Embroidery Library - Machine Embroidery Designs Inspired Project Page

With a wide variety of heads, midsections, and bottoms, you can build thousands of unique and interesting snowmen and snowwomen. Here is a demonstration of how to build a snowman with individual pieces.

If your embroidery machine's hoop accommodates the finished size, then you may not need to rehoop the fabric. Additionally, if you have the capability of combining designs in embroidery software, then you can combine the three pieces into one design, and avoid rehooping the fabric.

Hoop the fabric with the appropriate stabilizer.

Begin by sewing the head. The design will begin and end in the center of the design.

Remove the outer hoop and slide the fabric up, being careful not to twist or rotate the fabric.

Rehoop the fabric, and load the midsection into the embroidery machine.

The midsection will begin sewing on the top of the midsection, in the center. Position the needle so that the midsection overlaps the head by about one-quarter inch.

After sewing the midsection, remove the outer hoop and slide the fabric up to make room for the bottom section. Be careful not to rotate the fabric.

Rehoop the fabric, and load the bottom section into the embroidery machine. The bottom section will begin at the center of the top of the design. Position the needle so that the bottom overlaps the midsection by about one-quarter inch.

With ten heads, midsections, and bottoms, thousands of combinations exist.
You can sew snowmen that are traditional, or unique - the choice is yours!

To make a mix-and-match playbook with individual pieces, begin by sewing all of the pieces. Cut all of the heads to the same size; all of the midsections to the same size; all of the bottoms to the same size.

When cutting, leave an extra half-inch of fabric to the left of each design for the book binding.

Remove the cat from your work area. This step may need to be repeated over and over again, depending on the persistence of the cat. Of all the steps involved in making a playbook, this step is the most tedious one.

You can use any materials for your book covers and binding: fabric, cardstock, cardboard, thread, yarn, rings, etc. For our book binding we used craft foam, available at craft stores. We used pipe cleaners to bind the book together.

Cut two holes on the left side of the snowman piece, and two coordinating holes in the book covers. Because we used pipe cleaner to bind the book, we slid the swatches onto the pipe cleaner and cover at the same time. If you are using yarn or rings to bind the book, you may use a different process.

We decorated the cover with an assembled snowwoman, a pipe cleaner frame, and tiny wooden snowmen.

Now you can flip through the book and mix-and-match the sections to come up with some fun and interesting snowpeople. This arrangement features a cowboy hat, sports jersey, and Scottish kilt.

This combination features a scarf and mittens, and tutu!

This combination features a Santa cap, floral shirt, and patchwork bottom.

Click here for a printable version of these project instructions.

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