by MCA Designs on January 24, 2012
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Opening up a whole new world of artistic possibilities – Magna-Glide bobbins in colors to match Glide top thread. I am SOOOO excited about these matching bobbins! I’ll be popping these babies in when I have to stitch out those skinny little letters in a name. No more holding my breath, hoping the tension is not off and those embarrassing white bobbin threads won’t show. This way, if they do happen to pop up, they match. Or what about those cute in-the-hoop projects? Back thread can be beautiful too. No more double stitching.
Right now Studio MCA Designs carries the following five matching colors in the magna-glide bobbins: Blueberry, Candy Apple, Cotton Candy, Dark Brown, and Rhododendron. For your convenience, these can be found in the Fil-tec Glide thread listing directly under its matching top thread in the drop-down menu.
Also, all Pre-cut Fabric Bundles are marked 10% off this week, including the new collections- Sunny Happy Skies, Fly a Kite, Scoot, and Dainty Blossoms in 10″ Stackers. These are perfect additions to your applique fabric stash. And “YES!” club members can use their discount code for an additional 10% off.
While you are there, be sure to add a February Exclusive MCA Club Membership to your cart. You only have one more week before this opportunity is gone. And trust me, you are going to LOVE this month’s exclusive designs!
by MCA Designs on January 15, 2012

There are a number of ways to attach bows to shirts. Today, I’m going to show you my favorite technique. Most of my designs involving bows include some kind of in-the-hoop bow tack. Generally, you will use that tack down stitch right in the middle of the bow like shown in the image above. But I prefer to use a different technique.
I like to use the button stitch (NOT to be confused with the buttonhole stitch) on my sewing machine. I’ve tried to simulate this for the embroidery machine in a few of my designs but it just isn’t quite as precise. I also like to iron my design and iron the comfort cover on the back before I attach the bows. It’s really difficult to press the design well and get the comfort cover to fuse when ironing around the bows.
Here is a quick tutorial of my favorite way to attach the bows. For a larger view, click on the image below:

*Alternate Step 4 -If you do not have a button stitch on your machine, you can follow these steps to get the same results. 1. Disengage the lower feed dogs. You do not want to feed your fabric through the machine. It needs to remain still. 2. Choose the zig zag stitch. 3. Set stitch length to 0 and stitch width to its widest setting.
Finished design:

Feel free to print out this tutorial for your files!