to make something with those coorindating fabrics. I more or less chose the colors from those two fabrics. My plan is to make a zippered tote. There’s no time to finish that off today, so you’ll have to wait to see the finished bag.

Is the week over already? I barely scratched the surface of what I want to show you with the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC. There are many more exciting things we can do with this sewing/embroidery machine.

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure and that you learned some tips along the way. The capabilities of the Designer EPIC and the attention to detail has my head spinning.

If you’re into serious machine embroidery, the Designer EPIC is your machine. I don’t think there’s anything that this machine can’t do.

I’ll be back with more great ideas and more great designs. Stay tuned for that. Have a great day!
Ciao!