By Kate Zaynard
Stitch an easy but elegant coaster in the hoop. Choose cork, faux leather, or any non-woven fabric as your base.
Materials
- Two 5″ squares of cork fabric or other non-woven material
- Mediumweight tear-away stabilizer
- 4″ × 4″ hoop
- Thread: bobbin & embroidery
- Embroidery or painter’s tape
Prepare
- Download the design and load it into the machine,
- Hoop a piece of tear-away stabilizer.
- Wind a bobbin in the desired color for the outside border.
- Load a bobbin with bobbin thread into the machine.
Embroider
- Place the hoop onto the machine and embroider stitch sequence 1 to stitch the placement stitch.
- Remove the hoop from the machine, but don’t remove the project from the hoop. Place a 5″ square of cork over the placement stitches, being sure to cover them all. Tape in place using embroidery or painter’s tape.
- Re-place the hoop onto the machine and embroider stitch sequence 2 to tack down the cork.
- Embroider stitch sequences 3–6 to embroider the branch, petals, flower centers, and outlines, changing colors as desired and trimming jump stitches between steps.
- Remove the hoop from the machine, but don’t remove the project from the hoop. Turn the hoop upside down and place the remaining 5″ square over the back of the hoop, being sure to cover all stitching. Tape in place.
- Change the bobbin thread to match the desired border color, and thread the machine with the matching color.
- Re-place the hoop onto the machine and embroider the final stitch sequence to tack down the back layer.
Finish
Remove the hoop from the machine and the project from the hoop. Tear away the stabilizer from the stitching parameter.
Carefully trim the cork approximately 1/8″ from the outside stitching line.
About the Design
This pretty design features a branch of sakura (cherry blossoms) specially designed to be stitched on cork, vinyl, or even leather (just remember to use a leather needle!). The double layer protects your table while the elegant design adds a seasonal touch.
The stitches in this design are carefully planned to be spaced apart enough to keep non-woven material from tearing. So stitch on your favorite material with confidence. You can even use a woven material if you don’t mind a raw-edge look on your coasters.
Sakura flowers are typically pink, but you can make this design your own by using different colors for both the background and the design. Just make sure there’s enough contrast to let the design shine like we did when we chose a darker pink for the flowers on the pink cork.
A Note About Our Embroidery Designs
These designs are available for embroidery machine formats: CDS, DST, EXP, HUS, JEF, PCS, PES, SEW, SHV, VIP, VP3, and XXX. Also included are spec sheets for the designs. Your designs arrive in one file in ZIP format—the file will need to be unzipped before transferring to your machine. Most desktop computers have software that will open a zip file.