To do decorative machine stitching may sound like a great way to introduce yourself to embroidery. Rather than constantly working with each tiny, fiddly stitch, you can let the machine do most of the tedious work while you control the larger picture. It sounds like an easy way to learn embroidery, but it's not quite that straightforward. If you do machine embroidery, then there is a set of skills to master, many of which are particular only to the machine. For one thing, you still must learn the different types of fabric, and what sorts of designs will or won't work with which cloth.

Using a machine for a dense embroidery design, for example, will stress a knit or loosely woven fabric, sometimes even pulling the weave apart. And in a fluid type of cloth, a design that's dense will stop the flow and hang on the fabric like a frozen block. Conversely, a thick fabric or one with a heavy pile, like terry towelling or fleece, is unsuitable to small designs with a lot of open space. Such a design would pretty much vanish, unless a large patch of covering fabric were added, upon which it would then be stitched. Decorative machine stitching requires an understanding of which designs work best, or work the worst, with which materials.

Even when you do match the design and fabric well, you might still find the stitches not coming out as they should. You also need to ensure that the machine is set up properly, because some of the problems might originate there. For example, if the thread and bobbin tensions are wrong, then the sewing may produce puckering. Another cause of puckering, though, could be that the cloth was stretched too tightly over the hoop. Machine embroidery requires a balancing of the fabric and design, and a balancing of machine settings with both of them.

One thing you may learn pretty quickly is that thread art is never easy and straightforward, no matter how you produce it. Machine embroidery makes some aspect of this art easier, but adds complications in other areas you wouldn't encounter if embroidering by hand. A machine can add speed as well as complexity, but certain more technical aspects would be absent from hand embroidery. So you need to consider these tradeoffs as you decide between the two styles.

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It's very likely that you feel limited if you are unable to work on your decor and entertaining plans using a sewing machine that works with hundreds of different stitches and programs. Perhaps you're thinking of how you might edge your tablecloths or perhaps create sashes for your curtains, and read magazines to get all sorts of tips for creative machine stitching. However, in the end there's not much more you can do unless you're going to learn to do it all by hand.

You may own a sewing machine that's fairly ordinary and rather simple; one that perhaps has been programmed with a few basic creative stitching patterns, but nothing much more than that. It's never going to produce the effects you really want. Or is it? A book published in 2003 may magically turn your ordinary machine into the virtual equivalent of a more complicated embroidery machine. At least, that's the claim that's been made for "Creative Machine Stitching," written by Patricia Nelson, and a few www.amazon.com reviews from people who have used the book seem to support the claim.

The idea that appears to be behind "Creative Machine Stitching" is fascinating, being that you can create stitches that look very elaborate and complicated, without having a programmed machine to rely on. Instead, according to Nelson, you can create fine art stitching by using different thicknesses and types of threads, different needles and fabrics, and controlling the movements of the machine to create effects it hasn't in fact been programmed to make. Nelson gives such precise directions, even about bobbin and machine tension, using the presser foot, and so on, that some Amazon reviewers think that a beginner really can't go wrong.

"Creative Machine Stitching" sort of bridges the gap between the idea that thread art should all be done by hand in order to be creative and that the most complex embroidery machines are the only way to get proper embroidery work done now. Using the methods in this book, you can retain a great deal of control and be really creative, yet produce results that look as though you do have one of those elaborate machines. You can, in a way, have the best of both worlds.

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The invention of a machine that could imitate the hand stitch must have seemed miraculous in the beginning. But as people got used to the idea, it wasn't long before they wondered if they could get machines that added just a few more basic stitches, to save yet more work. This was the primitive beginning of sewing machines with decorative stitches. Probably those earliest stitches weren't even considered all that decorative, but just convenient stitches that could be used when straight stitches weren't wanted.

Designers eventually thought of a way to create a sewing machine with decorative stitches, and some of these extra stitches were built into newer models. And in many cases, other decorative stitching was added by the user's choice, using a primitive form of program. A design could be punched into a paper tape using little holes, the tape then being fed into the sewing machine. Pins inside would go through the holes and this would trigger a mechanical reaction that moved the machine needle in certain ways. This method produced some creative stitching, but it was also susceptible to errors in the punching, which sometimes produced bad results on the actual cloth.

The next mechanical stage in sewing machines with decorative stitches produced much more reliable results, and opened the door for introducing many more programs that could be added externally. In this stage, hard plastic rings were created with indentations and bumps around the outer edge. These disks could be snapped into a special place on the machine, and as the ring turned, the bumps and indentations would move levers that would in turn move the needle in creative machine patterns. The errors were far fewer using this method and the designs got more elaborate.

With the advent of the electronic and digital age, it was like the culmination of the evolution of sewing machines with decorative stitches. Even the sturdy mechanical disks are no longer needed, as programming is done electronically. Fabric crafts have been revolutionized, and while some worry that human creativity has been adversely affected with everything that can be done by machines, others view these machines simply as tools to extend human creativity further. It's interesting, though, to pause occasionally and contemplate just how far the sewing machine has come, from those very simple beginnings.

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Machine stitching has opened up a new world in recent years for people interested in the creative sewing arts. It used to be that there were only two ways for you to have clothing or household fabric items with elegant borders or other elaborate decorations. The first was to buy them as probably expensive, factory produced products, where the decorative stitching was produced by programmed machines. Or you could do hand stitching of your own, a less expensive process, but certainly more laborious for you, with a steeper learning curve to develop adequate skills.

Now, even if you aren't a real expert, the machine stitching functions can help you create lovely patterns. Sometimes the stitches aren't even going to be all that elaborate, but the effect will be impressive. For example, if you want to machine embroider some napkins and the corners of a tablecloth, to make your decor and entertaining settings a bit more elegant, then it often doesn't take much more than a very simple flower or perhaps a solitary fleur-de-lis pattern set into the corners of those linens to add that special touch.

If you go beyond embroidery into the quilting realm, then there are sewing machines that can handle that art as well. In fact, some machines come with pre-set pattern quilting designs to use as you join your pieces together or as you sew a large stitched pattern into a single-colored quilt. Whether you want to get that elaborate with the quilting, though, may be determined by how dedicated you really want to be. Even a fairly simple but complete quilting project will probably be a lot more involved than a quite complex piece of embroidery work.

Your whole decor and entertaining style may change as you learn exactly what you can do with your own machine. You may go overboard for a while with the machine stitching as you experiment, but soon you'll discover your own style and will begin to streamline. Between magazines, blogs and other internet sites you'll get ideas and tips, and will learn new techniques to add to your repertoire. The whole atmosphere of your home may change, and you will discover a new pride in your skills.

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You can always learn from the experience of others, so as you go looking for a machine with which to do your craft work, reading sewing machines reviews for decorative stitches should be a large part of your investigation. To do decorative stitching that inspires, you need to be completely comfortable with the machine you're working on, and know it can do exactly what you require of it. Reading sewing magazines, as well as both professional and personal reviews online can provide you with a lot of information.

Most machines do at least some degree of decorative stitching, so even though a lot of sites just generally cover sewing machines, you can find enough reviews that you'll get a good idea what's out there. The best website to start with is www.consumersearch.com. They gather reviews from everywhere, like Good Housekeeping, www.amazon.com, www.target.com, and so on, and compile the opinions together with links to the other sites. You could also go directly to Amazon for reviews on individual creative stitching machines, or to www.bizrate.com. The latter site links you to many reviews, although they are tied to particular stores as well.

So as an example of the types of sewing machines reviews for decorative stitches that you would find on these sites, take a www.consumersearch.com review of the Brother XL-2600i. Here you would discover that despite its almost unbelievable price of about one hundred dollars, this little machine gets rave reviews everywhere. It can handle enough stitches for decor and entertaining, as well as basic mending and sewing. At the far end of the spectrum, the website lists evaluations of the elaborate Pfaff Performance 2058, selling for about three thousand dollars. ConsumerSearch covers the best machines in all price and capability ranges.

To do fine creative stitching, you need a machine that you know will do what you need it to do. So reading sewing machines reviews for decorative stitches should be a big part of the research you do to find the right machine. Learning what stitches a machine can do is one thing, but you also need to know how it handles, what sticks a little, and how much room it gives you to work. These are all things that you can only discover by learning from the experiences of other users.

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Sewing your own curtains, linens and even clothes can be very rewarding. Sewing machines have made the process easier than ever before. And even the products you create can now be just as embellished as the items you would buy from a store. The secret is decorative machine stitching. It adds a bit of flair to anything you are sewing. Whereas once upon a time you had to do it all by hand, now you can do it with a machine. This article will cover some of the questions you may have about decorative stitching and how it can add to a very rewarding hobby such as sewing.

What type of equipment do I need in order to do decorative machine stitching?

If you want to do decorative machine stitching then you really only need two pieces of equipment. The first is a sewing machine that is capable of decorative stitching. The second is a seam ripper. The seam ripper can remove any areas of stitching that did not turn out quite the way you wanted it too. You absolutely must, when buying a sewing machine that does decorative stitching, check to see what types of stitching it is capable of performing. The owner manual, or even some stitching books, can teach you how to program the machine to do the specialized stitches.

How much does decorative machine stitching cost if I want to add it to a garment?

If you have a garment and you want to add decorative machine stitching you have two ways to do it. The first is to do it yourself. If you do it yourself then you just have to have the know-how, the machine and the thread. If you do not have these things then the second option is what you have to go with. This option is having a seamstress do it for you. There are many embroidery businesses that do decorative stitching. The cost will be determined on the thread count and the difficulty involved. The more colors used and the more intricate designs are going to cost more than a simple design with one color.

What types of books are available about decorative machine stitching?

If you go to a craft store or bookstore you can find plenty of books on decorative machine stitching. Some will teach you the basics you need to perform some of the simple stitches. After you have mastered the basic stitches you can then buy books that feature more intricate stitching and find the machines that can perform the stitches. Some of the more advanced decorative stitching books will even incorporate beads and sequins which can really make your fabric stand out.

Are there websites that show off decorative machine stitching designs?

There are some great websites you can check out for decorative machine stitching designs. You can visit http://crafts.lovetoknow.com. You can also visit www.scrapjazz.com to find different stitch patterns. If you are a novice or an intermediate sewer you can visit http://stason.org/TULARC/crafts/textile-books/20-Novice-or-intermediate-decorative-machine-stitching.html to get a lot of new design ideas.

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When it comes to machine quilting, this is one of the fabric arts where the question of whether using a machine eliminates human creativity. With an embroidery machine, much of the work is simply done by the machine, but there is far more work that depends on human hands in quilting. It's the fine art stitching that may be done by the machine, but a quilter does much more work than just the stitching. And to use a machine for this purpose means that it has to be the right machine.

The brand that seems to hold the greatest title to machine quilting royalty appears to be Pfaff. They make several machines that are best for sewing and embroidery, but then have several heavy duty models that seem designed for quilting alone. The top of their line, which costs about three thousand dollars, has every feature you could ever dream of, including computer digital displays and countless creative stitching programs. An option this machine also has is a button that will let you switch to free motion, so the stitching pattern doesn't follow a pre-set program, but goes where you direct it as you move the cloth around.

Some requirements for quilting on a machine are a bit different than those for machine embroidering, even though the principles are similar. For one thing, when you're making a quilt, the needle must penetrate several layers of material at once, and those layers of cloth need to be fed through the machine at exactly the same rate, so nothing puckers and the stitches are even. There is usually a much greater mass of fabric to be kept out of the way or worked on. A sewing machine that can reliably be used will be able to handle these mundane yet ever present details of quilting fabric crafts.

Is machine quilting as valid a human craft as quilting solely by hand? For someone with arthritis, the answer may in fact be a resounding yes. There is still a lot of hand work, but fine creative stitching can be done on a quilting machine more easily. When you think of it that way, the machines created by Bernina, Pfaff, Singer, and so on are more like tools used by humans than substitutes for human work. And they help users produce beautiful and elaborate quilts.

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