Beautiful decorative stitches in sewing mode

I hope you’re enjoying the Husqvarna Viking Designer Sapphire™ 85 as much as I am. I know that’s hard when I’m the one playing, and you only get to watch. However, I’m sure you can appreciate such great features as the Exclusive Sensor System™ and the deLuxe™ Stitch System I showed you yesterday, and how they can make your ordinary sewing projects extraordinary.

The Husqvarna Viking Designer Sapphire™ 85 sewing and embroidery machine

Today, we’ll look at some of the decorative stitches built into the Designer Sapphire™ 85. There are so many to choose from – a whopping 680 stitches – and don’t forget each stitch can be modified using the stitch length and width, so really, you have way more than 680.

I mentioned the other day that there are 19 different stitch menus. I’ll take a look at two different menus today. The first one is the K Menu – the Omnimotion stitches. These stitches are wider than the presser foot. They’re also known as sideways stitches, as the fabric moves sideways to complete the stitch sequences. Some of the stitches can be as wide as 54mm, which is very wide. I have a video to share with you today to show you what I mean.

But first, let me show you the Omnimotion menu.

The K Menu (Omnimotion stitches) is selected

Look at the difference between the two screenshots. In the first photo, I haven’t selected a stitch from the K Menu yet, so the straight stitch is what you see, along with the recommended presser foot. But look what happens when I select one of the stitches from the K Menu. I get a new foot recommendation, I see I need a stabilizer, and there’s a new function on the screen called Stitch Re-start. The Stitch Re-start allows me to reset any stitch back to the beginning of the stitch sequence. So, if I do some test stitching and I’m happy with the results, pressing Stitch Re-start allows me to start stitching right at the beginning, which I want. The black dot by the presser foot indicates the start of the stitch sequence. Notice also the width of this stitch is 36.5 mm. That’s wide!

Stitch K14 from the Omnimotion stitch menu is selected.

Here’s a picture of the S Foot installed on the Designer Sapphire™ 85. See how the foot is wider than the feed teeth system. It helps to support the fabric as it moves side to side.

The S Foot

I often slow the speed down when I’m doing Omnimotion stitches as it helps keep the stitching lined up with the guideline, I’ve drawn on the fabric.

The five-position speed control

Here’s an example of what the stitch looks like on fabric. The stitches are gorgeous, and I can envision them as trim on a garment or a zippered pouch, on the handle of a tote bag, on sashing, or block frames on a quilt. Your imagination is the only limit!

The Omnimotion K14 stitched out on the fabric

Check out this short video to see how the fabric moves when stitching an Omnimotion stitch using the S Foot.

Here’s a sample of some of the other Omnimotion stitches you’ll find in the K Menu of the Designer Sapphire™ 85.

A sampling of the Omnimotion (K-Menu) stitches

You can also use the Multi-Line Decorative Foot with the Omnimotion stitches. It’s wider and has more lines, so it’s easier to keep things lined up as the fabric moves side to side. The best part is that we have options, and I love having options.

The Multi-Line Decorative Foot

If you think the Omnimotion stitches are amazing, let’s look at some of the exclusives stitch techniques, which are even more impressive. Not only are these stitch techniques unique in how they stitch out, but there are tutorials on how to use them, and a fantastic tool to help you locate the right stitch menu.

Remember when we talked about the JoyOS Advisor™ earlier this week? Let’s say I want to try out one of these exclusive stitch techniques. I’ll start by opening the JoyOS Advisor. Under the Sewing category, I browse through the Techniques until I see the Dimensional Stitches.

Selecting Dimensional Stitches in the JoyOS Advisor™

Select the arrow at the bottom of the screen to pull up the list of Dimensional Stitches. I see four different Dimensional Stitches: Applique Stitches, Pop-Up Stitches – Horizontal Look, Applique and Pop-Up Stitches Combined, and Sequin Stitches. I want to try them all!

The JoyOS Advisor™ menu of Dimensional Stitches

Each menu leads you to a tutorial on how to stitch each Dimensional Stitch style. No way! Yep. A tutorial comes up on the screen and provides step-by-step instructions for stitching each of the four types, including the supplies you need. Not only do you get the tutorial, but you get to see what stitches are available for that category, meaning you don’t have to search them out. When you’re learning the Designer Sapphire™ 85, this is fabulous.

The Applique Stitches appear in a menu along with the tutorial

I can adjust how the tutorial appears on the screen, whether it’s full screen or positioned at the top, bottom, or side. It’s so flexible, and I love it!!!

The Applique Stitch tutorial is full screen

I read through the entire tutorial, and when I got to the end, there was an extra tip on prepping fabrics to make the stitch-out process even easier. Wow! I learned something from the tutorial, even though I’ve stitched these applique stitches before. The recommended presser foot is the S Foot, and I get to see what the stitch will look like before I even stitch it out. And you’ll see the Stitch Re-Start function again on the left-hand side.

A picture of what the heart Applique Stitch will look like when it’s stitched out

STOP commands are programmed into the stitch sequence. When the sewing machine reaches the STOP command, you place a piece of applique fabric behind the needle. Once the fabric is in place, hit START, and the stitch continues to stitch out. I should mention that you want to be using your START/STOP function for these stitches – it’s much easier than using your foot control. And when you want to stop, you use the STOP function, and the Designer Sapphire™ 85 will end the stitching once it reaches the end of the next stitch sequence. There is zero guesswork in having a beautiful line of stitching.

Inserting the applique fabric behind the needle at the STOP command

This is what it looks like when your line of stitching is complete. I stitched two extra stitch sequences without adding the applique fabric so you can see how the applique stitch works.

The line of stitching after the applique fabrics has been stitched in place

Then I’ll take my Inspira® 4.5″ EZ Snips and trim away the excess applique fabric. You can use any applique scissors, but the EZ Snips are sharp enough to get into all the tight spots. They don’t look like they’ll cut fabric, but they’ve become one of my favorite tools for applique.

Inspira® 4.5″ EZ Snips

Here’s what the stitch looks like when some of the excess fabric has been trimmed away. The stitches look amazing. Wouldn’t this be fun on a garment, on the trim on a tote bag, or on children’s clothing? It’s fast, it’s easy, and you don’t have much work to do to make it happen. No prepping for applique, and that’s what I like.

The Dimensional Applique Stitches in various stages of completion

Here are some examples of other Dimensional Applique stitches you’ll find in the Designer Sapphire™ 85.

Dimensional Applique Stitches

I could go on and on about the decorative stitches, but I think you get the idea – there’s so much room for fun with these stitches. But it’s time to chat about my chair caddy. I want to start using it, and well, I need to finish it first.

I needed to bind the project, which has corners. So I used the Quilt Binder to bind the chair caddy – yes, even on the corners. Once you get the hang of going around the corners, it’s great.

Using the Quilt Binder to bind my chair caddy

Here’s one of my corners. Not bad, considering both sides were stitched at the same time using the Quilt Binder. What I find with this tool, like any other, is that the more you play with it, the easier it becomes, and the better you get. I’ll confess I still have a few more corners to turn before I can consider myself an expert. And having the right weight thread would’ve helped. I had to use 40wt thread only because it was the only thread I had in the house that matched the bright orange binding fabric.

A corner of the binding stitched in place with the Quilt Binder

Here’s a picture of the completed chair caddy. But it’s not quite finished. I have one more thing to add, and I’ll save that for tomorrow.

The almost completed chair caddy

That wraps it up for today. Wow, so much exciting stuff! I know you want to explore a bit further, so I suggest you contact your local Husqvarna Viking dealer and take the Designer Sapphire™ 85 for a test drive.

Tomorrow will be the end of the posts for this week, and I’ve got one more great thing to share with you using some of the decorative stitches on the Husqvarna Viking Designer Sapphire™ 85.

Have a great day!

Ciao!

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: 4 features on the Designer Sapphire 85 make your sewing experience easy!

Go to part 5: Decorative stitches in Embroidery Mode

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