I think I like the designs that are more functional and little projects that you can make with your machine. Looking at what is out there to buy, a lot of embroidery patterns are embellishments to add to a project or item of clothing. It’s interesting to go through all of the embroidery patterns that I have designed over the last couple of years. I am in the process of designing some digital embroidery patterns for those who own an embroidery machine to use themselves. In a few steps, you can create a great design! When you draw one shape, the options on what stitch to use for the outline and how the shape will be filled (or not) are so customisable. From using the basic shapes, you can create loads of great designs. I like the control over sewing order, direction of sewing and even breaking the design down in to stages by using different colours of thread. A lot of the time, I like to use the basic shapes and draw my design out from scratch. The PE Design 10 software has some great functions on it where you can get your own drawings or even photos and create an embroidery pattern. There are different types of stabiliser and I’m still learning new things all the time, even a couple of years later! Getting an embroidery machine has been a learning curve, you have to hoop up your fabric and use a stabiliser to strengthen it (some designs have thousands or even tens of thousands of stitches!). Being able to create the same make and the same finish time and time again was the turning point in me feeling that I could sell my products. What I love about my embroidery machine is the freedom to be able to create my own designs and personalise them too. The pre-loaded designs are amazing to get you started but the scope of projects that you can make means that eventually you will look to expand your design library. If you own an embroidery machine, you are either using the pre-loaded designs, designing your own on speciality software or buying them from a website. Most embroidery machines come pre-loaded with a number of designs, my machine came with 138 designs and 11 fonts. I have a Brother Innovis-800e embroidery machine and I use Brother’s software called PE Design 10. I always have a ton of ideas but something I’m really excited about launching soon are the digital embroidery designs that I’ve been working on.

I have software for the embroidery patterns, Cricut’s Design Space software and I have a folder of cardboard cut-out templates that I use to make bunting and handle wraps etc.

I design a lot of my own products and patterns for my embroidery machine, my Cricut machine and general sewing patterns.

Pe-design 10