Appliqués and embroidery files: All questions answered

Interview about Appliqués and Embroidery Designs

Customized is the trend – and that applies to sewing, too! You can create appliqués yourself or buy them. We sat down with two true experts in the field of embroidery designs and appliqués: In this interview, Mia from Stickherz and Tatjana from Stickbär answer the most important questions, provide helpful tips, and share true insider knowledge.

The most important facts at a glance

• In this post, two experts answer important questions about appliqués and embroidery designs in an interview
• With appliqués and embroidery designs, you can give your sewing projects an individual touch
• This not only looks particularly beautiful, but is also a lot of fun
• You can design and create the appliqués yourself or simply buy them
• You can find free appliqué patterns on Mia's and Tatjana's shops and blogs

What is it that you love about appliqués and embroidery designs?

Mia:

What fascinates me most about embroidery designs is the complex structure and the versatile possibilities for implementing my ideas. Unlike with cutting machine designs, the different textures and haptics of the materials allow for very different effects and results.

Tatjana:

The great thing about appliqués and embroidery designs is that if I design them according to my ideas beforehand, I can embroider exactly what I have in mind. Whether with or without a fabric background. I can come up with anything I like and then simply embroider it. In exactly the color I want. It’s hard to get more individual than that.

What are your favorite motifs? And what do you not like at all?

Mia:

I am a huge fan of designs that are a bit more intricate and complicated, such as ITH projects (these are entire projects that are created completely or at least for the most part exclusively in the embroidery hoop), or 3D embroidery designs where other materials like felt, jersey strips, or wool are also used.

I personally am more at home in the area of doodle and redwork designs. Full-embroidery designs are too perfect for me personally and therefore often look industrially manufactured. I like the imperfect, frayed look of doodle embroidery designs.

Tatjana:

I prefer to embroider flowers and in-the-hoop motifs. In particular, I love all embroidery designs that I can use to beautify my living environment. I don’t like embroidering cars and monsters quite as much.

What inspires you?

Mia:

My children inspire me the most. Often something like this comes up: "Mom, please quickly make me a flamingo bag." Whoosh, my head starts working and quite unintentionally begins to create something. That can sometimes cost me an entire night, because anyone who knows me knows that I have a hard time going to bed with an acute idea. I’d rather accept a few dark circles under my eyes the next day and an empty package of chocolate.

Then I have implemented my idea and fall into bed happily at sunrise. These are basically not real dark circles, but happy ones, and there are good concealers for that. But "my little zoo" also contributes quite a bit to the many dogs, rabbits, and mice at Stickherz.

Tatjana:

My entire daily life inspires me. While strolling through shops, I see something and immediately have an idea for an ITH file. For example, a mug with flowers; I immediately see the matching mug rug in front of me and usually design it right away.

Motif: Stickherz

What do you actually need if you want to make appliqués?

Mia:

In order to embroider the simpler appliqués, e.g., from Stickherz, you primarily need a good embroidery machine^*, some stabilizer, a few cones of embroidery thread^*, many fabric scraps, ideally Vliesofix^* to iron onto the back of the fabrics so they don't fray as quickly after washing, and a good small pair of scissors^*. I personally prefer small baby nail scissors with rounded tips from the drugstore.

Tatjana:

Naturally, you need an embroidery machine^*, the file for the appliqué, stabilizer^*, embroidery thread^*, and fabrics. Cotton fabrics are most suitable.

Is appliquéing expensive?

Mia:

Since I very often use my smallest, well-guarded fabric scraps myself (e.g., from Tilda^*; nothing gets thrown away there!), I don’t find appliquéing to be very expensive. With full-embroidery designs with a high stitch count, a lot of thread is used, which is significantly more expensive in the long run.

Tatjana:

No, not at all; on the contrary, you can wonderfully use up all the fabric scraps that would be far too small for sewing. They are always large enough for fabric appliqués.

Where can I get embroidery designs?

Mia:

You can find Stickherz embroidery designs at www.stickherz.de (Etsy^*) or quite newly at Makerist. The shop at Makerist is currently under construction and not yet complete. From now on, my fans from abroad will also finally be able to buy Stickherz designs there in the future.

Tatjana:

You buy them on the internet; many providers also have some freebies, so you can test whether you like the quality of the embroidery designs. In my shop, you will find both freebies and hundreds of different embroidery designs.

How does the appliqué process actually work?

Mia:

My Stickherz doodle appliqués are actually quite simple and almost always work according to the same principle: first, the outline is pre-embroidered, the fabric is placed on top and stitched down. You cut the fabric as cleanly and precisely as possible around the edges at a distance of approx. 3-4mm from the embroidery seam. After that, the next outline is embroidered, you place the fabric on again, and so on. This way, you create your own fantastic work from many different fabric layers and sometimes additional other materials with your own fabric combinations.

Tatjana:

I have written a very detailed free tutorial for this. You can find it HERE.

Embroidered lampshade - Motif: Stickherz

Will the embroidery designs be sent to me?

Mia:

All Stickherz designs are available to you immediately after receipt of payment via instant download, so you can start embroidering right away.

Tatjana:

When you buy embroidery designs in my shop, you can download them immediately after payment. You can therefore start embroidering right away and don't need to wait until I am in the office and send you an email.

What happens after the purchase?

Mia:

After downloading the embroidery design, save the file to your computer and load the file format your machine requires onto the USB stick. Insert the USB stick into the USB port of your embroidery machine and off you go!

Tatjana:

Even after the purchase, I am always available to help you, which many of my customers like to take advantage of. After all, everyone started at some point, and sometimes one or two questions arise, which I am, of course, happy to answer.

Motif: Stickherz

How long have you been designing embroidery patterns?

Mia:

That would require me to elaborate a bit, which would probably go beyond the scope here. In short, after my studies around 2008, when my daughter was about 1 year old, I started sewing and became self-employed in 2009. At that time, I appliquéd my drawings and illustrations until my first embroidery machine moved in and made the work much easier for me.

Back then, I discovered that I enjoy drawing and implementing new motifs much more than sewing, so I spent weeks and months digitizing with a sometimes smoking head before the first two Stickherz bunnies hopped into my shop shortly before Easter 2015.

Tatjana:

I have been designing embroidery patterns for many, many years. Our Stickbär shop has existed for more than 10 years.

How long does it take from the idea to the finished embroidery design?

Mia: 

That really varies a lot. Depending on the effort, it takes from 4 hours to 4 days. Depending on how satisfied I am. Even after the initial creation, something often has to be changed because you often don’t notice the smallest errors in logic in theory. For that, I have my absolutely fantastic test-embroidery team, whom I would like to greet and thank very much here!

Tatjana:
That varies a lot. It can certainly happen that I have an idea in the morning while walking our dog and implement it on the PC in my embroidery software just an hour later, embroider it in the afternoon, and by the evening everything is finished. Sometimes I ponder a certain technique for a few days or even weeks until I am truly satisfied.

What are the individual work steps (roughly outlined)?

Mia:

Roughly speaking, I draw the idea from my head either on paper or directly on the iPad. Although I always prefer the haptics and texture of paper to digital drawing. I’m a bit "retro," as some call me...

Tatjana:

You hoop the fabric together with the stabilizer in the embroidery hoop and embroider one color after another. The embroidery instructions and the embroidery machine tell you exactly which thread color to thread into the machine. You can see the individual appliqué steps in detail in my free appliqué embroidery instructions (see question 8). There are also many free tutorials for doodles and ITH motifs in our shop.

What is your biggest dream regarding your designer job?

Mia:

That I can continue to delight hearts and children with my motifs. At the moment, I am also looking forward to the fact that there will soon be an in-house production with Stickherz fabrics at Stern Depot fabrics—let yourself be surprised! Furthermore, there will soon be news for those who don’t have embroidery machines yet, and I look forward to finally being able to spill the beans on even more new projects soon.

Tatjana:

My biggest dream has already come true, because I am living my dream, because I get to pursue one of my favorite hobbies all day long.

Motif: Stickherz

Can you recommend an embroidery machine?

Mia:

I myself started with a Brother embroidery machine, the Brother 750E, and have remained loyal to Brother to this day. Not just the completely uncomplicated handling, but also the very common file format that every embroidery designer produces, lead me to give a clear recommendation to buy it. Currently, I am embroidering with my beloved Brother Innovis V3 (from Nähpark Diermeier), which has never let me down so far.

Tatjana:

Every embroidery machine manufacturer offers very good machines. I think the potential embroidery area is more important than the brand. Entry-level machines usually only have a very small embroidery area of 10x10 cm. That may seem big enough to a beginner, but believe me, you will want more after just a few weeks. Therefore, in my opinion, it is better to save a little longer and prefer to choose a larger embroidery area. Anything from 13x18 cm upwards is good.

Where can I buy your embroidery designs?

Mia:

In the Stickherz online shop.

Tatjana:

In my Stickbär online shop.

What do you prefer to embroider?

Mia:

I personally love to embroider ITH files and see real works come to life. When my daughter is already fidgety next to me while stuffing a small stuffed animal that I had in my head just a few hours ago, and she can hardly wait to finally hold the pig in her arms, that is when I am happiest.

Tatjana:

Firm, non-stretchy fabrics.

Can beginners also handle embroidery designs, or is that only for pros?

Mia:

Everyone starts as a beginner. With a little practice, anyone can embroider appliqués.

Tatjana:

Anyone can embroider my designs, because I have written detailed embroidery instructions for every possible type of embroidery. Special ITH files always come with special embroidery instructions so that every single step can be exactly followed.

Do you have tips for embroidery beginners?

Mia:

Don’t get discouraged; just do it!

Tatjana:

Have courage; nothing can go wrong.

Swan Motif: Stickherz

Can you actually embroider all types of fabric?

Yes, you can. Depending on the type of fabric, you choose different needles, and there are also different stabilizers for different fabric types. Cotton fabrics are embroidered with normal tear-away stabilizer and a size 75 embroidery needle; for denim, you choose a thicker needle. Jersey is best embroidered with a jersey needle and a stabilizer onto which you iron or stick the fabric.

Thank you both very much for the interview!

Are any questions left unanswered?

Write in the comments!

Happy simple sewing

your Sabine

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