Current Mood : Feeling like me.
Current Image Notes : Sifting through patterns... Shinobu needs to change her calendar.
Yaay ! My ‘cheap' ways are even coming through during my machine embroidery crazy days ! The design site I frequent has free hourly designs and ‘hunts' - you track down where this free design came from, and you get points and the single design. I've earned enough points for a free design set of my choice, too.
Anyway, one of the freebies today was a bookmark clip - kind of like a paper clip made of thread ! - with an elephant on it. I like the clip idea, just not much on the elephant. I discovered thread charts, most of yer good designs have ‘em. It's a page showing the path the embroidery machine will take to stitch the design, how much of how many threads it'll take, how many stops (machines stop so you can change thread colors), how big the final design is, etc. Most freebies don't have thread charts, but some do. And the ones from that SiCK site do, since each freebie is also for sale.
So, I took a closer look at the thread chart, and found that the design sews the clip part first, elephant last. I'm thinking I can sew the clip, and just stop it before it sews the pachyderm. Then I'll have a blank clip to hand-embroider or whatever. And it was free ! It does, however, occur to me that there may be a blank spot left for the elephant. If that's the case, I'll switch off the embroidery function and use the ‘darning' stitching pattern. Or attach a patch or flat-back fake gemstone to it. Worth a shot, right ?
Sad thing is, if I wait another week or so, the whole set will probably go on sale for $1. sooner or later. But I'm happy to get a freebie I can really use ! Now I just gotta go through all the designs I've either downloaded as freebies or paid for, and get those thread charts.
I'm cleaning house all week so I can experiment a bit on Thursday. I've downloaded some very tiny designs to use on doll clothes - and if I figure out Sophie Sew, I may yet do my own Barbie logo before she's 51 ! Oh, I'd love that...
