December 2008 - Posts

• June from Brother - Tips on Personalizing Your Gifts

  I am sure that each of you are just like me and you are running around trying to get as much accomplished before the year ends as you can.  Whether it is trying to get the last-minute gifts made or find the perfect gift, they would often look better if they were personalized, wouldn’t they?  Any of the embroidery machines from Brother will help you do that but don’t forget a few of the basic rules for finding success with personalization.  My young friend Tracy was telling me last evening that she had purchased pretty scarves for her friends for Christmas. She wanted to add their initials to each of the scarves. This is her very first embroidery project so these basic rules are important to her as well. Remember to put a piece of cut-away stabilizer beneath the scarf and put them in the embroidery hoop for your machine.  For a project like this I would also recommend that you put the same color and thread in the bobbin that you will be using for the top thread.  Another of my friends also likes to use a “topper stabilizer” on the top as she embroiders, as well.  When she is done she then pulls the remaining topper away from the edge of the letters and trim the lower stabilizer as close to the letters as possible.  In this case the result will be that the letters will be better formed on the top and the bottom and my friend Tracy will be proud of her personalized gift.  Since I bought a scarf for my niece, I think I will take my own advice and personalize her gift as well.  I will be sure to use the smallest hoop that letters will fit in to as well since there would be no sense to use a large hoop for a one-inch-tall letter.  The PE-700ii sold here has great letters and the perfect 4-inch-square hoop for monogramming.  Remember any of the embroidery machines will create the most beautiful monograms but the Brother PR-620 is the perfect machine to make a few extra dollars with.  This 6 needle embroidery machine is easy to use and perfect for personalizing team hats, uniforms or adding initials to those popular quilted handbags that you all love to carry. You can embroider baseball caps or jacket backs but here is something to consider…a few months ago the Brother advertising agency conducted a survey among 1000 owners of this machine and the most popular product line for owners of this machine was equestrian accessories.  That’s how durable this machine is!  Another part of this season is trying to find the time to read the mountains of mail that we all get.  Today we received the alumni magazine for the college that one of our sons went to and I happened upon an article about two women who had met by chance in an executive MBA program only to find that they both had a connection to the Woman with a Cause non-profit program.  A current cause for this program is to building a sewing center in India.  An area of concern found success when women were taught the trade of sewing so they could support themselves and their families.  The next part of the cycle is that these same women use their finances to educate their children and loan money to the men in the village so they can become self-sufficient as well. This is certainly a great success story for two ladies who found a way to way to help others.  The tagline that they have attached to this inspiration gives pause for thought as well, “Teach a Woman to Sew and a Village Blossoms.”   I invite you to take the same thought and reach out to a friend or young person in 2009 and teach them how to sew and watch them blossom!  Posted Dec 19 2008, 10:30 AM by JuneMellinger with 4 comment(s) Filed under: tips for personalizing gifts, brother pr-620, brother pe-700 embroidery machine

• June from Brother - Stabilizer Tips from the Experts

  This week I am the host of my semi-annual Education Team meeting at my corporate headquarters  in New Jersey and I have to say that to be among so many talented and fun ladies who have managed to make a career out of doing something they like is really amazing.  I know that many of you might expect that I always need to write about how great the Brother products are I think I can do that and tell you about these ladies at the same time.   Several of the gals started their career working in their home towns in sewing stores.  They remember the importance of having a stack of fabrics and threads ready to show a potential customer the latest sewing trick that was the WOW feature to sell a sewing machine.  One of them told me that she has this knack of taking a string of words and using them to impress a potential customer.  Fast, fun and fashionable is how she looks at taking ready made clothes and re-constructing them with the addition of decorative stitches, new fabric borders or embroidered trims.  Here is another that I am sure you will appreciate, “blank is boring.”  Can’t argue there, can you?  Why not put a Brother PE-750 on your holiday wish list to solve that problem? Another gal has always worked in marketing for industrial embroidery machines.  She is amazed that the “happy homeowner” can actually achieve similar results with a today’s embroidery machines.  The Brother PR620, six needle embroidery machine is the perfect product for a person who wants to turn a hobby into a profit center.  We actually have another gal who formerly owned her own hair salon but always knew that she wanted to have a career in the sewing field.  She took one look at the PR620 and knew that she could turn a lot of people on to the potential of this little profit center.  Others have had careers in banking, teaching, law, product managers, nursing but in the background they were doing silk flower arrangements, clothing alterations, sewing for their home or fashion sewing.  Today they can speak with authority about how many different things they can do with the stabilizers that everyone needs to use to achieve the best results when it comes to machine embroidery.  I have said it for years….”Even the greatest embroidery machine needs needles, threads and stabilizer for the right results!” Presentations over the past few days have helped me learn things like:      There are over 20 companies that are selling stabilizers today. That should tell you how important they are…      The number of layers of stabilizer depends upon the size of the embroidery as well as the number of stitches. It is okay to float a piece of stabilizer under the hoop as well      Do not attempt to put more than 2 layers of stabilizer in the hoop. If you feel that you need more, float it beneath      Thread comes in all shapes and sizes …so do needles, so make sure that you have the right size needle for the job      Brother embroidery machines easily meet and beat the challenge of embroidering over the flat felled seams in jeans. Don’t forget to use a “jeans” needle for this, the larger size makes penetrating the density of the layers of fabric as easy as slicing butter.      The holiday season seems to shower us with opportunities for embroidering challenging fabrics     Use a topper stabilizer on the top of towels and velvets to keep the “nubbies” from poking through your embroidery.  You will be amazed by the difference in finished results when you do this.     If you are embroidering a fabric that may get “hoop burn” when you take it of an embroidery frame, don’t go that way.  Instead, put a piece of adhesive stabilizer in the frame and press the fabric against the sticky surface and embroider.     Use the “frame patterns” surrounded with a straight stitch to baste the layers of fabric and stabilizer in the hoop before you embroider.     Put new needles into use on a regular basis.      Look “outside the box” when you are creating.  The beautiful handbag above was made by Michelle Gillmartin.  She was the gal who had a previous career in hair design.  The embroidery on the bag was originally created with blouses in mind.  Always up for a challenge, Michelle bought leather and embroidered it before she constructed the handbag.  The application of metal and wooden “bling” makes this super bag a one of a kind for sure!   Talk to you soon! June Posted Dec 05 2008, 11:19 AM by JuneMellinger with 6 comment(s) Filed under: realize the dream, machine embroidery, stabilizer tips