Hey Friends, today I want to talk about how I learned to embroidery digitizing.

Several of you asked about how I learned to digitize so I thought I’d walk you through my learning process.

When I decided I wanted to learn how to digitize, I started out Googling the different software that is available.  Many of the softwares have a 30 day free trial which is nice so you can try different ones out to see which you like best.  They are all fairly similar, but maybe one will seem more intuitive to you as you play around with the different software.

At the time we were living in New Mexico and the local sewing dealers did not teach digitizing.  I knew I was either going to have to teach myself or I needed to find a teacher online.  Online seemed to be the way to go.  I think you could easily teach yourself if you are wanting to do things such as add a name to a design.  However, I wanted to learn how to fully build a design from scratch.

How much you want to do in digitizing also plays a factor in the cost.  If you are wanting to add a name to your design you can purchase a less complex and an easier to use software that is also much less expensive.

In looking online, I found a lot of videos for Floriani software, Embird software and Generations software.  Then I found Larry and Holly Pike teaching Generations software, where I could watch live and pay a monthly fee to have access to them and ask questions. This is what helped me decide to go with Generations.  I joined Larry and Holly’s group for about a little over a year and practiced, practiced, practiced.  I’m still learning today little tricks with it.

One thing I did which has been very helpful is to stitch out samples of little squares and change some of the variables on each square.  I will change the density of a square, or change out the pattern of the square, or change the stitch length or underlayment.  As I would stitch the squares, I would write directly on the fabric all the settings I used.  That helped me to learn what I liked best.  All those sample fabric squares are in a notebook.

I’d also practice the different types of stitches such a redwork, satin stitches, blanket stitch etc.  I’d change the stitch length and width and again record the settings on my sample fabrics.

When I was choosing my software, on of the things is, you don’t know what you don’t know.  So in looking back, one thing I would have given more consideration to is the embroidery formats that I am able to produce designs in.  I cannot create ART designs which are for Bernina machines.  I do think most of my Bernina friends can still stitch on their machines in some of the formats that I offer, but having designs available in ART would be nice because people do ask for that.

As I continue to learn, you will see me get on little tangents of doing one style of embroidery more than another.  Right now it is doing free standing lace.  I’m having so much fun with that.

Friends, I’m not affiliated with any of the embroidery software companies so if you are thinking of learning to digitize, do try out the 30 day free trials that the different companies offer and really dig in and play around with the software.  Even if you don’t want to create your own designs, just having the ability to personalize your embroidery can take your machine embroidery to the next level.

Nancy

be creative daily and live life beautifully