Freehand embroidery with a sewing machine

Carmella inducted me in the fashion studio and taught me how to embroider writing using a sewing machine. It's a really effective technique and will absolutely speed up adding textile text to the wimple. 

It was good to jump on a sewing machine again. I had forgotten a lot of my past skill and was initially quite frustrated. And apparently the college machines can be temperamental. 

But after about an hour of practising and experimenting a lot of it came back to me and I was re-threading the machine and problem solving confidently.

It was this machine....

I just need to experiment more with the stitch pattern and length until I find the right scale and aesthetic. My initial preference is straight stitch (1 width) and a very short length (1.5).

Carmella said Friday's are best for me to use the studio space and they are back on the 3rd of January.

I think I will write the words in vanishing pen on the fabric and then embroider over that using the machine, so I can keep the text as intricate, small and legible as possible.

I love the uncomfortable spikey quality of the writing. It's a nice juxtaposition with the nobility text I plan to write. It almost looks like barbed wire, which has delicious religious overtones. It's got attitude so it's its another lush contrast and subversion; because we expect a kind of twee niceness from crafts like sewing.