Lost Arts of Sewing: Embroidered Hoop Art by Designs By Sessa

By Jennifer on May 30, 2013 in Guest Post, Lost Arts of Sewing, Machine Embroidery, Sewing

Today, we have Vanessa from Designs By Sessa joining us for the Lost Arts of Sewing. I discovered Vanessa when she discovered me, so to say, and honored me with an invitation to join her for her fun “The Porch” series. That’s not to say that I hadn’t seen her work – I’m sure nearly all of you will recognize this adorable outfit she made for The Train To Crazy’s Make This Look series:

Now for a brief history of machine embroidery:

Before computers were affordable, most embroidery was completed by punching designs on paper tape that then ran through an embroidery machine. One error could ruin an entire design, forcing the creator to start over.

In 1980, Wilcom introduced the first computer graphics embroidery design system to run on a minicomputer. Melco, an international distribution network formed by Randal Melton and Bill Childs, created the first embroidery sample head for use with large Schiffli looms. These looms spanned several feet across and produced lace patches and large embroidery patterns. The sample head allowed embroiderers to avoid manually sewing the design sample and saved production time. Subsequently, it became the first computerized embroidery machine marketed to home sewers.

Brother Industries entered the embroidery industry after several computerized embroidery companies contracted it to provide sewing heads. Later, the Japanese company Tajima provided sewing heads that were capable of using multiple threads.Singer failed to remain competitive during this time. Melco was acquired by Saurer in 1989.

The major embroidery machine companies eventually adapted their commercial systems and marketed them to companies such as Janome for home use.

Since the late 1990s, computerized machine embroidery has grown in popularity as costs have fallen for computers, software, and embroidery machines. Many machine manufacturers sell their own lines of embroidery patterns. In addition, many individuals and independent companies also sell embroidery designs, and there are free designs available on the internet.

Source:

Wikipedia

Hi! I’m Vanessa and I blog at Designs By Sessa, my slice of blog “heaven” where I write about my love for Jesus and sewing! When Jen asked me to join in the fun of the Lost Art Series, I drew a complete blank!

Okay, haha, this is me this past Halloween, when Party City sent me an I Love Lucy costume to review… it makes me laugh and totally represents how I felt at first thought of this project… haha!

To be honest, I love sweet details of the good old days and love mixing vintage items with new, using antique hand sewn quilts with modern details, and I will be the first to throw a (machine) monogram on a pillow case or hand towel, but when it comes to MY OWN sewing I tend to do whatever I can on my machines. I am SO thankful for modern technology and machine sewing! While hand sewing techniques are truly amazing to me, I do not know how to (yet) smock; and hand embroidery (which I have tried in a few of my projects) usually ends up rather imperfect and not quite what I was going for. Then, add to the equation that I have a sewing machine that also does machine embroidery and I don’t quite care to stitch things out by hand when I can design them through software and program my machine to do them! To be honest, I don’t think any of our sewing is truly lost, it’s just constantly being reinvented and updated and made new, the same old stuff. Here are some of my hand embroidery projects I have attempted. I do love how they add a sweet personal touch, despite their imperfections!

In this post, I have a slight twist ~~maybe cheating~~ in that I’m using modern sewing practices, but making them look “old” like a “lost art”. To accomplish this goal, I have created some fun Embroidered Hoop Art for our nursery.

We are currently becoming foster parents/wanting to adopt and I have been working on small projects in this room to get it ready for when we are approved in another month or so! I thought our crib needed a little something extra above it.

So, I “cheated” and did some machine embroidery and then framed them with old hand embroidery frames! I know, I know… what you are thinking, but bear with me, because there was a lot of love and thought and time in these!

Let’s take the first hoop. I designed a font in software to look like it was hand stitched out by me, but it was done by machine! Re-invented, right!?

Then, I hooped it.

I repeated this same process, doing the embroidery by machine after designing it in software, but for this next one, I hand sewed on a mix of modern and vintage buttons with embroidery floss (by hand).

Lastly, I cut out 5 similarly sized triangles to create mini-bunting in the hoop. I stitched these across by machine and then added some ric-rac across the top, framed it as well.

I think another value that hand-made items give is that each has a sentimental factor. So, while done some by hand and some by machine, the thought behind this hoop art is high. You may have noticed that one hoop says ‘Romans Nine Twenty-Five Twenty six’ and one says ‘beloved’. In Romans 9:25 – 26, it says “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.” And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people there they will be called sons of the living God.” Awhile back, I felt like these were our adopted babies’ verses given to me for my heart to encourage me, and that whatever child or children we have in our home would be my ‘beloved‘. The power of adoption is strong and I feel so blessed to be adopted into God’s kingdom through Jesus’ love for me. A love that covers a multitude of sin.

And just so you can see another angle of this room, I actually have an antique sewn-by-hand quilt on a semi-vintage 70’s chenille cover, and a slew of pillows made by me.

Jen, thanks for having me! And please come check out Designs By Sessa sometime! You can follow our adoption story and see what God has in store for us ahead, as well as, quite a handful of sewing projects!

Thanks so much Vanessa for sharing your “heartmade” machine + hand sewn embroidery hoops. I loved getting a little glimpse into the room you’re preparing for a new member to your family! Can I call you and pick your brain because I have a great Janome machine which I chose for the embroidery capabilities and I only use the stock designs because I don’t know how to get anything from the computer to the sewing machine – wahhh!

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