No matter how basic or up-to-the-minute your sewing machine is, you can use it as a very versatile, very capable embroidery tool just by dropping the feed dogs and moving the fabric under the needle by yourself. This free-motion machine embroidery, practiced almost since the sewing machine was invented, is a powerful option even if you do have a fully computerized model.

Free-motion is a way to use your machine just like a pencil for doodling, drawing, coloring, and image-making. As you can see, even simple thread “drawings,” like swirls, stars, dots, hearts, and outline pictures, can produce extremely decorative effects, requiring little or no drawing skill.

Saskia Wassing-Shepherd shares a technique for free-motion embroidery to sew wearables, wall art, or home furnishings in this article from Threads #87.

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