Some of you may remember that I bought a Janome Memory Craft 8000 embroidery machine from an estate sale last August (2013). The machine was one of the first embroidery machines made for the home. This makes it 20 to 25 years old. It works fine – and I got a great deal on it. One of the drawbacks however was not being able to hook it to a computer or otherwise download designs. I did find a Scan N Sew on eBay and purchased it, but what I really need is the Magic Box made for this machine – along with the card that goes with it and any software or instructions that came along with the item back in the day.
So as you can imagine – with only 3 embroidery cards and a limited choice of pictures with the Scan N Sew (I’m not a good drawer), the machine sat unused. Then I decided someone somewhere – possibly a Janome dealer must have some older items that would work with this machine – and so the hunt was on. I found a place called Edwards Sewing Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana and they had embroidery cards that fit my machine. Best of all they were very reasonably priced – and some of the cards were brand new. So we made the trip and I came home with ten new cards.
The next step was to buy thread. I had some that was given to me but it kept breaking. One of our local sewing shops had some gorgeous colored thread – buy two get one free – so I got nine colors. Since the designs on the embroidery cards are all pretty similar, the nine colors of thread work perfectly for most of them. Eventually I will need more colors but for now, I’m set.
Then I had to decide what to embroidery. I had seen some embroidered, lace edged towels that I loved so that made sense. I went to our local craft stores but could not find exactly what I wanted for the price I wanted to pay. I decided to check the Dollar Tree. Lo and behold they had flour sack dish towels in white for $1 each. This was a great price since I am still learning and making mistakes. I bought four.
I found some Sew-In Fleece for 50 cents a box at one of our local craft stores and bought the last three on the shelf. I knew I would need that to put between the fabric I actually embroidered the design on and the towel itself. The next step was choosing the lace and fabric. I have quite the stash at home so I came home, went up to my craft room and began looking.
I found a golden yellow with a tiny floral print that I thought would look nice. I wasn’t sure what I wanted in the way of lace yet, so I brought the cotton fabric I located down stairs and began embroidering a design on it. Then I sewed the fleece in place and sewed the whole thing to the towel. Now that I knew exactly how this looked, it was time to choose the lace.
For the bottom piece I chose burgundy because that was one of the thread colors I used in all the designs. It looked great. I added a small piece of white and gold lace to the top to give it a more finished look. Needless to say I was so happy with the outcome of the first towel that I have already finished all four towels. This was a fun project and one I hope to do more of. However, I can only use (or store) a certain number of towels.