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Wanting to know more about machine embroidery

9 years ago

A friend brought back from France a really beautiful coarse weave linen table cloth which was embroidered with green vines with leaves and two toned lavender flowers all along the perimeter of the table cloth. It is such a simple design but looks a million dollars. I'd like to make something like this but have never done machine embroidery- I dont even know if its possible replicate the design using a decent sewing machine. I have a 30 year old Bernina 420 sewing machine and obviously this won't to the job! If it was a viable possibility to be able to make a professional looking embroidered table cloth I would look around for a good second hand machine and make table cloths etc for charity - but if its much harder than it looks then maybe its not the great idea I thought it was. Has anyone any suggestions or comments - and any suggestions for a suitable sewing maching?

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Comments (4)

dancingirl_gw
9 years ago
If it is machine embroidery, then an EMBROIDERY machine was used. It takes an enormous amount of talent to manipulate an ordinary sewing machine to do embroidery....something I would never attempt. So you might want to look into an embroidery 'only' machine--but be aware they can get expensive.
taoseeker
9 years ago
Do you know if it was free motion embroidery? If so, you can do it on your old Bernina. You need the darning / embroidery foot, probably among your accessoires. You also need to lower the feed dogs before you start practising. Google free motion embroidery related to both vintage and modern machines, and you will discover a new world! It does require some practise, it's a hobby everyone can adopt, you don't have to have a special ivy league talent.

If the embroidery on your linen cloth was free motion embroidery you can't really copy it with the auto functions on an emboidery machine. On the other hand, it is difficult to get exactly the same result as the auto function on an embroidery machine, as they can be very advanced combinasions of staright and zigzag, but in some cases you can get pretty close.

Take a look at the video, done on a simple straight stitcher only, threadle machine. Your old Berina is a good machine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Video
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soflaj9
9 years ago
If you have a sewing store near and they carry machines, they might have classes or would do a demo for you. I would highly recommend taking a test drive before plunging into the hobby. My local store offers classes using their machines for potential owners to really get a feel for the machine before they commit. Take your piece to the store, they can tell you exactly how it was done. looser weaves can be especially challenging.
The machine you have is a very good one but not a hooped, computerized embroidery machine.
You could do thread painting, that's fun and creative. You need stabilizer though. Otherwise your stitches will bunch.
Jacob michel
8 years ago
Hello Ennoh

You could search for the basic models form wilcom
embroidery machine company.These machines are known for their
professional quality stitches and hence I would suggest you to start
your interest with them. An interesting point to note is that most of
the embroidery digitizing companies use them for professional standards

Regards
Jacob

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