Training
I went to receive embroidery machine training from Alec in EDS. We practiced on the Brother SE1800. I learned how to change out machine parts including the base and foot, and I also learn how to load the thread and basic machine operations. I have had sewing training before at Metropolis where I made a (crooked) pencil pouch, but embroidery by machine was new to me. It was very cool to see it operates, and I would love to learn more about the exact mechanism after the class.
I discussed how I want to embroider Bella—my friend’s dog—for the week. See some pictures of her below! You can find more picture of her at her Instagram account. Sam, Bella’s mom, and I were choosing between pictures of Bella, and we settled on the second option (sadly, pooping Bella may have to wait for another day).
Good Bella, bad PES
Bella is a white Samoyed dog, so the contrast in her picture is quite low. Alec explained that this would cause the automatic converter to PES (the file format used by Brother machines) to be unhappy. We discussed my options which were
- Learn to make the PES file myself which have a steep learning curve.
- Pay some one to do it.
I took up option 2 because I would like to make up for my lack of work in the previous week in this week. I reached out to a embroidery digitalizer on Fiver, and gave them one of Bella's picture. I clear up the picture background using Adobe's Photoshop. First I uploaded the photo and remove the back ground using magic wand to highlight the general shape and used the hair brush to even out the tail fur. Then I used the paint bucket to paint the background black.
I gave the digitalizer some of the machine specifications including max embroidery of size 5 by 7 inches with a 45,000 stitch limit. They came back to me two days later, and I'm quite happy with the output!
Long long queue
A few days later, EDS was closed so I went to Metropolis to work on the week's assignment as well as do some 3D printing for my final project.
For embroidery, the machine in Metropolis differ from the one at EDS. If I recall correctly, there was a few machines available, but the only one that I know how to use was the Brother SE400. I spent a while figuring out where the parts are stored at Metropolis, and a while longer switching the machine from sewing to embroidery.
Sadly, after spending time setting the machine up and hooking it up to my computer via a printer cable, I learned that this machine can only handle 4 by 4 inches of embroidery. I abandoned the task and focus on my print for the final project instead.
Eventually, I came to EDS to do my embroidery, but sadly, no good dark fabrics were available. I made a quick trip to Blick's art supplies in Central Square to pick up some wood as well as some fabrics for the embroidery. I attempted to go back to Metropolis, but it was closed by then. I gave up and decide to embroider Bella on the plain cream color canvas available at the lab instead, but the queue has only gotten longer.
Eventually I get around to actually do the embroidery. I started it at roughly 10:30pm and came back the next day to finish up. Bella embroidery took about 3 hours total.
You can find the PDF file for the digitalized embroidery here, the PES file here, and the DST file here. (Alec discovered that the Brother SE1800 works not only with PES file but also wit DST file).