Freestyle Machine Embroidery
Instructor: Carol Shinn
Supply List
If you have any questions contact me at : cs@carolshinn.com
A student lab fee of $22 will be charged. This covers canvas, broadcloth, Wonder-Under, acrylic paint, handouts, dissolvable stabilizer, and transfer paper with printed image.
Students should bring the following:
- Sewing machine (ordinary home machine-fancy stitches and electronics not needed) – recently serviced. It is best if the feed dogs can be lowered. A machine will be needed throughout the workshop.
- Bobbins to fit your machine – at least 5, more would be better
- Regular foot for your machine
- Darning/free-style embroidery foot for your machine (regular foot won’t work for free stitching). I will bring a few generic darning feet for older American machines.
- Sewing machine oil (if your machine requires oiling) and machine cleaning brush
- High quality machine needles -#16/100 or #18/110 sharps (“jeans”) 16-20. (I will also bring some.) Do not bring Universals or Ballpoint needles. Make sure they fit your machine. (#14/90 will work if you are experienced, but are much more prone to breaking.)
- Light weight (extra fine) machine thread for the bobbins. This will show less on the right side than regular weight thread. I try to have several values (shades of light and dark). Don’t try to match all the colors you would use on the front. Coats and Clark fine (lavender spool) in white, black, gray, and blue is good. Aurifil, Madeira, Mettler, DMC, and other brands of #50 are also good. If you can’t get these, I will bring some to share.
- Regular weight thread – Cotton, cotton wrapped polyester, or high quality polyester. Good threads include those similar to Gutermann, Mettler, Presencia, Kismet, and the older cotton/poly Coats and Clark. The new 100%polyester Coats and Clark is OK but is a very dull thread. However the new Coats and Clark provides more subtle and grayed down colors than Gutermann currently does. Avoid bargain thread such as Trusew or Excell. Bring many colors including several shades and variations of each color if you can. They do not need to be all the same brand. Example: If I want a blue sky I often use several shades of blue as well as lavender and turquoise. I personally use no rayons, metallics, or shiny threads, but if you would like to bring some, that would be fine as long as you have a very large selection or are also bringing a full range of cotton/poly threads.
- Ripper and tweezers (handy for mistakes)
- Paint brushes (paint will be provided). I find a flat ½” and ¼” or round #4 suit most of my needs. If you don’t have these, I will bring a few to share.
- Mixing containers for paint-such as used film canisters, plastic lids, Styrofoam trays, yogurt cups, butter tubs, etc.
- Small sharp sewing scissors. (Larger fabric scissors or paper scissors-optional but could be very handy).
- Small pieces or scraps of additional fabrics if you desire for experimenting and collaging.
- Designing materials. Bring a variety (your choice–you don’t need all the things suggested, just a few) such as pencils, paper, colored paper, glue stick, Prismacolor pencils, crayons, pastels, what ever you like to use. You could also bring photos/book or magazine pictures that you think might work as embroidered images-these should not be too complex.
Optional
- Rotary cutter and cutting mat (optional)
- A black ultra fine tip Sharpie marker can be very handy for clarifying image before stitching.
- Fabric glue stick or quilt basting spray (only if you already have it and wish to collage with other fabrics)
- Variety of fabric scraps that could be used in fabric collages.
- Any work that you would like to share or discuss or photos of your recent work.
- Low profile embroidery hoop (one that will fit under your darning foot)–handy when using dissolvable films.