How to Set up Your Embroidery Machine for the Best Results

Machine embroidery can be addictive because it’s so easy to sew gifts, personalize your home, and make your plain clothes into something totally unique. An embroidery machine is an expensive but worthwhile investment. We’re sharing a few of our best tips to make sure your embroidery designs look better, sew easier, and ensure you get the most out of your embroidery machine.

1. Basting with water soluble thread

You may have heard about water soluble thread, but did you know it could make a huge difference in your machine embroidery? We stitched out this design with two layers of stabilizer on the backside of the fabric. However, because the design has a lot of sharp points, it creates a lot of puckering around it.

Embroidery design without water soluble thread.

To stop this from happening, we’re going to stitch a circle of Rinse ‘n Gone water soluble thread through the fabric and stabilizer before stitching out the design. This holds the layers together much more tightly than the embroidery hoop will and stop the fabric and stabilizer from shifting.

Embroidery design with a ring of Rinse ‘n Gone water soluble thread stitched around the edge of the design.

Once the design is stitched out, the thread can be scrubbed out with a wet toothbrush if you don’t want to wash the whole embroidery. After a quick press, you can see how flat it looks in comparison to the embroidery design without the water soluble thread.

2. Using the best bobbin thread

Machine embroidery uses a lot of dense stitching in a small area, meaning your choice of bobbin thread will make a huge difference in how flat your embroidery design sits, as well as how much the bobbin thread will show through. We highly recommend using a finer bobbin thread, such as DecoBob 80wt, because the fine thread doesn’t add any extra bulk to the dense stitching and blends into the fabric better than a 40 or 50wt thread will. In the left part of this embroidery, we used a white 50wt bobbin thread. You can actually see the bobbin thread showing through the design. However below, we switched to a white DecoBob 80wt bobbin thread. Even though the thread is white, it can’t even be seen in the design.

Simply changing your thread can make a huge difference in the quality of your machine embroidery, but you can still take it one step further. In the left half of this embroidery we used a bobbin self-wound with DecoBob 80wt thread. On the right side, we used a pre-wound DecoBob bobbin. You can actually see how the left side has larger breaks in the embroidery while the right side lays flatter with tighter stitches. These pre-wound bobbins are wound perfectly evenly at the factory. This gives you a consistent machine tension that noticeably affects the quality of your machine embroidery.

To find out what bobbin size your machine takes, you can consult our Bobbin Guide by clicking here.

3. Apply a Wonder Guard™ for even tension and prevent unravelling

A Wonder Guard is this handy little thread guard that can be used on any spool of thread that requires a vertical feed. To apply it to your spool, wrap it around the spool snuggly but not tightly, with the feed of the thread coming from the top. This is a perfect tool for slippery threads that tend to pool around the base of the spool. It will also even the tension of the thread which will make a huge difference in the quality of your machine embroidery stitches.

If you’re embroidering with metallic threads that have a curl to it, also known as having a high memory, it will also help pull out those curls out before it even comes off the spool. And as an added bonus, the wonder guard will keep your threads tidy, clean, and even prevents it from drying out when you’re not sewing with it.

4. Using a Thread Tamer for perfect tension.

A Thread Tamer is a multi-purpose thread stand that offers a number of features to give you the best results in your stitching. If you’re sewing with a metallic thread that carries a lot memory, you can weave the thread through the extender slots to help pull out the tangles before the thread even reaches your machine.

At the same time, it’s tall enough to clear the top of the machine so it doesn’t drag along the side, changing the thread’s tension. It also allows the thread to relax before entering the machine, which is beneficial for finnicky threads or metallic threads. This combination of things will give your machine embroidery better tension, resulting in higher quality stitches.

Follow these tips for gorgeous, professional looking machine embroidery with any home embroidery machine!

Let us know in the comment section below if you have any machine embroidery tips you always follow, or share with us if these tips are things you’re already doing in your embroidery projects. Inspired to sew? Find WonderFil products in a store near you at shopwonderfil.com/shop-local.

6 Reasons to Always Use a DecoBob Pre-Wound Bobbin

Ever wondered why you should bother using a pre-wound bobbin when you could always wind your own? These handy sewing accessories are absolutely not just for the lazy; they can make a HUGE difference in your stitch quality! We’ll demonstrate first-hand why you should always keep these 80wt DecoBob pre-wound bobbins in your sewing room.

They’re our little secret to effortlessly better tension, flatter seams, a beautiful stitch quality, and a bobbin thread that never seems to run out. If that sounds incredible to you, the secret is this little bobbin.

1. They’re Basically Invisible

Being an 80wt thread, it’s incredibly fine. You can see how the thread blends into the fabric behind it. Since it’s so small, it basically disappears. However, since this is a polyester thread, it’s also incredibly strong and can be relied on to construct your quilts and projects.

DecoBob is called a cottonized polyester. This is a 100% polyester thread that has been treated so that it no longer carries a stretch and has more of a matte finish, helping it blend into the fabric so it can’t be seen. That’s a great feature for a bobbin thread as an imperfect tension will help the bobbin thread hide if it pokes through to the top.

2. They Last Forever

Because the thread is so fine, the bobbin can fit way more thread in it. They also come wound with a much higher density of thread from the factory, so you can sew for far longer before you need to interrupt your sewing to replace it with a fresh one. Depending on the density of your stitching, you could piece and quilt an entire bed quilt with only 2 to 3 bobbins.

3. They Are Wound Perfectly Evenly

DecoBob pre-wound bobbins come wound perfectly evenly from the factory. If you’ve ever wound your own bobbin, you can see it filling a clump on one side before flowing back to fill the other side.

This unevenly self-wound bobbin will actually change the tension on your machine. To demonstrate, we embroidered one half of this tear-shaped embroidery using a self-wound bobbin with the same DecoBob thread on the left, and on the right we used a DecoBob pre-wound bobbin. You can visibly see larger gaps on the self-wound side than on the right side, which lays flatter with a higher top stitch quality.

4. Super Flat Seams

You may have heard a common sewing myth that states to always use the same weight of thread on the bobbin as you are in the needle. We’re here to tell you this is completely untrue. A finer bobbin thread will always benefit your sewing no matter what size your top thread is, however this is especially true when using thicker top threads like a 12wt. 

To demonstrate, we pieced three small blocks. On the left we used a medium 50wt construction thread on the top and the bottom. In the middle we used a 50wt in the top and the 80wt DecoBob in the bottom. And on the right, we used 80wt DecoBob in both the top and bottom. You can see how much flatter the seams are with the finer weight thread used. Using a finer weight in the top and bobbin will make your piecing look more professional and make it easier to match patterns and line up quilt blocks accurately. All of this from simply changing your thread!

5. Free of Glues & Residues

If you take a close look at the DecoBob thread, you can see its basically free of any lint. But here’s a dirty little thread industry secret to look out for: even if your thread looks like it’s low on lint, it may actually have a glue or residue applied to the thread to stick the lint down, only giving the illusion that it’s low lint. This sticky residue will come off inside your machine as you’re sewing and is even more difficult to clean out than regular lint.

We promise all of our DecoBob pre-wound bobbins come 100% totally free of any glue or residue. You can count on a clean, quality thread that will leave your sewing machines healthy and happy.

A sideless bobbin with glue applied to hold it together.

6. Re-Use It or Recycle It

All DecoBob pre-wound bobbins are wound on plastic sided bobbins. Re-use these bobbins again, use it to take some hand stitching with you while you travel, or check to see if your local recycling depot will take them.

Tell us in the comments your experience using pre-wound bobbins! Let us know if you still have questions about DecoBob pre-wound bobbins, or tell us where you love to use them. Ready to start sewing? You can find a list of stores that carry these threads on www.shopwonderfil.com/shop-local/.