Tag: JUKI

JUKI Posts, JUKI Spotlight

How Its Sewn with Nicole Chen

by sewinwithjukiLeave a Comment on How Its Sewn with Nicole Chen
Nicole Chen
Asymmetrical Cotton Seersucker Dress by Nicole Chen

Hello everyone, today we’re excited to introduce a fellow JUKI Lover, Nicole Chen! Read on to learn more about Nicole’s journey on becoming a sewer in 2020 as she shares her experiences in picking up her new go-to hobby.

As a fashion retail buyer in New York and a student pursuing her fashion design certification by night, Nicole always loved the process of creating- and in her case, making clothing! During the beginning of quarantine, Nicole began documenting her sewing journey on social media including Instagram @Howitssewn and website Howitssewn.com for people to join her as she learns new techniques on each project.

“It’s my main creative outlet and makes me feel so happy and fulfilled, especially when I can see my improvement over time.”

Joining the wave of new sewers, she began by taking apart and upcycling her old clothes, giving them a new life. As she gradually improved with the help of videos, she designed and drafted original sewing patterns.

“I love the challenge and design freedom that self-drafting allows, but the process from pattern to clothing is a lot of trial and error. There is no escaping this, but each mistake teaches me something new!”

Floral Print Ruffled Linen Dress By Nicole Chen

As Nicole continued to grow, she ventured out to find inspiration for her projects. Her recommendation? Look into the Google Arts and Culture collection, an online museum created during quarantine. This application has helped people escape their homes and explore a beautiful and awe-inspiring online exhibit with artwork, images, and cultural artifacts from around the world. She explains it’s a free application allowing you access to gain inspiration from any fashion museum and art gallery they have on display. Her favorite artist to follow is Zimmermann, for their fun and flirty pieces, and Alexander McQueen, for their technically intricate clothing.

Early on in Nicole’s sewing journey, she told herself she would learn a new technique for every project she worked on as a way to challenge herself. Having an infinite amount of possibilities at her disposal, Nicole is currently learning about curves and movements of the human body and how to rein the designs she wants.

Nicole’s advice for newcomers? Sewing is 80% preparation and 20% actual sewing. Taking the time and care to prepare everything beforehand like fabrics, pattern truing, and cutting sets you up for a win!

A JUKI lover like us, Nicole invested in her first JUKI serger last year, the JUKI MO-654DE! After being recommended by friends and online sources, she claims it as one of her best sewing decisions, here’s some advice below from Nicole on how to choose the best serger for yourself.

Juki MO-654DE

“To save you the time, here are my top 3 aspects to look for in your first serger:

1. Color-Coded Threading System. The last thing you want is to spend half an hour changing your thread color. The 4-color coded system is great for visual learners and is super intuitive.

2. Adjustable Differential Feed. This is a must-have if you often work with knits and stretchy fabrics. This is the trick to create those beautiful lettuce hems!

3. High-Quality Knife Blade. This is, arguably, the most satisfying part of serging. A good blade will cut smoothly through your excess seam allowances and leave you with neatly finished edges.”

As the new year continues to bring in new sewers, we’re so excited to share with you their accomplishments. To learn more about Nicole and keep up with her quilting journey, follow her on Instagram today @HowItsSewn or her website HowItsSewn.com!

JUKI Posts

Quilting in a Social Media Age

by sewinwithjukiLeave a Comment on Quilting in a Social Media Age
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

From finding inspiration to posting your finished projects, social media has become one of the new quilting hubs for the community. With millions of posts on social media with hashtags for quilting, there are infinite ideas and inspiration to go around. We know that when you lack a creative spark sometimes running to Instagram and Pinterest is the best way to get that inspiration you need, but the fun is in the community itself that has continued to grow each day.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

Forming friendships with similar interests is exciting! You can do this by joining quilting and sewing groups where you can find answers to questions you need. Additionally, you can experience the same excitement for new projects or machines. Quilting parties, what was once a social event that women hosted for friends and family members as a way to meet in the early 1800-1900s, has become a worldwide connected project. Hashtags like #100daysofquilting and #quilter have brought thousands of people together to showcase art from all around the world. We at JUKI love when sewing and quilting artists like you use our hashtags like #lovemyjuki and #jukisewingmachine, this allows us to see and share what you create!

Social media for quilting is like a research hub and can be for more than sharing projects; there are features on how to sell your quilting, how to gain a following, and even one day taking this from a past time into a career.  Each day new and old members of the community have an opportunity to use social media for their goals. Whether it be gaining a following, sponsorship, or making a side income from selling your pieces; social media has given artists the platform to grow in their skills and passions.

At JUKI, we use social media every day to learn more about our JUKI Lovers and their projects. By being able to share our products, helpful tips, and more, we’ve created platforms that allow us to connect with you. What would you like to see more of on our social media?

JUKI Posts, JUKI Spotlight

JUKI Spotlight: Urban Quilting with Wendy Chow

by sewinwithjuki2 Comments on JUKI Spotlight: Urban Quilting with Wendy Chow
JUKI Spotlight: Urban Quilting with Wendy Chow
Wendy Chow – photographed by
Rachel Kuzma

Welcome JUKI Lovers to a new book we enjoy! The “Urban Quilting: Quilt patterns for the Modern-Day Home” by Wendy Chow is one of our new book recommendations for beginners and experts alike. Each of the 10 quilt patterns has detailed instructions for making quilts in different sizes. The book is beginner-friendly and has everything you need to know to get started in creating beautiful quilts.

Wendy Chow, an Aussie modern quilter and pattern designer based in New York, focuses on bold, unique color combinations and geometric shapes inspired by architecture, interior design, and nature. From the age of four, Wendy was transfixed by sewing, but it was not until high school where she began her quilting journey. Using quilting as an escape from the real world, Wendy created quilts and designs that helped her through her days at her corporate job.

Wendy’s love for quilting brought her to a dream opportunity when her publishers found her on social media and offered a publishing deal. “Never in my wildest dreams, I’d envision myself writing a book one day. The opportunity randomly presented itself when my publisher, Blue Star Press, contacted me after they saw my work on Instagram. At the time I was still trying to figure out whether to continue to pursue this new creative career path or to go back to my daily grind in the corporate world. But we all know what happens at the end,” Wendy stated when asked what brought her to venture out to the publishing world.

Urban Quilting: Quilt patterns for the Modern-Day Home – photographed by
Rachel Kuzma

It was hard to choose, but one of the designs we loved most at JUKI is found on page 34. The bold design is perfect for those wanting to learn a new skill in quilting since it features Half-Square Triangles; a common motif in designs perfect for those still learning. Wendy teaches you how to create this design by constructing multiple Half-Square Triangles in record time with one of her favorite tricks. You won’t want to miss this! All of Wendy’s designs also have levels from “beginner” to “advanced beginner” written under each design, making this book great for those just starting or wanting to expand their quilting horizons.

Find your own “Urban Quilting: Quilt Patterns for the Modern-Day Home” by Wendy Chow at the following locations below to begin your quilting journey today.

Purchase at the following online retailers:

– Amazon

– Book Depository

– Barnes and Noble

If you enjoyed the book, what part did you enjoy most?

Share your quilting journey with us!

Tips, Triple T: Tips, Tricks, and Training

Growing in Sewing

by sewinwithjukiLeave a Comment on Growing in Sewing

After some much-needed playtime on your new JUKI sewing machine, you want to start getting creative! This is where accessories come in. Below are a few recommendations for presser feet and accessories that will get your project done right.

Even Foot:
TL-18QVP: A9811-D25-0A0
TL-2200QVP Mini: A9811-D25-0A0

COMPUTERIZED & SEMI-INDUSTRIAL ACCESSORIES

Our first recommendation is JUKI’s walking foot or even feed foot. These feet are great for feeding thick fabric and other multi-layered projects. For example, when creating straight lines on quilts or sewing handbag straps, the walking foot is incredibly helpful in preventing the bottom and top fabric from bunching because it is feeding the material evenly.

Another recommendation is getting a zipper foot! JUKI has a variety of zipper feet available in different styles that allow you to sew close to the edge of the zipper teeth, piping, and other bulky edges. Zipper feet make it oh-so-simple to embellish fashion pieces, secure handbags, and more!

Our final recommendation in this series is the smooth foot. If you are looking to sew leather, vinyl, cork, and/or other hard-to-feed materials, this is the foot for you! Wanting a smoother go while you work on a project will help you achieve a clean, professional finish!

Glide Foot:
– TL-2200QVP: 40201924
– TL-2200QVP S: 40201924
– Miyabi J-350QVP: 40201924
– Miyabi J-350QVP S: 40201924
– J-150QVP: 40201924

QUILTING ACCESSORIES

Wow your friends and family with a one-of-kind quilt! Add ribbons, applique, and other embellishments with the glide foot! This bowl-shaped foot is an expert at going over three-dimensional embellishment when free motion quilting. Create beautiful designs with no stress!

Our Grip and Stitch makes free motion quilting easy and fun! Each pack comes with two different-sized disks that provide outstanding support. With the larger disk in your left hand and the smaller disk in your right hand, place the disks on top of your quilt and begin quilting. This gives you the ability to design funky spirals, beautiful feathers, and more!

Want to take your quilting to the next level? JUKI has the tool just for you! We have a wide variety of rulers at your disposal available. Created to help you get the design you want, our rulers can assist in straight stitching to clamshell designs.

Coverstitch Hem Guide:
MCS-1700QVP: 40177371

OVERLOCK AND COVERSTITCH

Looking to create straight hemlines on pants and shirt sleeves? Our coverstitch hem guide is the perfect tool for you! When it’s difficult to see the backside of your fabric, this guide can set the folded width of the fabric and align the edge of the fabric from the backside easily, minimizing the work for hemming.

Another recommendation is JUKI’s waste collector. This accessory is perfect for keeping your area tidy allowing you to throw out scraps as you sew. Also, it can be great storage for accessories to keep at an arm’s length.

When it comes to making sure you have the basic tools for your project, we highly recommend looking into the MO Kits. Available in set-piece sizes of 3, 6, and 8, these kits provide you with presser feet that can help you complete your project! Containing different feet in each set, we create these for practical sewing or decorative stitching on clothing.

Pocket Frame

EMBROIDERY

Getting the right tools can make embroidery set up so much faster! One recommendation we have is our magnetic frames. These accessories are offered in three different sizes and can help you embroider beautiful designs with clean stitching and faster speed on garments such as t-shirts, jackets, bags, and more!

We love embroidering designs onto our clothing and that’s why we created the pocket frame! This accessory is great for sleeves, pockets, cap side of parts, and much more; there are no limitations to your creations! Customizing garments for clients or your own just becomes more fun when you have the right tools to get it done how you imagined it.

Last but definitely not least, the most important part of sewing is needles! Our embroidery sewing needle pack is specially designed with a larger eye size to keep your threads from breakage. Our embroidery sewing titanium coating needle pack was created to last using Perfect Durability (PD), our needles are finished with titanium-nitride ceramic that gives you longer needle life when embroidering through tough materials. Cost-effective and durable is what these needles are all about!

JUKI knows that an accessory can make projects more enjoyable and easier for you! What accessory do you use on your projects?