OESD has just released a brand new collection available at your local Embroidery TakeOut Dealer. It is #12288 - Cutwork Bouquet. Bunny Gates, a BERNINA Educator, recently used a design from this collection to embellish a collar. She used an Isacord Embroidery Thread in a very similar shade to the blouse for a tone-on-tone effect and it turned out gorgeous!

Stitching cutwork designs with the embroidery machine is so much faster than the traditional cutwork technique. First, hoop a water-soluble stabilizer such as AquaMesh Plus (just stabilizer, no fabric). Score just the paper and peel away the paper backing to reveal the sticky surface. Attach the garment to the stabilizer and smooth in place. Attach the hoop to the embroidery machine and sew the guideline stitches. Remove the hoop from the machine and very carefully trim away the fabric from the area inside the stitches. Return the hoop to the machine and finish stitching out the design.

All of the cutwork designs in the Cutwork Bouquet collection come in two versions - one for cutting away the open areas with scissors as described above, and another for trimming away the fabric with the new BERNINA CutWork Accessory and Software. The CutWork tool does the cutting for you!

Here's another way to make the circles that I used to embellish my "Bubbles" jacket in Through the Needle Issue #33: Use DesignerPlus BERNINA Embroidery Software!

Use the Circle tool to draw a circle.

Choose a decorative stitch from the wide variety found in the software - including many that are not on the sewing machine.

One advantage of using the BERNINA Embroidery Software is that each circle is outlined with complete stitch patterns (no partial patterns or overlaps) and the layout for each piece of the jacket can be designed prior to stitching. (For instructions on planning embroidery for each section, see Judy Hahner's version of the jacket, also in Through the Needle #33.)

Hoop a layer of wash-away stabilizer such as OESD BadgeMaster in your largest hoop and use a spray adhesive such as 101 Quilt Basting Spray to hold the linen and stabilizer layers together during the embroidery process.

A note from Lezette Thomason, Children's Corner patterns:

Once again my sister and I are chairmen of our Christmas Bazaar at St. David's Episcopal Church in Nashville. One item that I am making this year are Bags for Baking Potatoes. I drew a little design, scanned it into my BERNINA DesignerPlus Software, and Presto!! I digitized it! So easy! Then using the Lettering tool wrote "Potato Girl" beneath the design. Hope you enjoy it!

Click HERE for the free ART and EXP+ embroidery designs.

Click HERE for the project instructions.

One of my favorite new features of BERNINA Embroidery Software v6 is that it gives me a preview of what my lettering will look when I'm selecting an alphabet. When I open the pull-down menu to select my lettering style, the letters I've typed in the box appear next to the name of the alphabet - written in the style of that alphabet. This makes it so much easier to select alphabets for projects!

I decided to add some fun to a jacket I was making for the fall using BERNINA's My Label 3D Fashion Pattern Software. I used the Military Jacket as a base and subtracted ease from the waist and added ease to the hips for a peplum effect. I also wanted to use larger buttons than the garment specs called for, so I added to the center front of the jacket pattern to accommodate the larger diameter buttons.

Hope Yoder's design CD, Button-Ups, provided the perfect opportunity to add some pizzazz to the covered buttons. They were so easy to stitch in the large oval hoop! I brought the design into BERNINA Embroidery Software and cloned the design five times and arranged them in the large oval hoop to stitch out. The design includes a button template that fits a 1 1/2" button-to-cover - the perfect touch for an otherwise plain jacket. There are 18 different designs to choose from. I think my next project with these buttons will be for a pillow.