In case you missed the news, there’s a new kid in town! We’re so excited that brand new magazine Love Embroidery has arrived, offering a beautiful blend of embroidery inspiration, designs and how to guides for modern stitchers. We’re doubly happy to be welcoming them to the Gathered family, so you’ll be able to keep up with all their latest news here in our Love Embroidery section.
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The Love Embroidery team are offering a free machine embroidery set of Peach Melba designs.
You will need
Hammam guest towel, white
Tear-away stabiliser
Temporary fabric spray adhesive
Air erasable ink pen
Machine embroidery threads: brown, cream, light green, medium green, peach
Embroidery machine and large hoop (16x26cm)
Basic embroidery kit
Download our free machine embroidery designs to get stitching!
Simply click on the link below and select the file that suits the machine you are using.
Getting started with the free machine embroidery designs
It’s important to always choose the right hoop when machine embroidering. There are a wide variety of shapes and sizes available.Larger hoops such as the one used in this project are better for bigger designs.
Before you begin, it’s essential that you appropriately stabilise your fabric, to support and strengthen it during the stitching process. There are three main types of stabiliser used in machine embroidery:
Cut-away, which is usually used on stretchy fabrics and will remain in place indefinitely; any excess is cut away.
Tear-away, which is usually used on woven fabrics such as cotton and will be torn away after the design is worked.
Wash-away, which is used when all traces of it need to be removed from the project, such as when using a sheer fabric, or when thicker fabrics with a deep pile will need extra support from the front of the work as well as the back while you are working.
It’s best to practise a new design on a scrap of fabric before committing it to your final project to be surethat the thread colours you’ve chosen will work well and that the design is the correct size.
Hold the bulk of the towel out of the way of your machine as you stitch so it doesn’t get dragged into the design area.
How to stitch the free machine embroidery designs
Prewash your towel as it may shrink, then leave to dry. Decide where you want your peach design to be positioned – we placed ours 15cm up from one short edge and centrally across. Cut a 50cm length of tear-away stabiliser, then use temporary fabric spray adhesive to attach this to the wrong side of the towel, centring it on the point that you want your embroidered design to sit.
Use an air erasable pen to mark a cross at the centre point of the fabric where you’d like the design to be positioned. Line this up with the guide marks etched on the edge of the embroidery hoop. Once you’re happy with the positioning, tighten the hoop to firmly fix your towel in place.
Download the embroidery design, making sure to select the correct file type for your machine as different brands use different file types. Copy the file onto a USB stick, then load this into your machine and apply it to your working area. Your machine will most likely centre and align it for you, but if not, move it to the middle of your working area to ensure the finished design is positioned correctly.
You can now start stitching the design. Your machine will work through the various stages of the embroidery in order, first working the brown twigs, then moving on to the pale green leaves, cream fruit backgrounds, darker peach details and then finally the medium green leaves. Make sure to start the design with a fresh, fully-wound bobbin, and take your time when changing threads to ensure they are properly loaded in the machine each time.
Once the design is finished, carefully remove the hoop from the machine and turn it off. Unscrew the hoop to loosen it and pull it away and release the towel and stabiliser. Turn the work over, and slowly tear away the stabiliser, leaving just the embroidered design behind. Turn the work back over so that the design faces you, and use a pair of embroidery scissors and a seam ripper to carefully trim away any thread carried between sections of the design to finish it off and neaten it up.
If you’d like to repeat the design on the opposite end of the towel, do so now, repeating the above steps. Once the towel is complete, carefully wash it to remove any residue from the adhesive. Leave to dry flat, then press, avoiding working over the embroidery design.
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Want to try a different craft? Click to browse our selection of free modern cross stitch patterns and find the one for you.
