Embroidery Shortcuts: Sew Cool You Will Want to Gift Yourself!

I’ll show you how these project trays work, a new product that makes stitching even easier, and a little applique shortcut!

Having your thread changes lined up makes embroidery easier. Bonnie has told us how she does it.  Remember this blog on Laser Bee Studio’s thread organization trays (no affiliation)? They also have project trays to keep your thread changes in order.

In the Night Before Christmas reading pillow project, I used Santa 6 from the Santa Buddies set.

This is the first thread tray with my color stops lined up from 1 to 12. Notice that the first four are empty?

Here is the color chart. Color stop 1 is the placement stitch for Santa’s hat and coat. Color 2 is the hat and coat tack down. Color 3 shows placement for the boots and color 4 tacks the boot applique down.

In the chart, colors 1 and 3 are red and colors 2 and 4 are blue. That doesn’t mean that you have to actually load red and blue thread. The colors need to be different so that the machine stops, allowing you to place the applique fabric or trim it.

Color 5, the satin stitching for the boots, is the first “real” thread color that will embroider. Since you want the thread to contrast with GlitterFlex so that is easy to see when trimming (and I did not use GlitterFlex for the boots), I used color 5, black thread, for both placement stitches and tack down stitches. Embroidery continued with color 6.

So what happens when you use the same color more than once? Laser Bee Studio just came out with a Place Marker Set. When colors repeat, add a place marker to the respective thread tray spot with the number of the color you need.

For instance, in the Santa 6 color chart, color 5 repeats at stop 20. You would put the 5 place marker in the 20 thread tray spot, marker 6 in spot 13 and spot 21, marker 7 in spot 14, marker 8 in stop 17, marker 9 in stop 18, marker 10 in stop 16, and marker 11 in spot 15. That way, you will not miss a stitch.

Sometimes, you just have to do something for yourself. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a blessed new year!