Utility Stitches vs Character/Decorative Stitches, what’s the difference?

Yesterday I explored faux applique stitching to embellish the seams of a table runner project, giving it the look of an entirely appliqued project. I used a couple of the 26 stitches found on the Utility Stitch menu. Although these stitches are primarily used for practical purposes, some can be used for embellishing, if they appeal to you. Here are a few:

• Straight Stitch
• Dart Seam
• Gathering
• Flat Fell Seam
• Zigzag Stitch and Zigzag Couching
• Quilting and Crazy Quilting
• Heirloom

…to name a few.

Today, I’ll expand on the many pre-programmed stitches on THE Dream Machine 2 by Brother and search the Character/Decorative Stitch menu for more stitching inspiration. These stitches appear to me to have a richer design (almost like a variation of some of the Utility Stitches), appear to be embossed (as in the extensive selection of Satin Stitches) and the alphabet character fonts.

This menu has 11 categories:

• Decorative Stitch Patterns
• 7mm Decorative Stitch Patterns
• Satin Stitch Patterns
• 7mm Satin Stitch Patterns
• Cross Stitch
• Utility Decorative Stitch Patterns
• Alphabet Characters: Gothic, Handwriting (lovely script), Outline, Cyrillic, and Japanese

The 11 categories of Character/Decorative Stitch menu.

From this page I chose the stitch file #6 to look for a decorative stitch for the next seam embellishment. This one page has so many cool selections!

It’s important to remember that once you open the file 6, the stitches on the screen are not the only ones available in this file. To the right of the screen you’ll see the up and down arrows. These arrows allow you to navigate within the stitch file to be able to see all of the stitches available in this particular file. It’s the ‘pages’ I mentioned earlier.

In moving the arrow down, I discovered another stitch that I fell in love with, stitch 6-079.

I love this stitch because of the leaf motif, and sure enough there’s the notice to use the N foot for the stitch on the top left corner. It’s great how the screen display gives so much info with regards to the stitch, sizing, the machine foot, etc. I do have to say that it’s a feature that I’m really enjoying as I get to know THE Dream Machine 2.

I’m just barely scratching the surface of what this machine can do. I think it’s important to start with the basics of what THE Dream Machine has offer, and work our way from there, as I want everyone to know that it’s not just for the die hard machine embroiderers. Wait until we get to the quilting features, but I’m jumping ahead.

Now that I’m ready to stitch, I’m once again placing my project under my needle with the needle lined up with the seam that I want to embellish. With the needle in the down position, the needle will be directly in the seam.

Again, I need to stress that because this particular stitch features a lot of detailing; it means that the needle is going to move a little more than normal. Because of the movement, I decided to lower the speed of the machine for this stitch because I wanted to be sure that the seam that I was embellishing remained aligned with my needle so that the stitching would be evenly across and along my seam. This is one of those times when slow and steady is best. So, now I’ll stitch directly along the seam once again with this beautiful stitch; adding another wonderful faux applique embellishment to my table runner.

I’m loving my project and playing with this machine more and more with every new embellishment stitch I add to my project. Join me tomorrow for one last embellishment to add…Happy Stitching!

Click on the link to discover more about THE Dream Machine 2 by Brother.