Failure and Success go Hand-in-Hand

I think I'll begin here with a complete fail. This is our yarmulke-wearing friend completed out. Well, not so much completed as…well…all was pretty lost at the point of the cranium here so I skipped wasting any more thread on the colors in the middle and went straight for the black detail and the flames in the eyes, to make sure that would work alright. It actually didn't. When the black got to the left "ear" area, the machine had reached it's distance limit and could go no further to complete the stitch around the outside. More measuring and more notes. The next file would be a little bit smaller.

The next attempt was to see if the total stitch count could be reduced by using a fabric applique background rather than solid stitching. This seemed to work quite well and the mottled grey fabric really added to the overall design. This test was the black and red colors only and the design was rotated on the computer before loading it into the embroidery machine. That idea failed on the eyes. The skull rotated but the pattern didn't. Best to let me do any pattern rotations within the Big Bad Barudan to avoid any surprises.

The third time is the charm…it better be because this time we took it "live" and put it on an actual Dickies button-down workshirt. No room for error or we lose a shirt!
We kept the applique-type background, and I rotated the pattern so that the eye-flame stitch effect would be going in the right direction. This one was a success!

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Rachelle Keller

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