Machine Embroidered Doilies

I got this done yesterday and I love how it turned out.

Each piece took about 45 minutes to stitch out.  The machine did a beautiful job and I was able to get two designs on one prewound bobbin.  I used two layers of Badgemaster which is a water soluble stabilizer to stitch out the design on.  A year or so ago I tried a mesh type water soluble stabilizer and the design wouldn't stitch out correctly despite several layers of it.

I trimmed around the design to get most of the stabilizer out but enough to be able to satin stitch the pieces together.  I arranged the four pieces together to get a general idea of the size and then cut fabric larger than the design.  I trimmed it down to a 17 inch sqaure so I could draw center and diagonal lines for correct alignments.

I then pinned the pieces to the fabric and satin stitched around the center pieces making sure all four pieces were connected.  I admit, it's not the greatest job, but it works.

Using my applique scissors..I think they are a called duck billed ones as they have one part that is larger than the other and carefully cut the fabric out behind the designs and down to the satin stitching.  These scissors work great for this.

I then satin stitched the rest of the connecting pieces.  This is where leaving extra water soluble around those pieces gives it a foundation for your machine.  Again, it's not the prettiest as I couldn't get everything aligned perfectly, but I still love this doily.

I put it in the sink to rinse out the stabilizer and I just need to trim the tails.

Here's a close up of it:

From Embroidery Designs

I did another doily a year or so ago:

From Embroidery Designs

I hadn't trimmed the fabric off and you can see the stabilizer that is used for connecting each piece.  Each of the larger pieces took 2 hours to stitch out.  There are 8 of each.  The small flowers between the large designs took about 5 minutes.
  
Here's a close-up of setting up the center section and where I pinned.  I couldn't find any more pictures of this doily.  I gave it to my mother for Christmas last year.

From Embroidery Designs