Iam sure many of you will identify with me when I tell you about purchasing a beautiful silk suit that I thought would be the perfect canvas for machine embroidery. The moment I saw the creamy silk, I knew it was just asking to be embellished with machine embroidery to take it from ordinary to extraordinary! The jacket had a lining which was quickly removed, and being a somewhat impatient person and not wanting to take the time to ‘test-sew’ my chosen embroidery design, I started embroidering straight onto the silk.
For the first design I hooped the jacket and stabiliser and stitched out my first design. Noticing that the silk was slightly puckering did not deter me and I kept going until three designs were completed. At this time I decided to take a break from the embroidery and examine my work. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the side I had embroidered was now 3in shorter then the other side. I felt sick and no amount of pressing and stretching would restore the jacket side to its original length. I had just ruined this beautiful suit. Embroidery is often a learning process; if I would have known then what I know now, I would still have a gorgeous silk suit.
Working on delicate fabrics such as silk, organza, linen and others can be challenging, especially when dense embroidery is desired. The fabric is just not designed to support this type of embellishment. Let me introduce you to a new and improved embroidery technique called Embroidery Découpage which is a fast, fun and fearless way to ensure perfect embroidery even on the most fragile of textiles without damaging them.
The technique is accomplished by stitching an embroidery design directly onto a special stabiliser called Cutaway Magic instead of directly onto the fabric. Once the
design is embroidered the excess stabiliser around the design is then burnt away with a heat cutting tool. This technique now leaves you with a free-standing embroidery appliqué motif. The true beauty of this is perfect embroidery placement!
Have you ever embroidered onto a garment and upon completion find that your placement was not to your liking? By using the Embroidered Découpage technique, free-standing embroidery motifs can be pinned to a garment allowing you to try on the garment before stitching is permanent. If you are not happy with the embroidery placement, simply re-pin the motif until you are happy with the placement. This technique takes the ‘fear’ factor out of directly embroidering onto an expensive garment and gives you that professionally embellished (only better!) look.
When choosing your design for Embroidered Découpage, be sure to pick one that is totally filled in with stitches or has a fabric appliqué insert. If you choose an open stitch design then use a layer of nylon organza and Dissolve Magic. The organza fills in the open areas of the design while the Dissolve Magic is easily washed away with the nylon organza being easily burnt away leaving a clean edge around the embroidery. It is important to use only a nylon organza or tulle as the nylon component in the fabric burns away cleanly and easily.
Heat-cutting tools come in all shapes and sizes. There are some that are designed for burning stencils for quilters, for etching wood and now at long last, one that is designed especially for burning away textiles – the just released Magic Heat-Cutting tool. The selection of tips included with the Magic Heat-Cutting tool ensure perfect heat cutting results every time, even sharp points and delicate curves.
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