Embroidery Software

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

I finally installed some embroidery software and have been playing around with it today.  Of course it would probably be a lot easier if I RTFM but that’s not the kind of person I am lol.  I like to play first and then if there’s something specific that I want to know how to do, then I RTFM!  At first glance it was a little scary, only because the software was new to me but I am happy to report that I did manage to successfully create one new design and convert one design all on the first day and without the aid of a manual!  Hurrah!  They were pretty simple designs though, but it has given me a bit of a taste for it and maybe I can create something more complex later on.

You can see some of the new designs in the Zazzle shop.  Zazzle and Cafepress have been doing embroidery for some time now but they do use different systems.  Cafepress seems to just convert any of your existing designs to embroidered designs using InfiniStitch embroidery, however just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should and some of the designs really don’t look that clear when done in embroidery.  On the other hand Zazzle gives you three options.  The first is to create a text design using the text tool on the website; the second is to submit one of your own designs to Zazzle for conversion and they will calculate how much this will cost (and whether your design is suitable for conversion) and then you can choose to proceed or not; and the third is that you use your own embroidery software to create a design which you can then upload in the correct format and use straight away.  This option for me is preferable since you have control over the design and you don’t have to pay to have it converted.  You will however have to pay for software or find a free one.

I found a free one and downloaded it.  It’s called Design Era and although it does seem to hog computer resources, it does seem to work pretty well so far.  As I said, it has inspired me to think about creating designs specifically for embroidery rather than converting designs as I like how the end result looks.

More later when I have more time to play with it.  I have a TMA due on Tuesday for my design course so I need to focus on that over the weekend.

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Procrastination is the name of the game

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

Yesterday I told myself I was doing a good thing and being very organisational.  I pulled out all the fabric and stacked it on the tables and then proceeded to “sort” it with a view to getting it more organised – like with like, similar colours together etc – but after a while my back started to hurt and it got late and so I had to leave it all out there not sorted very much at all and waiting for me this morning.

So after getting other things done this morning, I went back to tackling the fabric mountains.  I have gotten a little further with it but it turns out that now that it’s organised it doesn’t fit back where it came from.  How is that possible?  Plus my back started aching again and I had to call it quits again.  So what have I achieved so far?  Well back ache, a messy room again, a trip down memory lane with some of the fabric I’d forgotten I had and.. not really a whole lot more.  It was at about this time that I realised the procrastination element and how there was a list as long as my arm of things that needed doing and here I was sorting through all this fabric that really wasn’t going anywhere and was a job I could do any time, whilst telling myself it was a job that I really should do now.

I have course work that I should be working on now, I have some paperwork that needs doing asap and I still haven’t photographed the supplies I wanted to list on etsy, which of course means that they are not in the shop which means that nothing has a chance of being sold.  Meanwhile my creative space is back to looking chaotic.  I’m going to blame it on the weather as it’s been shocking.  On the bright side the high winds have finally broken off the loose piece of my aerial which has been banging away for months now.

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Weather

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

Well we are experiencing some incredibly windy weather at the moment, wind and rain, just lovely.  I’ve been waiting for some good “natural” light in order to photograph some things for etsy but we seem to be under a permanent cloud.  Just went out to check the garden and things are being blown about everywhere and the greenhouse has shifted six inches to the right – yikes!  My fence is still not fixed/replaced from the last lot of bad weather so I just hope it can hang in there till this is over.

Meanwhile I’m going to hide at the front of the house and plug up my ears.  Cats may be hiding under the bed – they really don’t like the wind and all the banging.

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A new use for my soldering iron

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

A few months back there was some discussion (on facebook?) about how to finish off the ends of webbing when you use it in sewing projects and there was some speculation about soldering irons.  Since I happened to have a soldering iron lurking somewhere in the depths of the house, I made a note and volunteered to test this out.  Since I am completely disorganised and have millions of notes, this is me several months later only just getting around to it!  In my defence I didn’t have any webbing at the time and then it took me some time to actually find the soldering iron.

Webbing is wonderful but when you cut it, it frays like mad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter the soldering iron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let that heat up for a few seconds and then run it over the cut edge of the webbing.  You will end up with a seared (?) melted end that will not fray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Everything Must Go part deux

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

Well I got a little carried away and decided to completely reorganise my “creative space” so last night I was moving furniture, lovely heavy bookcases with lots of heavy books from one room to another, and then I moved the Varde kitchen unit that lives in the box room (because there is no room for it in the kitchen in this house!) into the work room.  I tried to do this a year or so ago but after getting everything else moved into that room, when it came to moving this very solid unit, it turned out to be wider than the doorway and I had to give up and put it back where it started.  This time however, I decided I was in the right frame of mind to tackle dismantling it (I “mantled” it in the first place so it should be a piece of cake right?) Well it was a bit of a pill to do and like I said, it’s VERY heavy but I did do it and once the pieces were in the new room, it was a lot quicker putting it back together than it was taking it apart.  I have to say, it looks WONDERFUL in the new spot and is a great height for a cutting table.  Relocating the dark wood bookcases has really made a difference to the light in the room too.  It feels so light and airy and spacious now, it’s a place where I actually want to spend time instead of a place that I just open the door, throw something in and close it again.  It did take hours to move all the books back to the bookshelves again, that was not fun.  Most of everything has returned to normal but there are still mystery piles of stuff lying around that I don’t really know where they came from or where they are supposed to go now.  Photos, before and after, were of course taken but I’m too knackered now to post them - Mañana

More good news is that I found more stuff I can live without :)

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Everything must go!

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

Well not really but I made a decision to sell some of my craft supplies so I’ve been filtering through everything to see what I need and what I can bear to part with.  It’s not an easy job at the best of times but add a little hoarding tendency into the mix and well I’m sure you can imagine how long this takes.

It occurred to me (duh) that it may take me some time to create a reasonable amount of handmade items to upload to my Etsy shop and I know I can upload just one at a time but who goes into a shop that only has one dress in it?  So since I have a lot of brand new never opened supplies for a number of different crafts and since I have no time to work on said crafts gee wouldn’t it make sense to sell them and meantime, while there is at least something in the shop for people to see and hopefully buy, I could be making some yummy handmade goodies with the mountain of stuff that’s left!  Brilliant!  Now why didn’t I think of that before?  Well I did actually but as usual somehow I didn’t get around to it and I really have a hard time parting with anything.

The good news is that I have finished sorting through what I want to put up for sale.  The bad news is that now comes the other hard bit – the photographing, pricing, weighing and describing of items.  That’s going to take a lot of time methinks, but if I never get started I’ll never get finished.  It would be nice if it all sold out but if it doesn’t then I will eventually make something with it all.  It’s just that there’s so much of it at the moment it’s difficult to get into the room to do anything.

 

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Father’s Day

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Cat Mistress El

Father’s Day cards are now available in the shops.  Cafepress went up a couple of days ago and Zazzle went up today.  I’m working a few weeks ahead of schedule for a change so these are up in plenty of time for the actual event, which makes a nice change.  It does take a lot of time though not only with the making but then the uploading, the tagging, the descriptions and so on, so it may not seem like much to put a few cards up, I am actually feeling quite accomplished.  More designs on more products will be going up over the next few days but now it’s time for a cuppa.

Check the footer for the new designs on Zazzle and Cafepress below. :)

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