What happened? Sometimes you find yourself asking this question when you take a project out of the hoop. There are a few tips in this week’s blog that might help you find an answer(s) to your question and minimize or avoid the problem in the  future.

Garment cut while trimming cutaway stabilizer:
1. Turn the garment inside out. Bend the backing away from the garment and trim cutaway stabilizer using scissors in a gliding motion. You need a good pair of sharp scissors with no nicks in the blades. Cheap, flimsy scissors and/or dull blades will make this hard to do. Round nose scissors are less likely to grab your fabric and poke a hole or slice the fabric.
2. A sharp seam ripper might be used instead of scissors. Position the ball of the ripper against the fabric, and slide it around the perimeter of the design.

Distorted Design:
1. When removing tearaway stabilizer, place your fingers near the stitching to reduce the amount of fabric that is stressed or stretched during the process.
2. If you used more than one layer of stabilizer, remove the layers one at a time.

Hoop Marks (Oh-No):

1. Natural fabrics tend to mark more than polyester/cotton blends do. Light hoop marks can be erased with a spray of Magic Sizing or plain water in a spray bottle.
2. Steam from an iron or a steamer generally will remove hoop marks. Brush up nap and remove hoop marks with a soft brush – a toothbrush usually works well.
3. Use hoop-less methods on delicate garments like silk and velvet.

Incomplete Water-Soluble Topping Removal:
1. Remove excess topping by carefully pulling it away from the design. To remove remaining topper, wash garment or try one of the suggestions that follow.
2. A hot, damp cloth will remove topping with minimal water.
3. Steam, and then blot with a coffee filter. The filter will absorb the topping.

Happy Spring – a free bunny design –

This design was created with Floriani software. There are pes and vp3 files. Download the file type you need for your machine.

Applique bunny design notes –

Color 1 – placement stitch
Place applique fabric over placement line
Color 2 – tack down stitch
Remove hoop from machine and trim excess applique fabric – DO NOT remove fabric from hoop
Replace hoop in machine
Color 3 – satin stitch around the bunny
Color 4 – eyes and nose stitching
Bunny done – remove from machine

This bunny will look cute on a baby’s bib, tee shirt, napkin, placemat, mug rug, and more…

Be creative, have some fun, and enjoy the results of your efforts….

Download pes version here

Download the vp3 version here