You know when your embroidery machine makes an awful "ka-CHUNK!" sound followed by a pathetic "beep..beep..beep" that something has gone horribly wrong.  Today I had to rescue my poor Bertie (the little 6 needle machine, remember?) from a broken needle and a jammed needle shaft after she caught herself on a bad bit of stabilizer and ran into the edge of the hoop.  For those of you who do not own an embroidery machine, let me translate:  big boo-boo!  Thankfully, Bertie, bless her heart, is a forgiving little machine and was happy to continue sewing away after I righted her and rehooped the cape I was working on.  The incident was all my fault anyway - that will teach me to try to use left-over pieces of stabilizer.  I shudder to think what would have happened had the Beast been in such a position instead of Bertie!

I finished up the cape I was working on and set it aside for the client.  Now I get to focus on Meaghan's dress.  I took my fabric and plans to the TC last night and she liked it!  Woohoo!  I've revised the plan and embroidery design one last time (famous last words) and I'm anxious to start cutting and embroidering. Just as if this were for a client, I run off the final embroidery design on muslin before cutting into the real fabric. 

After taking a good long look at the result I decide some changes are in order so I head back to my embroidery software AGAIN!  Look at the difference between the first design on the final design:

I'll be using the Beast for the bodice piece because the area to be embroidered is about 12" x 19".  There's a lot of work that has to happen even before needle touches fabric.  First the embroidery design from Masterworks has to be converted into the Beast's preferred format and transferred to the machine.  The design has to be arranged just so, and turned 90 degrees before it ever gets sent across the cables.  If I don't transfer the design from Masterworks into the embroidery machine's software, plug the machine into the computer, oil up the Beast and turn him on, and open up his software all in the right order, the Beast won't even speak to me.  And just like a bad boyfriend, not only does he cut off all communication, but he won't even tell me why!  In the very beginning, it took much intervention from my engineer husband to figure out how to sweet talk the Beast into agreeing to embroider anything for me.  

The fabric takes some prep work too.  When cutting the face fabric, I always leave it a big large.  Precise cutting can wait until after it's all embroidered.  I cut out some fusible knit stabilizer, soak it in hot water and let it dry, and iron it to the piece of satin I've cut out for the bodice front.  Usually I work with three front bodice pieces, but due to the all-over nature of the embroidery, I'm going to work with a flat front and add a little dart if needed (since ds is still a pre-teen I can get away with that).  I hoop a piece of stabilizer in my big hoop and lay out some grid lines in pen.  I've laid out grid marks on the fabric too, but in chalk.  I never use sticky-back stabilizer, by the way (were you wondering?) because I hate the stuff.  I used to use a spray adhesive until the ladies at the sewing store informed me that it would give me lung cancer and even managed to imply that I should be reported to the ASPCA for endangering the health of my pets.  So I hid my last can of spray adhesive in the closet like a dirty little secret and only pull it out as a last resort.  Even then, I find myself glancing furtively around to make sure the sewing store ladies aren't watching.

Here's a secret trick to hooping fabric: just say NO. Nothing good ever came of hooping face fabric.  Hoop the stabilizer instead and just lay the fabric on top of it.  I have a pile of bent straight pins that I then use to pin the fabric onto the stabilizer.  But BEWARE!  Sweet Bertie can embroider right over a pin but not a pin head.  The Beast, on the other hand, has apoplexy if there is a needle in his path.   So I very cautiously pull pins out ahead of him as he very slowly bastes a box around the area to be embroidered.  I learned that trick from another dressmaker (maybe it was Ann of Taoknitter?)  Once that is done, I turn him up to full speed and breathe a sigh of relief. I pull on my noise canceling headphones while I start the process all over for the next piece of fabric to be embroidered.

I haven't talked about patterns for the bodice and the skirt yet.  That will be the next installment.