FTC-U Workshop 01-06

Class length is approximately 2 hrs and 10 minutes.

Special Characters

Begins at 2:45 of the video.  Duration 8 minutes.

The first topic of this class is a question fro Linda about how to create embroidery with text that includes european characters.  You need to use windows explorer to browse your windows fonts folders to find the character map that will provide the info needed. 

Run line on Text Question

Begins at 11:00 of the video.  Duration 5 minutes.

For the next segment, Trevor received a question from Barbara about how to create an outline around letters and the run outline be a different colour from the fill.  Trevor shows how by duplicating the word and making one the fill only and one the outline only.

Artwork Question

Begins at 16:30 of the video.  Duration 27 minutes.

Mae sent in a picture that she would like to digitize, she wanted to know if the artwork was good enough to do automatic digitizing with and how to use the automatic artwork tool.  Trevor talks about what good quality artwork is in JPEG and what the successes or failures could be.  Trevor reviews how to use the automatic artwork tool and compares what he would have done differently if he had done hand digitizing.   Automatic digitizing will provide very quick results however if you need to do a lot of editing then the time saved can be lost.  Some times a blend of automatic digitizing with a few parts hand drawn is the perfect balance.

Stitches to Outlines Question

Begins at 44:00 of the video.  Duration 9 minutes.

Jane was reviewing her past classes and had a question about the first class.  This design was used in a topic about how to use convert stitches to outlines when opening a .jef or any stitch formatted  embroidery design.  Trevor reviews this very important topic because it was actually changed in a recent update to the software.  There is a check box in the open design window and Trevor shows that when this is checked on the original stitches are converted to outlines and because of that you can easily resize the design and the software will generate new stitches based on the density of the original design.  However if you un check the option the original stitches are preserved and even if you change the size no new stitches are generated. 

Stitches to Outlines Question

Begins at 53:00 of the video.  Duration 13 minutes.

Carol sent in an email to say that she was opening the 4 rework ladies from my Embroidery Spectacular class that she is also attending.  Everyone is welcome to join the ES class to learn more about hooping, stabilizers, needles and threads in a fun class that includes some amazingly spectacular embroidery designs. Trevor shows Carol how to open the .jef design and then use ungroup to allow her to select any one of the ladies. 

Digitize Flower – Classic Satin

Begins at 1:06:05 of the video.  Duration 25 minutes.

Trevor digitized a design of a lotus flower from a JPEG artwork.  He focused on a tool called the classic satin tool, the trick to using it is creating a set of points.  With each set of points a new stitch angle will be created.  After all of the shapes have been created Trevor uses the auto sequence control tool to connect the start and end points and connect all of the shapes without any jumps or threads to trim in between them.

Digitize Appliqué Flower

Begins at 1:31:00 of the video.  Duration 18 minutes.

Trevor digitized another flower and for this one he used appliqué to fill in the background.  Using the appliqué tool,  creates a placement line and a cut away line and a satin cover.   Trevor used the outline drawing tool to create the rest of the design and he chose to do the leaves in halves.  Doing each side separately gave different angles and made it look more realistic.

Digitize Freehand Flower

Begins at 1:48:10 of the video.  Duration 20 minutes.

Trevor digitized another flower, and this time he used the steel stitch tool.  To draw the shapes Trevor used the freehand drawing  to mode where instead of clicking points you just click and drag to draw a shape.  Then he applies a steel stitch that is a fixed width satin column.  He also talks about how to fix corners that may be too pointy using the edit shape mode tool.