Quilt in a Day Forums

Greetings, fellow sewists. I have an inherited Pfaff Creative 7550 that I'm just learning to use, and I am puzzled about how to sew the larger individual motifs (in lower 200s if you have a similar machine). There are things like a dinosaur, a snail, two ducks, a floral bouquet, and when I try to sew them since the fabric moves around a lot in the stitching of a single motif they end up being stitched all over themselves, if that makes any sense. How do I orient/hold/move the fabric so I get a motif that looks like it should? Thanks so much for any help you can offer!

I might have my own solution, generally. I found that I need to disable the dual feed, and then when I do that it seems to work pretty well. I saw online where a video was using the darning foot to embroider a (more elaborate) motif, but when I press "info" on my machine it just calls for foot #8, and that seemed to work on two samples I did. Any add'l specific tips will be very much appreciated, though. I'm just using built-in motifs at this point, haven't tried creating my own pattern using the rather clunky/elaborate designer tool for my machine. TIA...

You might try tear away or wash away facing on back

I have a Pfaff Creative 2140 - when I do any embroidery work, there is a stitch box that outlines the space thatvwill be embroidered. I use that first. It holds my fabric to the stabilizer and where I want it.

I do infant onesies with little embroidery and always use a stabilizer. I do a kind of a hoopless method. I put a piece of stabilizer in the hoop first. Then attach what I want to add embroidery too by using a temporary spray adhesive to hold my fabric where I want it to be. Then I add the stitch box around the area. It always holds my work and embroiders beautifully. So I can embroider many things that may be too bulky using this method.

I carefully remove the box stitching - it is like a large basting, and then very carefully work right around the actual embroidery, so I make a hole in the stabilizer. That way I am not wasting a whole large piece every time I do something different. If I am doing another, I just cut a piece of stabilizer to fit over the hole - attaching it with spray adhesive. The basting box for the next embroidery holds it in place. Saves money that way.

Hopefully this helps.
Jana