Brother Sewing UK

In my last blog, I mentioned how much I enjoyed making bags and purses of all sorts. I like to create with all sorts of materials, and that means – like most sewists – I have a lot of scraps to show for my work!  I'm a firm believer in using scraps, and above you can see some Abraham Moon tweed offcuts which I have made into a couple of little zip top coin purses with the aid of my trusty Brother XP1/Luminaire. I hope this brief tutorial inspires you to have a go too! Step one Select your scraps – for the purse on the right, I decided to use some of the one-inch pieces I had and applique them on to a five-inch square of tweed. The left-hand purse was another scrap of blue tweed which I decided to applique along the top using a heart design. Step two So, off to the Design Centre to select one of the built in shapes. I selected a simple circle but you could use a heart (as I did in the second purse) a leaf, a square – whatever you like. As I look at this picture n...

Another of the many projects I’ve made on my Brother 1800QC in recent months is this colourful coat, made from fabric I had sitting in my stash for many years. I decided I wanted a new winter coat but couldn’t find what I was looking for – a hooded A-line coat with front zip  –  so I raided my stash, unearthed this colourful wool coating with couched yarns, and set to! The pattern is McCall 7848 which is an easy design to construct with princess seams in the bodice, a waist seam and A-line bottom.  Using fabric from my stash meant I didn’t have enough for the sleeves and hood, but this wasn't a problem as I had some fur fabric left over from a fleecy blanket I made for my son. That was another fun project, made using his old Band T-shirts – I cut the motifs from the fronts, stabilised them with strips of interfacing down the edges and then joined them in a jigsaw for the front, with occasional strips of fabric between as sashing to make the different sizes fit. I b...

Let's start by saying I love the Innov-is 1800QC! I have had it now for a few months and it just keeps on giving. I’ve made all sorts of very varied things – from many craft projects for the two books I am writing, to garments for the shows I attend, to samples for display at trade shows. It has coped beautifully with everything I have thrown at it! But back to the beginning. Out of the box It might be aimed at quilters (hence the QC and the range of fab quilting accessories) but as a dressmaker and general sewist, I love all the extras too! The machine comes with a whole host of attachments and feet including a large extension table – perfect when sewing big projects such as quilts or coats (as I did) – and a flat bed attachment that holds the tray of feet well thanks to its nicely wide design. The handy lift-out tray has numbered positions for the utility feet, making it easy to identify them and use the recommended foot for the stitch selected. There are also spare bobbins o...

Fig 1 - Brother VR single needle embroidery and free motion embroidery machine If you are lucky enough to have a big, framed embroidery machine such as the Brother VR, embellishing a quilt can be a great way to make the most of the all the machine's built-in designs. The Brother VR is a single-needle embroidery machine with free-arm embroidery and free-motion sewing capability, and comes with 305 built in embroidery designs! This is the perfect machine to embroider quilt patterns because the extra-large hoop allows you to work with designs up to 200mm x 200mm. The VR easily converts into a free-motion quilting machine, however the built-in embroidery capabilities create amazing quilting designs with no effort or expertise at all! There is a whole section in the Embroidery Design Guild showing the built-in quilting designs on the VR that are just crying out made the star of a quilting project. Figures 2 and 3 below show just a couple of the designs available for...