What to know about couching work on the Designer Brilliance 80

Welcome back.

I hope you’re collecting some gift ideas that you can personalize on your favorite projects. I got a little sidetracked today with the Husqvarna Viking Designer Brilliance 80. I was about to start customizing a denim jacket for myself, then I found something inspiring to share with you. The more I work with the Designer Brilliance 80, the more I LOVE this sewing and embroidery machine.

There are over 565 embroidery designs built-in the Designer Brilliance 80. And don’t forget those embroidery fonts. But what if you want more? You can always buy commercial embroidery designs, but what if you wish to be super creative by combining designs and embroidery techniques?

There’s a new place to get embroidery designs. As part of the mySewnet ecosystem, there’s now a library of embroidery designs you can access online. When the subscription-based Library was created, the Library consisted of 4,000 files. There are currently over 5,000 designs, and more are added each week. OH MY!

A quick note about the subscription-based Library: the files are encrypted, and as long as you have a current subscription, you’ll be able to use the designs. If you let your subscription lapse, you’ll no longer have access to the files, even if you saved them on your computer.

The design files are tagged with keywords and sorted into categories by technique, theme, style, and design. I had trouble picking one design – imagine being able to combine the designs right on the screen of the Designer Brilliance 80? OH – I need to get to the embroidery machine! Wait – I need to show you this first.

The DESIGNER Majestic Hoop is a turnable hoop with a stitching area of 360 x 350mm. It’s a HUGE hoop which allows you to stitch out large designs or incorporate several smaller embroidery files in a larger area. There are parameters to follow, of course, to enable your creations to be stitched in the turnable format.

Stitch one of the designs that come with the hoop or from the mySewnet Library to get a good understanding of how the designs are created for the turnable hoop format.

Tips for using the DESIGNER Majestic Hoop

Here are a couple of essential tips when working with this large hoop. It looks intimidating, and the Designer Brilliance 80 doesn’t look big enough to load that hoop – but it is!

TIP 1

I’ve hooped the Inspira Tear-A-Way stabilizer and the cotton fabric in the hoop. Getting the fabric straight in that large hoop can be a challenge, so be careful.

There are two Quick Releases on this hoop, one at the top and the other at the bottom. That leaves that long expanse along the edges with minimal support. I added the metal clips to help secure the inner hoop to the outer hoop.

TIP 2

The springs, at both ends of the hoop, must be tightened exactly the same. If one is tighter than the other, it can skew the design when it’s stitched out. I used a small ruler to measure the distance between the two sections, as indicated by the arrow, to ensure they were the same width apart on both of the Quick Releases.

We know that the Designer Brilliance 80 is a WiFi-enabled sewing and embroidery machine. It’s able to receive updates, new projects, tips, and hints in the mySewnet blog. Guess what else it can do? When we have settled on an embroidery design from the mySewnet Library, we can send the design file directly to the Designer Brilliance 80. No USB, no cables. That’s so exciting!

See why I had to share that with you today?

The design that I chose to work with today is one of the Yarn Couching techniques. There are 30 different embroidery techniques from which to choose.

This Yarn Couching Feet Set comes with two sets of Yarn Guides, two feet – each with a different sized hole for the yarn and a threader.

The Yarn Couching Feet can be used in embroidery mode or free-motion mode, giving you lots of options to use it.

As I moved into the Embroidery Stitch Out screen, there are a couple of things to note.

1. I’ll be using the foot that comes with the Yarn Couching Feet Set, so I must be sure to select that option instead of the Sensor Q I usually use.
2. Notice the option in the bottom right corner, asking that all designs be stitched on one side before I turn the hoop around. That’s very important – you do not want to have to keep switching the hoop around. You want it to switch all the designs in the first half and then all the designs from the second half. Be sure to turn on this option.

You’ll thread the yarn through the foot and then attach the foot to the presser foot ankle. A threader comes in the box, so don’t lose it. The two feet in the kit are the same size, but one has a larger hole than the other. I started with the Number 2 foot, which is the larger of the two, but ended up switching to the Number 1 with the smaller hole. The smaller hole supported the diameter of my yarn better than the larger one did.

You’ll also need to install the Yarn Guides on the back of the Designer Brilliance 80. There are two different sets of Yarn Guides, so you’ll need to pick the one that works for the sewing machine that you’re using.

Here are a couple of other essential tips.

1. Reduce the speed for the embroidery stitch out. There are five settings, and I used the middle setting.
2. Make sure that the yarn flows freely through the Yarn Guides. If it gets caught for whatever reason, it won’t get stitched in place.

I stopped the embroidery so I could snap this picture. The Yarn Couching design is looking awesome. Notice because I’m using the Turnable Hoop, the design is only stitching on the one side of the hoop. Half of the design will stitch out; then, I’ll turn the hoop around so the other side of the design can stitch out.

You know me – I love to experiment. Well, I got more than I bargained for with the type of yarn that I chose. It was somewhat of a stiff and very flat yarn. Since it was flat, it looked best if it remained flat when it was stitched down. That meant that I had to babysit it a bit to ensure that the yarn stayed flat. It was also very kinky from the way that it was wound on the packaging. It was probably not the best choice for this project—something to think about when choosing the yarn for your Yarn Couching designs.

Here’s a closeup of the yarn sample that came with the Yarn Couching Feet Set and the stiff, flat yarn I used. You can use any kind of yarn, but some may require a bit more babysitting than others.

Experimenting with different kinds of yarn would be a great way to spend an afternoon. Trying different types and weights of yarn, and playing with the thread colors for Yarn Couching would be a great way to learn. It would also be a great time to experiment with the two different sizes of feet that come with the Yarn Couching Feet Set.

Here’s the first half of the design stitched out. It’s looking awesome!

So remember when I said that you need to make sure the Quick Releases on both ends of the DESIGNER Majestic Hoop need to be tightened exactly the same? The first thing stitched out in designs that have been split for the Turnable Hoop is a registration mark. Notice that the registration marks are sitting right on top of each other. That’s great and means those Quick Releases were balanced when I tightened them.

Here’s the design as it finished on the Designer Brilliance 80. I told you that the machine doesn’t look big enough to handle that Majestic Hoop, but it worked like a charm.

Here’s the final look all cleaned up. I pulled the yarn to the back of the work. The result looks amazing, and it was so easy to do.

I know didn’t really personalize an item, but wasn’t that exciting? We learned how to use a new embroidery technique, AND we learned that it’s possible to use the DESIGNER Majestic Hoop on the Designer Brilliance 80! We also learned that it’s super easy to transfer files from mySewnet Library directly to the Designer Brilliance 80.

Before I close out for today, let’s recap these new items to add to the Christmas Wish List

DESIGNER Majestic Hoop

Yarn Couching Feet Set

A subscription to mySewnet Library

On that note, I’m off to find more great designs to embroider! Be sure to come back tomorrow. I’ve got another fun item to personalize using the Husqvarna Viking Designer Brilliance 80 sewing and embroidery machine.

Have a great day!

Ciao!

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: Designer Brilliance 80 Word Sculpt: getting really creative now is easy!

Go to part 5: How to personalize Christmas stockings using machine embroidery