Why You Should Embellish Your Clothing With Embroidery
Embroidery in an effective way to beautify clothing making it look attractive and more expensive than it really is. It increases the lifetime value of your clothes by giving them a refreshing new look so they do not go out of style over the long term.
Embroidery also helps to strengthen fabrics increasing its durability further ensuring you get the best value out of your favourite items of clothing. With your very own creative ideas and designs you can breathe new life into old garments which you haven’t worn in some time.
Remember though that embroidery is a cultivated skill and a form of dedicated craftwork which requires accuracy, the right materials, and lots of attention to detail.
You will have to undergo a learning curve if you are new to embroidery and are interested in exploring this wonderful art form. If you already have some experience in this area, this article will give you the inspiration you have been waiting for to get back into the embroidery theatre again.
What Are The Elements of High Quality Embroidery?
It all begins with the power of individuality and a sense of infusing your clothing with a touch of your own personality. Creating something new and unique out of existing clothing is a hobby enjoyed by many embroidery enthusiasts worldwide. Recently embroidery has been getting a lot of attention in the media due to fashion designers also getting in on the scene.
Embroidery adds quality to clothes by employing creative techniques and artistic elements. Many times a very simply designed garment can be totally transformed by merely adding embroidery work to it invariably increasing its value.
In order to get the best results out of embroidery pattern works you have to combine the following essential ingredients:
1. You are going to need a great design of your choosing.
2. You also need to have the necessary skills to accomplish the best embroidery results.
3. You need to know which are the right materials and thread types involved in quality embroidery.
4. You need to learn as much as you can about embroidery stitching techniques.
5. You have to have a good feel for colours and how they work together to complete your design.
Embroidery Design Principles
Where you place your embroidery on a garment requires some good planning beforehand. You also have to judge the size of your design against the garment so that the final outcome is just right and not overwhelming.
Your embroidery design has to complement the overall look and texture of the garment you are embroidering. You have to know if your planned design will work nicely together with the particular garment fabric and if you would need to make any special stitches accordingly.
It’s good to do some rough sketch work beforehand to get an idea of how your design will blend with the piece of clothing you are working on. This will help you to refine your design before implementing it. It will also enable you to detect possible errors and methods which may be unsuitable for the fabric in question.
You will probably generate new ideas during this important step which will improve the final outcome of your embroidery project.
Choosing the Right Fabrics for Embroidery
When picking materials for embroidery work you have to consider the techniques you use as well as the type of thread you will be employing. Thread weight is important since it has to balance with the fabric you are stitching.
Based on personal preference you will select a fabric that interacts easily with your stitching methods. In the case where a fabric is too thin it may tear or rip during the stitching process. If the fabric is not compatible with the thread weight it may cringe under the pressure of your stitching.
Hitting the sweet spot between the embroidery thread you use and the material takes careful judgment and experience. As you hone your embroidery skills you will become adept at matching fabrics and embroidery threads. This will go a long way to producing fine quality embroidery results which remain strong and attractive over time.
Embroidery Stitching Techniques
There are several styles of stitching which you have to master if you want to be an expert in hand embroidery. Understanding these types of stitches will also play a role if you are machine embroidering.
Learning the Satin stitch technique for example is critical for creating those large areas of flat colour, where you want to fill in spaces almost like colouring in shapes in a drawing. This is essentially among the ‘Fill’ stitches which vary according to the intricacy of your design.
In all types of Fill stitches you have to make sure your work is even and the lines of thread perfectly parallel. Otherwise an area of filled in colour can have a spoilt texture and look. So accuracy and patience will ensure your embroidery looks solid and appealing.
The Backstitch is yet another stitching technique that allows you to make fantastic edges and borders around your embroidery design. It makes your work stand out from the garment as well as helps you to enhance the finer details and patterns you are trying to create.
Unless you’re an extremely gifted hand embroiderer, by using a high quality embroidery machine – all of these stitches can be easily and precisely achieved.
How To Use Embroidery Thread Colours
It’s very important to know and keep on learning more about colour theory. When embroidering one of your main objectives is to achieve consistency in your design. In order to do this effectively you have to know which colour threads work well together when blended.
Especially with a multi needle embroidery machine, you are able to run several colours at once to create vivid effects and images that pop out at the viewer. It takes a keen eye for proper colour selection and for your embroidery design to be visually attractive and accurate at the same time.
Making several colours of thread work together in harmony gives your overall embroidery design that shiny yet elegant look. Well practiced embroiderers know how to turn your design ideas into a reality.
How to ensure Long Lasting Embroidery Finishes
The first and probably the most important step is to hoop the fabric as firmly as possible. If your material is not kept securely in place by the hoop, it can ruin your design.
Remember that you have a series of hoops and stabilizers which are meant to work with various material types. Ensuring you are using the right hoop for your specific project can make all the difference between a stunning finish and an epic failure.
Another important factor is the correct usage and maintenance of your embroidery machine. Consider your embroidery as a work of art, so you need to treat your materials and tools with the level of respect an artist does with her brushes and paints.
Your machine should be kept clean at all times so that your final embroidery works always come out clean. It also sees to the long term use and upkeep of your embroidery machine to take pride in looking after it.
The final touches are often the most crucial ones. When you have completed your embroidery, it is easy to spoil everything with a tiny bit of carelessness. Do not rush the end process of fine touches and trimmings to your embroidery design.
Think of it like applying polish to an antique. You wouldn’t like to stain a masterpiece you are trying to clean. In a similar way, to avoid unnecessary pulling out of threads and mistakenly snipping stitches, you want to be as meticulous as possible when finishing your embroidery.
The best embroidery machine service near you
It takes years of trial and error, and experience to become a master at the craft of fabric embroidery. You also need a keen eye and lots of attention to detail. Handmade embroidery is a painstaking process that demands lots of patience and dedication.
The same applies to being able to use an embroidery machine effectively. There is a learning curve and some technical proficiency required in order to get the best out of a digitised embroidery solution.
You always need to keep abreast of the following principles to ensure your personal embroidery reaches the highest standards of excellence and creativity:
· Know what you’re working with – use the right tools and materials to bring out the best embroidery results.
· Learn the various embroidery stitching techniques which are essential to all embroidery projects.
· Finalise your design concepts and pay attention to the finer details in perfecting your embroidery work.
If you are an embroidery enthusiast looking for the best quality threads, hoops, needles and fabrics – then look no further than our extensive range of embroidery supplies.
Or if you prefer a hands off approach where your embroidery is expertly done for you to your specifications and personal design – why not give our computerised digital embroidery services a spin?
