BERNINA Corporate Blog -
Hello lovelies, we are already at the 21st door of the blog advent calendar. Christmas is just around the corner! If you want to create an elegant outfit for the festive season, I have a great idea for a chic top for you today. The elegant dark blue satin is an absolute eye-catcher thanks to the embroidery with CutWork and metallic thread: a CutWork outfit for magical moments during the festive season.
The instructions here describe how to edit an embroidery to create an even more magical look with CutWork. The cut-outs in the fabric lend a certain elegance that is a beautiful addition to a festive outfit.
You can of course also use this technique for other sewing projects. I opted for a simple top. This can either be worn over a tight turtleneck sweater or on its own. The house is often nicely heated in winter – oh, the days in front of a crackling fire with a good meal with the family are simply wonderful.
But back to the embroidery. The embroidery file is edited with the BERNINA Embroidery Software 9 which offers you all the necessary functions.
I then embroidered with the BERNINA 700 – a pure embroidery machine.
Satin top with CutWork embroidery
Material supplies
First you need a suitable embroidery file to modify. Lace-like designs that show the fabric here and there are ideal for the CutWork outfit. These “gaps” are then cut out later. You can also use a ready-made CutWork file directly. However, this article is about adapting an embroidery file accordingly.
For this post I have chosen a file from OESD: Lace Embroidery OESD
You will also need:
- BERNINA CutWork Tool
- Echo Quilting and CutWork Foot #44C
- Fabric & pattern for your sewing project
- Fusible embroidery backing from Vliesline
- Solufix from Vliesline
- Optional: Metallic embroidery thread
- Optional: Sewing thread guide unit
- Optional: Metallic needles
Convert embroidery file to CutWork
Step 1: Select CutWork areas
First select the areas in your embroidery file that you want to cut out for your CutWork embroidery. Be careful not to cut too much or your embroidery may lose stability and no longer hold its shape. After all, these are not “freestanding lace” embroideries. The contours around the cut-out area should also be wide enough to frame the edge properly later. This prevents the fabric from fraying. This is particularly important with very fine fabrics such as this viscose satin.
Note: Once your design is finished, be sure to embroider it once! Only then can you see whether the cut-out areas will be sufficiently stitched around later and how your design will look.
Step 2: Create CutWork border
There are various methods for converting a shape into a CutWork border. There are great tutorials for this on the YouTube channel from BERNINA. However, I would like to introduce you to one method here today. This was my preferred method for this embroidery because you don’t have to break down the embroidery file into all its individual parts beforehand.
To do this, select the digitize “closed object” function under the “CutWork” tab. As with the digitizing of normal beaded shapes, use the cursor to set points approximately in the middle of the contour, which will then be cut out. Use the right mouse button to create rounded connections.
Once you have finished tracing your shape, click on “Enter” to confirm your entry. A column with the title “CutWork border” opens on the right-hand side of the screen. You can adjust the settings here. Select “Cut out” in the upper field and, if desired, an inner and/or outer stabilization. I chose both because of the fine fabric.
You can display the stabilizing seams in a contrasting color in the software for a better overview. You can embroider it later on the fabric in the color of the actual embroidery. Note: The outer stabilizing seams should be inside the later embroidered border so that they are not visible on the final motif.
Step 3: Contours too thin? No problem!
Does your embroidery have too thin contours in the area you actually wanted to cut? First make sure that the embroidery is not grouped and that you can access individual segments. Then select the segment to be thinned and use the right mouse button to open the window with the object properties. The curve selected here is embroidered with a satin stitch. You can easily adjust the width here. I opted for 1.2 mm.
The fine lines that connect the two contours also seemed too thin to me, as they should hold their shape by themselves later after the stabilizer has been washed out.
Here, the respective line is selected again and adjusted via the object properties. As the originally selected “triple straight stitch” was too thin for me, I selected the satin stitch under “type of contour” and chose a width of 0.5mm.
I then converted all the other shapes that I would like to have cut out into CutWork outlines using the procedure from step 2. These can be seen here through the stabilizing seams in pink.
Are you happy with your design? Then you can group the stabilizations and group the CutWork sections. The file can now be saved and sent to the embroidery machine.
Embroidery with CutWork
Step 1: Preparing the embroidery hoop
How you equip your embroidery hoop is always a matter of taste. As the viscose satin is very thin, I ironed it with fusible interfacing to give it more stability. I then attached the prepared satin to the stabilizer with the help of spray adhesive and clamped it in the embroidery hoop.
Step 2: Embroider stabilizing seams
First embroider the stabilizing seams. As previously mentioned, you can make these in the color of your actual embroidery. This way they cannot be seen later.
Step 3: Embroider CutWork
Attach the Echo Quilting and CutWork Foot #44C and the BERNINA CutWork Tool onto your machine. Then run the embroidery program for all four knife positions.
Tip: If you group the respective blade positions (all cutting lines with blade 1, all with blade 2, etc.), you won’t have to turn the blade as often and you’ll get through faster.
Once all the cuts have been made, you can carefully remove the cut fabric. Make sure that you do not pull any strings. It is best to have a pair of embroidery scissors to hand in case a thread is not cut all the way through.
Step 4: Embroider contours and remaining motif
Before continuing, attach Solufix to the back of the embroidery. This is a water-soluble, self-adhesive fleece that helps to stabilize the cut-out areas during the rest of the process. If you do not have the self-adhesive type of Solufix, use the regular Solufix and a light coat of spray adhesive.
If you like, you can also stick a second layer (I used water-soluble embroidery film) to the top to give it even more stability. However, this is not absolutely necessary.
Now the rest of the motif can be embroidered. For a particularly magical look, I used metallic yarn for some parts of the motif. This works wonderfully with a few tricks.
- Use a special metallic needle for embroidery
- Reduce thread tension
- Using the sewing thread gliding unit
With these three tips, the metallic yarn should cause little or no more problems.
The embroidery is now complete and you can finish sewing your project. I wish you lots of fun embroidering and a magical Advent season.
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