Sewing and Embroidery Basics

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The art of creating custom machine embroidery is called embroidery digitizing. Embroidery digitizing involves using a personal computer, an embroidery sewing machine, and a special digitizing software application.

Embroidery digitizing software requires you to have a fairly powerful personal computer. You will need one with a lot of system memory, a strong processor, a USB port, and a lot of free disk space. The better the personal computer you use, the easier it will be for you to design your embroidery projects and the easier it will be for your computer to transfer them.

When you are looking to purchase digitizing software there are a few things you should be looking for. The first is that the software itself should be easy to install and use. You should be able to digitize on your computer screen by being able to control scaling, match components to the onscreen grids, zoom in and zoom out, and pan from one area of a design to another.

Embroidery 101 an overview and history

Some of the most famous civilizations for creating brilliant embroidery creations are the Japanese and the English. They both used embroidery to decorate ceremonial garments as well as decorative home items. While the Japanese are most known for their amazing kimonos, the English are well known for their hand embroidered fabric furniture panels.

Stump work was made to depict scenes of live at the time and was used to cover mirror frames, and to cover trinket boxes. These trinket boxes were generally made with many small drawers and with secret compartments for hiding valuables such as tea and jewelry. Often the trinket boxes contained mirrors and were lined with paper and metallic tapes. Serious collectors today are still discovering wonderful stump work to add to their collections.

In the past, as part of the regular school curriculum of girls, embroidery was taught. These very young students, sometimes as young as seven or eight years old, would show their sewing skills by creating colorful samplers. The samplers would showcase their sewing skills as well as their knowledge of the numbers and alphabets. Many samplers were created which depict the children, their interests and their school buildings as well. Samplers were generally stitched on wool or silk fabrics with very colorful silk and metallic threads and can still be found for purchase today. Very old or very decorative samplers today are worth a lot of money to the collectors who are fortunate enough to own them.

Just the basics of sewing 101

It is always fun to learn a new skill or craft. In the case of sewing, it can be both a household skill and a fun craft at the same time. The term "sewing" can encompass anything from simple repairs to full-blown projects such as clothing and household textiles. Whether you have ever sewed before, of if you are "crafty" are not an issue if you can thread a needle. If you can thread the needle then you can learn to sew; it really isn't hard to do with some basic instruction and practice.

Sewing, just like many other crafts, has its own language. It is very helpful to purchase a basic sewing book or look online to learn the most basic of sewing terms. None of the terms are difficult to learn, they are just simply different. And, by learning the sewing lingo you can much more easily follow directions for completing projects.

It is always exciting to learn something new and go out and buy all of the stuff you need to make whatever you want. However, rather than going out and buying a top-of-the-line sewing machine and tons of other items, start with things you have around your home and a very basic sewing machine. This will ensure that when you purchase things they end up being what you really want.
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