Five Embroidery.com Projects, One Pro Workflow: Freestanding Lace Deer, Jacobean Snowflakes, Sweatshirt Jackets, Kimberbell Watercolor Cards, and Tulip Quilt Blocks

If you have ever watched a “calm” embroidery demo on YouTube and thought, “That looks easy… until I try it on my towel/knit/quilt/cardstock,” you are not alone. The projects Donnett demonstrates in this video are beginner-friendly in concept, but they touch on the four “Horsemen of the Embroidery Apocalypse”: freestanding lace (extreme density), towels (pile + shifting), knits (stretch distortion), and paper (unforgiving percolation).

As an embroidery educator, I see students fail with these materials not because they lack talent, but because they lack tactile reference points. They don't know what "tight" feels like on a knit versus a woven.

What follows is an operational breakdown of the lineup—Freestanding Lace Deer, Jacobean Snowflakes, the Sweatshirt Jacket, Watercolor Cards, and Tulip Quilt Blocks. We are rebuilding this into a Zero-Friction Workflow, ensuring you don't waste expensive blanks on trial and error.

Don’t Panic—These “Pretty Demos” Are Actually a Skill Stack (Freestanding Lace + Towels + Knits + Cardstock)

The video showcases five design packs, but the real lesson is Substrate Agility: how to move between materials without fighting your machine’s physics.

To succeed, you need to adopt a "Production Mindset" rather than a "Hobbyist Hope." Here is the mindset that creates safety:

1. Stitch Physics drives Stabilization: Freestanding lace (20,000+ stitches in air) requires a structural foundation. Outline-on-paper requires a delicate touch. You cannot use a "one stabilizer fits all" approach.
2. Hooping is 80% of the Battle: Most "mystery puckering" is actually a mismatch between hooping tension and stabilizer choice, rarely the thread brand.
3. The "Back" Matters: Finishing is part of the project. If the back of your card is messy, the gift feels amateur.

If you are building a small home business, this approach is critical. The fastest way to hemorrhage profit is re-stitching a $20 hoodie because the blank shifted, stretched, or the needle created a hole.

Freestanding Lace “Fairytale and Deer” by Art Embroidery: Make It Crisp, Not Crunchy

Donnett shows the Fairytale and Deer freestanding lace (FSL) ornaments from Art Embroidery. These come in two sizes:

• Small deer: approx. 4.5 x 7 inches
• Large deer: approx. 5 x 8 inches (Check your hoop limits; this often requires a 5x7 or 6x10 hoop).

She notes how variegated thread changes the visual texture.

Chief Officer’s Insight: FSL is heavy. A standard 40wt rayon or polyester thread is standard, but the secret is the bobbin. For FSL, you usually match the bobbin thread to the top thread so the back looks as good as the front.

The “Hidden” Prep for Freestanding Lace (FSL): What I Check Before I Waste a Stitch-Out

Freestanding lace is unforgiving. It relies entirely on the thread intersecting to create structure. If your tension is loose, the ornament falls apart.

Prep Checklist (FSL)

• Stabilizer Selection: Use a Heavy Duty Water Soluble (looks like a thick plastic sheet, often called "Badge Master"). Do not use the thin cling-wrap style toppers; they will perforate and your design will collapse.
• Needle Check: Install a fresh Sharp 75/11 needle. A ballpoint needle can cause the heavy stabilizer to drag or deflect.
• Bobbin Audit: Ensure you have enough bobbin thread for the entire run (FSL eats thread). Match the color to the top.
• Speed Governor: Set your machine to a Beginner Sweet Spot (500 - 600 SPM). FSL has dense zig-zags; running at 1000 SPM increases the risk of thread breaks and friction melting the stabilizer.

Operation Notes (FSL): What “Good” Looks Like While It’s Stitching

Because the video doesn’t list machine settings, use your manual as the authority. However, use your senses:

• Auditory Check: Listen for a rhythmic, crisp thump-thump. If you hear a slapping sound, your stabilizer is too loose (flagging).
• Visual Check: The stitch formation should look tight and interlocked, not loopy.
• Tactile Check: The stabilizer in the hoop should feel "drum tight." Unlike knits, FSL stabilizer needs high tension.

If the lace starts to wave or tunnel (pulling in from the sides), STOP. Do not force the run. Re-hoop with a double layer of stabilizer.

Jacobean Snowflakes Embroidery Designs: Keep Towels Elegant (Not Wavy) and Stockings Clean

Next, Donnett demonstrates Jacobean Snowflakes (ten designs) on T-shirts, tea towels, and a quilted stocking. The aesthetic is "Elegant" (open distinct lines) rather than "Cute" (heavy fill).

She pairs these with a Hemingworth palette: Dusty Mauve, Grape Jelly, Dark Turquoise, Caribbean Blue, Sea Foam.

The “Towel Problem” in Plain English: Pile + Drag + Hoop Tension

Terry cloth towels are notorious for looking great in the hoop and terrible five minutes later.

1. The Pile Trap: The loops of the towel will poke through your stitching (making it look "dirty") unless you use a Water Soluble Topper (WSS) on top.
2. The Hoop Burn: Traditional inner/outer ring hoops crush the fibers. On velvet or plush towels, this leaves a permanent "ring of death."
3. The Drag: Heavy towels weigh down the embroidery arm.

The Fix: This is the primary scenario where professionals switch to a magnetic embroidery hoop. Unlike traditional friction hoops that require you to yank the fabric (distortion risk), magnetic hoops clamp straight down with vertical force. This eliminates "hoop burn" and keeps the grain straight.

Setup Checklist (Tea Towels / Stocking Fronts)

• Hidden Consumable: Apply a Water Soluble Topper (Solvy) on top of the towel.
• Hooping: Float the towel implies using adhesive stabilizer, but for best results, hoist the towel. Sensory Check: The towel should be taut but neutral—do not stretch it like a drum. It should feel like a neatly made bed sheet.
• Support: Ensure the excess towel weight is supported on a table and not dragging the hoop down.

Operation Checklist (Snowflakes on Towels)

• The First 100 Stitches: Watch closely. If the topper foot gets caught in the towel loops, pause and trim the loop.
• Speed: Towels can handle 600-800 SPM.
• Post-Op: Tear away the stabilizer gently. Dissolve the topper with water or dab it with a wet Q-tip.

Feather Flurry on a Repurposed Sweatshirt Jacket: Big Designs on Knit Without Stretching the Life Out of It

Donnett shows Feather Flurry (large feathers, 7+ inches long) on a sweatshirt upcycle project.

The Anatomy of a Sweatshirt: It is a knit (stretchy) with thickness (fleece). The Risk: If you stretch a sweatshirt while hooping, you sew the deeper fibers into a stretched state. When you unhoop, the fabric relaxes, and your beautiful feather puckers like a raisin.

Warning: Mechanical Safety
Cutting down the center of a garment and trimming around stabilizers is where injuries happen. Keep scissors and snips closed when repositioning fabric. Never reach your hand into the needle zone while the machine is powered or paused—threads can snag and pull fingers under the needle bar instantly.

The Knit Reality Check: Your Hoop Can “Win” and Your Jacket Can Still Lose

On knits, the goal is Stabilization without Distortion.

The Gold Standard Combination:

1. Fuse a layer of Polymesh (No-Show Mesh) to the back of the sweatshirt front. This turns the "stretchy" knit into a "stable" woven temporarily.
2. Stabilizer: Use a Medium Cutaway. Never use Tearaway on a sweatshirt—the stitches will punch it out, and the design will sag after one wash.

If you are doing production runs of garments, manual alignment is painful. This is where a hooping station for machine embroidery becomes actionable. It allows you to pre-measure the chest placement and snap the hoop on consistently without manually tugging the fabric.

“Why did my big feather look rough?” (Expert insight you can use)

Large designs (7 inches+) act like a lever on the fabric.

• Symptom: Gaps between outlines and fills.
• Cause: The fabric shifted during the 40-minute run.

Kimberbell “Watercolor Wishes” Embroidered Cards: Stitch on Paper Without Perforating It

This project involves embroidering outlines on cardstock and then coloring them. It is high-stakes because paper does not heal. One wrong needle penetration leaves a permanent hole.

The Cardstock Workflow (Exactly as Demonstrated)

1. Embroider the outline on cardstock.
2. Color with watercolor pencils.
3. Print the liner.
4. Glue to hide the ugly back.

Watch-outs I’ve Learned the Hard Way (Paper behaves differently)

1. The Needle Matters Most: Do not use the same needle you used for the sweatshirt.

• Use: 75/11 Sharp (Microtex). It slices clean holes.
• Avoid: Ballpoint needles. They will "explode" the back of the cardstock, creating ugly ridges.

2. The Speed Limit: Slow your machine down to 350 - 500 SPM. High speeds create vibration, which can tear the paper bridge between stitch points.

3. Hooping Strategy: Do not hoop the cardstock directly (it will crease). Method: Hoop a piece of sticky stabilizer (or tearaway with spray). "Float" the cardstock on top. This is another scenario where a magnetic hooping station aids precision—you can align the card perfect square using the grid, then let the magnets clamp the stabilizer, ensuring the card is perfectly 90-degrees.

Tulip Motif Quilt Blocks (7 x 7.5–7.75) That Actually Lay Flat in a Runner

The final project is the Tulip Motif (12 designs).

The Quilt Sandwich Issue: Bulk + Layers + “Why won’t this hoop nicely?”

Quilting involves layers (Top Fabric + Batting + Backing). The Challenge: Getting a standard hoop to close over this "sandwich" requires force. This force often pops the inner ring out or hurts your wrists.

Diagnosis: If you are wrestling with the hoop screw, you are distorting the block. Prescription: This is the specific use case for magnet hoops for embroidery machine setups. The magnets self-adjust to the thickness of the quilt sandwich, holding it firm without needing to adjust a screw per millimeter.

Also, for consistent runners, alignment is key. A hoopmaster hoop station ensures every tulip block is centered exactly 3.5 inches from the edge, so your final runner doesn't look crooked.

Stabilizer Decision Tree (Fabric → What I’d Choose First)

Use this logic to avoid guessing:

Prep Checklist (Quilt Blocks / Runner)

• Design Size: Confirmed 7 x 7.5/7.75 inches. Ensure your hoop has a 20mm clearance buffer.
• Hidden Consumable: Use a Water Soluble Marking Pen to draw crosshairs on your fabric. Do not rely on "eyeballing" the center.
• Thread: Donnett uses pastel Hemingworths (Leafy Green, Pistachio Nut, Winter Rose, etc.). Ensure you have sufficient bobbin thread to avoid a splice in the middle of a quilt block (which shows).

The Upgrade Path I’d Recommend After You Nail One: From Hobby Flow to Production Flow

Once you master the technique, the bottleneck shifts from "Skills" to "Tools." Here is how to diagnose when you need to upgrade:

1. The Pain: "My wrists hurt from hooping 20 towels."

• The Diagnosis: Mechanical friction hoops are not ergonomic for volume.
• The Upgrade: magnetic embroidery hoops. They snap on/off in seconds, reduce physical strain, and protect the fabric from burn.

2. The Pain: "I spend more time changing thread colors than sewing."

• The Diagnosis: A single-needle machine is a "hobby" bottleneck.
• The Upgrade: If you are moving to paid orders (logos, team sets, holiday batches), a SEWTECH Multi-Needle Machine changes the game. It allows you to set up 10-15 colors at once, reducing downtime by 50-70%.

3. The Pain: "My logos are always crooked."

• The Diagnosis: Human error in manual hooping.
• The Upgrade: A hoopmaster system guarantees that the logo is in the exact same spot on Shirt #1 and Shirt #50.

Warning: Magnetic Safety
Modern embroidery hoops magnetic systems use industrial-grade magnets (Neodymium).
* Pinch Hazard: They snap together with force capable of pinching skin or breaking fingernails. Handle with a slide-on/slide-off motion.
* Electronics: Keep them away from pacemakers, magnetic storage media, and computerized machine screens.

Quick “Comment Section” Pro Tips (The Questions People Always Ask, Answered Up Front)

• “Can I use Tearaway on the Sweatshirt?”
  • No. It will look great today, but after one wash, the stabilizer dissolves/tears, and the heavy embroidery will sag and distort the jersey fabric. Stick to Cutaway stiffness.
• “Why does my FSL look loose?”
  • Check your bobbin tension. For FSL, the bobbin tension usually needs to be slightly tighter than standard embroidery to pull the knots inside the lace structure.
• “My cardstock card tore—what did I do wrong?”
  • You likely stitched too fast. Slow down to allow the needle to penetrate clearly without vibrating the paper fibers apart.

The Real Takeaway: One Thread Palette + One Hooping Habit Can Carry Five Very Different Projects

Donnett’s demo proves that you don't need magic to stitch on difficult materials; you need Protocol:

1. Respect the Substrate: Paper tears, knits stretch, towels crush. Prepare accordingly.
2. Audit your Toolkit: Are you fighting a thick quilt sandwich with a cheap plastic hoop? Are you using a dull needle on FSL?
3. Standardize: Use checklists like the ones above.

Start with the cardstock or the towel—they are the quickest wins. Once you feel the rhythm of a successful hoop, the rest is just repetition.

FAQ

• Q: How do I keep Freestanding Lace (FSL) ornaments from looking loose or falling apart when stitching on Heavy Duty Water Soluble stabilizer (Badge Master)?
  A: Use Heavy Duty Water Soluble stabilizer with tight hooping and slower speed so the lace knots lock into a rigid “thread fabric.”
  • Install a fresh 75/11 Sharp (Microtex) needle and confirm the bobbin has enough thread for the full run.
  • Hoop Heavy Duty Water Soluble stabilizer drum-tight (often double-layer if the design waves).
  • Slow the machine to a safe starting point of 500–600 SPM for dense zig-zags.
  • Success check: the stitch-out looks interlocked (not loopy) and the machine sounds like a steady, crisp thump-thump (not a slapping/flagging sound).
  • If it still fails, stop immediately and re-hoop with two layers of the heavy water-soluble; do not force the run.
• Q: How do I prevent towel embroidery on terry cloth tea towels from looking “dirty” when loops poke through the stitches, and how do I avoid hoop burn?
  A: Use a Water Soluble Topper to control towel pile, and avoid crushing the fibers with over-tight hooping (magnetic hoops are often used specifically to reduce hoop burn).
  • Place Water Soluble Topper (Solvy) on top of the towel before stitching.
  • Hoop the towel taut but neutral (do not stretch like a drum), and support the towel weight on the table so it doesn’t drag the hoop.
  • Watch the first 100 stitches and pause to trim any loop that gets caught.
  • Success check: the snowflake lines stay clean and defined with minimal pile showing through, and the towel surface does not have a deep “ring” after unhooping.
  • If it still fails, add better support for the towel weight and re-check hooping tension (too tight increases distortion and burn risk).
• Q: Why does a large design like Feather Flurry pucker or get gaps when embroidering on a sweatshirt knit, even when the design looked smooth in the hoop?
  A: Knits often get stretched during hooping and then relax after unhooping, so stabilize without distortion using fusible mesh + cutaway and bond layers to prevent shifting.
  • Fuse Polymesh (No-Show Mesh) to the back of the sweatshirt front before hooping.
  • Hoop with a Medium Cutaway (avoid tearaway on sweatshirts).
  • Apply a light coat of temporary spray adhesive (e.g., 505 Spray) to bond fabric to stabilizer so the layers move as one.
  • Success check: after unhooping, the feather edges stay flat and outlines do not show gaps from fill areas.
  • If it still fails, re-hoop ensuring the sweatshirt is not stretched (aim for “neatly made bed sheet” tension, not drum-tight).
• Q: What needle and speed settings help prevent cardstock embroidery (Kimberbell-style watercolor cards) from tearing or perforating?
  A: Use a 75/11 Sharp (Microtex) needle and slow down to reduce vibration, because paper cannot “recover” from extra holes.
  • Switch to a clean 75/11 Sharp (Microtex) needle (do not reuse the sweatshirt needle).
  • Reduce speed to a safe starting point of 350–500 SPM to protect the paper bridges between stitch points.
  • Float the cardstock on sticky stabilizer (or tearaway with spray) instead of hooping paper directly.
  • Success check: the outline stitches sit cleanly with no tearing between holes and the card stays flat without creases.
  • If it still fails, re-check that the cardstock is floated (not hooped) and slow down further within the machine’s safe range per the manual.
• Q: What are the safest steps to avoid injury when trimming stabilizer and cutting down the center of a repurposed sweatshirt jacket during embroidery?
  A: Keep hands out of the needle zone and manage tools deliberately—most injuries happen during repositioning, not stitching.
  • Power down or fully stop movement before placing hands near the needle area.
  • Keep scissors/snips closed while repositioning fabric; open only when actively cutting.
  • Never reach into the needle zone while the machine is powered or paused—threads can snag and pull fingers toward the needle bar.
  • Success check: fabric repositioning is done with hands clear of the needle path, and cutting is controlled with no “blind” snipping.
  • If it still fails (you feel rushed or fabric is awkward), stop and re-stage the garment on the table so the cut path is visible and stable.
• Q: What magnetic embroidery hoop safety rules prevent pinched fingers and protect electronics when using neodymium magnets?
  A: Treat magnetic hoops like power tools—use a slide-on/slide-off motion and keep magnets away from sensitive devices.
  • Slide magnets into place instead of letting them snap straight down to reduce pinch force.
  • Keep fingers out of the closing path; let the magnet land on the frame edge first, then slide shut.
  • Keep magnets away from pacemakers, magnetic storage media, and computerized machine screens.
  • Success check: magnets close without sudden snapping, and there are no finger pinch points during clamp-down.
  • If it still fails, slow down and reposition using two hands (one stabilizing the frame, one guiding the magnet).
• Q: If hooping 20+ towels or thick quilt blocks causes wrist pain and inconsistent results, when should an embroiderer move from technique fixes to a magnetic hoop or a SEWTECH multi-needle embroidery machine?
  A: Start by optimizing stabilizer/hooping, upgrade to magnetic hoops when physical hooping becomes the bottleneck, and consider a multi-needle machine when thread changes dominate production time.
  • Level 1 (technique): standardize towel topper + proper support or quilt alignment marks and stop stretching knits during hooping.
  • Level 2 (tool): move to magnetic hoops when hoop screws and force cause distortion, hoop burn, or wrist strain—especially on towels and quilt “sandwiches.”
  • Level 3 (capacity): consider a SEWTECH multi-needle machine when the main delay is changing thread colors rather than stitching.
  • Success check: hooping becomes repeatable and fast, fabric shows fewer re-hoops, and production time drops because setup is no longer the limiting step.
  • If it still fails, add a consistent placement system (a hooping station) to reduce manual alignment error on repeat orders.