Needle unthreads midway the embroidery is an easy fix on THE Dream Machine 2

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I walked you through the steps to make the warm Blue Snowflakes Cushion using felted wool and THE Dream Machine 2 to embroider downloaded designs on felted wool.

Today I’m exploring more of the available Disney Christmas designs and to make a personalized receiving blanket. We all need a Baby’s First Christmas gift…

In the process, I discovered that resuming the embroidery after the needle unthreaded midway, is an easy fix on THE Dream Machine 2.

To make this gift, you can either use a store bought receiving blanket or you can do as I do and make your own.

I had some beautiful green and white polka dot Northcott flannel on hand, so I cut a piece that was 40″ x 40″. I hemmed all four edges and then started looking through the Disney designs for something super cute!

I found this adorable wreath design with Pooh and Piglet, so I selected it and then added the name of a friend’s 3 month old son – Adrian. This will make everyone’s heart melt.

I ironed a rectangle of SULKY Tender Touch stabilizer to the back of one corner of the receiving blanket. I want the bottom of the design to be pointed toward the corner, so I positioned the embroidery hoop on top of the fabric so that it was on a 45° angle.

I picked the thread colors that I wanted to use and pressed the go button!

The thread warning pop up screen on THE Dream Machine 2 appears when there’s a thread break or the needle has become unthreaded. The machine stops stitching and won’t start again until you’ve pressed the OK button and have rethreaded the machine.

When this screen popped up for the first time, I realized that the needle had become unthreaded at the beginning of the black outline of the star.

I thought that this would be a BIG problem to fix, as the machine had kept stitching for a bit before it realized that there was a problem with the thread. But I soon discovered that it’s actually a really easy fix!

The first thing you do is to press the Forward/Back key.

Next, press the Camera View key which opens up the camera view window. This window allows you to see the fabric straight down as it appears under the needle in order to align the machine for perfect placement of stitches.

Now, all you have to do is to press the “-” buttons to move the needle back the correct number of stitches to the spot before the thread broke or the needle became unthreaded. You can see the exact position of the next stitch by looking at the camera view window.

I kept pressing the “-” buttons until the screen showed that the first stitch would be where I needed it. The needle will drop in the position marked with the green “+” and the stitching will begin where the needle became unthreaded.

Now you just press the start button and away you go!! No missed stitches!

After all of the stitching is complete you’ve got a beautiful keepsake gift for new parents!

So far this week we’ve made four last minute gifts – an embroidered tea towel hostess gift, an adorable Mickey and Minnie t-shirt, an elegant snowflake throw pillow and a sweet Pooh and Piglet receiving blanket. I never knew that I would enjoy using an embroidery machine this much!!

Tomorrow we’ll use another pre-programmed embroidery design included with THE Dream Machine 2 to make a lovely Christmas ornament with a wooden embroidery hoop. See you then!