1 simple tool helps you center your machine embroidery perfectly

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I finished prepping the Dreamweaver XE for machine embroidery and today I’m finally putting it to work!!

I’ve finished quilting the ends and main body of the bag. The body of the bag is divided into 3 sections which make up the two sides and the bottom of the bag, so I followed the pattern and marked those divisions on the foam interfacing. Now I need to find the center of the side that doesn’t have the pocket. I’ve done this by measuring in from the two sides and again from the top of the bag to the place where it folds to form the base. I’ve put a pin where these ‘lines’ intersect.

This is the center of my embroidery design.

The plastic embroidery sheet is used to find perfect placement of the embroidery design in the frame.The machine comes with two of these sheets – each one fits perfectly in the inside frame of one of the embroidery hoops.

I’ve lined up the edge of the hoop with one side of the bag and the center of the embroidery sheet with the pin that marks the center of the bag side. This super simple tool makes placement of your embroidery so easy!!

The outer frame of the embroidery hoop is slid under the fabric and secured with the tightening screw. Next, the entire embroidery hoop is secured in the embroidery frame holder of the carriage of the embroidery unit.

Now I get the design back up on the screen of the Dreamweaver XE. To retrieve a design that has been saved in the machine’s memory first press the “patterns saved in machine’s memory” key.

Next, I select a design from the ones that have been saved in the machine by pressing the appropriate key.

Once the design is selected, I press the EMBROIDERY button in the bottom right corner of the LCD screen. Since I’ve hooped the bag so that the top of the fabric is on the right side of the embroidery hoop, I need to change the orientation of the design. If I don’t do this, the design would be stitched onto the bag sideways.

Always make sure that the ‘top’ of your design points in the same direction on the LCD screen as the ‘top’ of the material being embroidered on.

Press the ROTATE button on the screen.

After rotating the design 90 degrees, I press the CLOSE key to go to the embroidery screen.

Once the Dreamweaver XE is threaded with the first color of thread, lower the presser foot and press the start/stop button to begin embroidering.

The first colors that the Dreamweaver XE stitches out are the ones at the back of the design. So I threaded the machine with the yellows first and then the greens for the shamrocks. After the machine stitches each color, it stops and chimes to alert you that you need to switch threads.

Whatever was placed on the screen first is what the machine stitches first. So after it’s finished with the shamrocks, the Dreamweaver XE starts stitching the letters.

Once the Dreamweaver XE is finished all of the embroidery, this message appears on the LCD screen.

Here is my finished embroidery stitched onto the side of the tote bag.

After the embroidery was finished, I got to work sewing the different parts of the tote bag together.

This bag is such a fun project and the pattern is so well written and detailed. Although there were lots of steps to follow, the finished bag is awesome! The only real modification I made to the pattern was that I used strapping for the handles instead of sewing them out of coordinating fabrics.

I’m so happy that I was able to personalize this bag using the Dreamweaver XE from Brother and I hope my friend loves her Christmas present as much as I do! And to tell the truth, I loved her bag so much that I made another one for myself!!

Thanks for joining me this week as I made my Fiber Friend’s Christmas present. Our Christmas exchange luncheon is one of the highlights of my year.

I hope you all have a wondrous holiday season and a very healthy and happy New Year! See you again in 2019!