I probably haven’t written too much lately. What can I say, I’ve been busy. I made a new cosplay site, got stuck in Nashville’s flood and bought an embroidery machine. The embroidery machine has really taken me away from the general sewing because I keep wanting to use it and there’s just not enough hours in the day.
So since I’ve done a few things now, I figured I would show off my progress!
My first attempt was a set of dragon wings. The first one worked with no problems. But the bobbin thread ran out and I didn’t catch it like I should have on the second. 
So instead, I just act like I only made one! (Shh..don’t tell.) Lesson #1: pay really close attention.
Next up was a simpler design with some lettering for Sharon’s shower. Ran out of bobbin thread on the “us” portion of the word. I caught it, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Last time it ran out at the start of a color and I figured out how to go back to that. So off to hancock’s I went for more learning.
Tuesday I fixed the towel for Sharon and caught up with tv (well, some of it). But Wednesday was the big project.
I decided to put a pair of steampunk wings on a hoodie to make myself perk up a bit. I confess to thinking “this will take me an hour” because all the others have taken about 30 minutes, hooping and all. So 2*30 = 60, right? Yeah, not so much. The silver on this took me over an hour and 4 bobbins. I finally psuedo solved my bobbin problem, but I still don’t like it (it winds all wobbly).
The thread caught (silver) at least twice through the plate and that had to be cut off. Ugh, I HATE when that happens. But, while you can tell exactly where that happened, it’s not all that big of a problem (yet). Everything when relatively smoothly for the next HOUR, getting all the other little details in. 
I’m not too thrilled with my gold thread as it looks like the bobbin thread is coming through or it’s just losing some of the gold color. Then I moved on to the “rust” colored gear. That spool of thread kept getting tangled around the bobbin. I’ve used it before and it was fine, so I have no idea what the problem was. Regardless, when I finally decided to finish (finally got to watch Lost despite being spoiled) I switched the thread with a slightly different color. From there, it all went fairly smooth.
This was my first time using the sticky kind of stabilizer and doing something that sat on top of the hoop, and constantly having to remove it from the machine was ANNOYING! But at least it turned out okay.
I’ll do the other wing tonight and then this design is not getting made again by me for less than $100. Maybe more.
