10 of 36 types of machine embroidery with the HV Designer Epic 3!

Now that you have the basic knowledge of machine embroidery from yesterday’s post, we’ll continue today with the HUSQVARNA VIKING Designer Epic 3 as we explore 10 different types of machine embroidery.

Many people believe that there’s basic machine embroidery with fill patterns, running stitches, satin stitches, or a combination thereof, or there’s Applique. However, there’s so much more! Let’s get started!

HUSQVARNA VIKING Designer Epic 3

There are 36 different styles of machine embroidery, some of which require specialty hoops, technique kits, or specialty needles. How do you get more information about them, and how do you find designs? Let’s start with this video explaining how and where to find this information in the JoyOS Advisor on the Designer Epic 3.

Now that you know how to access the tutorials, let’s look at samples of the various types, as a picture is worth a thousand words. Some embroidery techniques require an accessory, and I’ll provide more information at that time. During the digitization process, instructions for the specific techniques get added to the embroidery designs; in almost all cases, the designs will only stitch out in that style. In other words, you can’t use a traditional satin stitch design for Thread Velvet. There are a couple of instances, particularly machine embroidery applique, which can be modified slightly, but I’ll explain that a bit more as the appropriate categories come up.

As you saw in the video, the first category is Basic Embroidery, which is the one that most people are familiar with. You load thread onto the embroidery machine, hoop your fabric, and away you go. It’s super easy.

A basic embroidery design using only thread

The next category is Applique, a very popular machine embroidery technique. There are four styles: applique with a covered or raw edge and reverse applique with a covered or raw edge. Reverse appliques are not as common as designs that sit on the background. Applique designs can be changed somewhat by eliminating a color block, but be careful! If I eliminated the eye at the top of the monster, the yellow satin stitching may not provide the coverage required underneath. So yes, you can, but that doesn’t mean it’ll always work!

Counterclockwise from top left: Machine embroidery applique with covered edge, with raw edge, reverse applique with raw edge, reverse applique with covered edge

One way to change a machine embroidery applique is to stitch the design but not add applique fabric. It depends on the intricacy of the design and other factors. The design on the left has fabric added, while the one on the right is stitched only with thread. Please note that not all designs came from the built-in designs on the Designer Epic 3. They may have come from the mySewnet Library.

A machine embroidery applique design with fabric and without

If you do not want a stitching embellishment, you can skip over a color block during the stitch-out process, which is a very high-level way of modifying a design. The design on the right has extra stitching to cover the reverse applique patch (black). The one on the left does not have stitching. This embroidery design is excellent for inserting a fussy-cut fabric and framing it with the reverse applique.

Reverse applique with and without extra stitching on the applique patch

The next category is Quilting and Patchwork Embroidery. You have choices for quilting with your embroidery machine, including edge-to-edge quilting and quilting block by block. And there’s the Quilt Block Wizard in mySewnet Embroidery Software that creates endless possibilities for quilting motifs.

You can also piece in the hoop. Below, you’ll find a crazy patch block pieced in the hoop. There are also designs for piecing without decorative stitches. I particularly like the crazy patchwork, which not only stitches the wild angles but also does the decorative stitches.

A pieced block and a quilted block stitched in an embroidery hoop

Then there’s Free-Standing Embroidery, sometimes referred to as Free-Standing Lace. The designs can be done entirely with thread (the butterfly), a stand-alone design with fabric as a base (flower), or even free-standing components combined with some of the traditional embroidery techniques.

Three styles of Free Standing Embroidery Designs

Cutwork Embroidery has been around for a long time and is beautiful. You could modify these designs by NOT using cutwork needles, but the cutaway style is the beauty. Depending on the design, the fabric can be cut away using scissors, but cutwork needles can also be used. Some designs with tiny cutwork use a punch to remove the fabric. Note that the design on the left still has the water-soluble stabilizer, and the design on the right was done without cutting away the base fabric.

Examples of cutwork embroidery

Yarn-embellished embroidery is fantastic. Again, these designs can be free-standing or stitched on fabric. Let’s not forget that yarn can be used in the Specialty Bobbin Case or the Special Techniques Hoop, where bobbin work is combined with traditional embroidery.

The white snowflake design is designed to stand alone. The large flower needs the fabric as a base, or the design wouldn’t maintain its shape.

For these designs, you need the Yarn Couching Presser Feet Set, which includes two presser feet and two holders to hold the yarn as it’s fed into the foot.

The Yarn Couching Presser Feet Set and examples of Yarn Embellished Embroidery

Surfaced embroidery is all about texture! Whether you’re stitching the Thread Velvet technique, fringe embroidery, or using foam, we’re talking loads and loads of texture! In the case of Thread Velvet, you cannot use a traditional satin stitch design, as this technique uses multiple layers of sating stitch. The foam embroidery is stitched over a piece of embroidery foam to add height to the embroidery. Some of these samples are my first attempts, which I do to understand the type of stabilizer to use. This one could have used a bit more stabilizer. But that is why we make samples!

Samples of Surfaced Embroidery – Fringe, Foam, Thread Velvet

Felting is so much fun and requires the Felting Embroidery Set, which includes the felting needle. Again, these designs are specifically designed for felting. You can felt a single layer of fabric, like the stars on the blue denim. You can felt two layers of material together, as in the red and white design, where a layer of acrylic felt is felted into the red canvas. The third option is to felt free-standing designs using wool roving.

Some designs have been created for the Special Techniques Hoop, which allows for two-sided embroidery, as the felting process is mostly done from the wrong side of the project.

The Felting Kit and three examples of felting embroidery

Another category is Specialty Hoop embroideries, where a special hoop is required. These may be the Special Techniques hoop mentioned earlier, the Mega Turnable Hoop, which is HUGE, or the Free Arm Embroidery Hoop. And let’s not forget the endless hoops. There are so many different tools to make the embroidery job so easy!!

Specialty Embroidery Hoops

HUSQVARNA VIKING Special Techniques Hoop, Mega Turnable Hoop, Mega Endless Hoop, and the Free Arm Embroidery Hoop; machine embroidery, quilting, applique, cutwork embroidery, free-standing lace, embroidery techniques, HUSQVARNA VIKING, Designer Epic 3, mySewnet, JoyOS Advisor

Twin Embroidery using HUSQVARNA VIKING Twin Embroidery Needles

HUSQVARNA VIKING Wing Needles

The last category is the Embellishment attachment, which allows you to couch yarn, ribbon, and beads (on a string). I love using this attachment; the results are so textural that you want to keep touching them!

The HUSQVARNA VIKING Designer Embellishment Attachment and some embroidery designs

WOW!!!!! Did you realize there are so many machine embroidery techniques or styles? YES, the list is long, and it’s so exciting!

Like all embroidery, you must plan your designs wisely, as some styles or techniques are inappropriate for particular items or uses.

I cannot stress how important it is to stitch out a small sample of each. Make notes on the stabilizer used. How did it perform? Was that the correct type of stabilizer? Was one layer enough?

You can also access the JoyOS Advisor on the mySewnet app, which you can download to any smart device. While it’s easy to toggle in and out of the tutorials on the screen of the Designer Epic 3, you can also have them on your smart device, meaning you can explore those techniques even when you’re not beside your sewing machine. Of course, you will NOT have access to the Content (embroidery designs) as you’ll have when you use the JoyOS Advisor directly on the embroidery machine.

In addition to all the embroidery designs built into the HUSQVARNA VIKING Designer Epic 3, we have the option to create designs using the tools also built into the Designer Epic 3. We’ll explore that next, so be sure to come back for that.

Have a super day!

Ciao!!!

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: Essential tools for machine embroidery | get started with the right supplies

Print this page or save as a PDF