Holiday Jar Toppers

Skill Level

Basic embroidery and software skills. You’ll need to know how to combine designs either at your machine or in your software. Resizing software is also helpful. The “Happy Holidays” design shown here will require some editing to build the design in software.

What You’ll Learn

• How to create easy, no-sew jar toppers.
• How to combine simple designs for creative results.
• How to perform basic manipulations in software and at the machine to extend a design’s use.
• Alternative methods for hooping.
• Simple design editing techniques.
• When embroidering on the bias is recommended and when it is not.

About the Jar Covers

These jar covers are variations on machine embroidered appliqué and require no additional sewing once the embroidery is complete. You can easily adapt this technique for other designs for any season or perhaps to reflect the jar’s contents (buttons, candy, nuts).

General Supplies

• Gingery Christmas design collection by Lindee G Embroidery
• Temporary embroidery spray adhesive (TESA)
• Scissors, sharp double curve embroidery scissors best
• Embroidery threads as required for designs
• Embroidery bobbin thread plus extra bobbins for winding matching thread
• Basic sewing/embroidery supplies
• Printed templates from collection for selected appliqués
• Jars (canning jars or other storage jars with lids)

“Santa Jar” Cover - Supplies

• Fabric
• Tearaway stabilizer
• Washaway stabilizer
• Small piece of polar fleece or batting
• “Santa” design (lg002025)
• Appliqué circle design and printed template (lg002018)
• Canning jar with 2 piece lid
• TESA
• Optional: matching bobbin thread for appliqué

Instructions

This project requires two hoopings. The first stitches the design, and the second stitches the layers together. The appliqué design was created to fit the jar I used and it can easily be resized to accommodate a jar of your choosing. If you resize, you’ll need to adjust your template. The easiest way to do that is to open the design in customizing or editing software, Save As a new ile name, then delete all but the first color change. Print the design at 100% and you’ll have a perfectly resized template.

• 1. Embroider top design.

Hoop fabric with tearaway and sew “Santa” design. Remove from hoop, remove stabilizer.

• 2. Prepare pieces.

Cut 1 circle of fabric according to template for bottom. Cut a circle of polar fleece somewhat smaller (about 1/8” inside guides). Cut a rough circle of the embroidered piece about 2” larger for top.

• 3. Sew placement line.

Hoop washaway stabilizer, sew first color of appliqué circle (outline).

• 4. Place pieces.

Remove the hoop from the machine. While it is possible to perform the following steps with the hoop in the machine, it is much easier if you remove it. Mist back of polar fleece, center in on top of stabilizer within sewn outline.

Mist back of embroidered piece with TESA, then center design area over center of fleece and smooth the fabric into position. Return hoop to machine.

• 5. Attach pieces.

Back up one color change (to beginning of design) and resew color 1.

Mist back side of bottom appliqué lightly with TESA, stick to bottom of stabilizer within sewn outline.

6. Trim excess fabric back to stitching.

Place hoop on a flat surface and carefully trim away excess fabric Do not use your fingers to push the fabric up from behind to make trimming easier! If the hoop tension is disturbed, your stitching will be off.

Note: An alternative method of layering the pieces is to layer all the pieces on top by placing the precut circle face down on the stabilizer within the placement stitches, then the fleece/batting on top, and the larger embroidered piece over the top and then restitching color one. I chose the previos method because then I don’t have to deal with removing the stabilizer on the back side.

• 7. Sew tack down stitching then inspect.

Continue sewing color 2 and manually stop the machine after the zigzag tack down stitching completes a full pass around the design. Inspect the design (front and back) to see if any fabric extends beyond the stitching. If so, trim it off now.

8. Finish design.

Finish sewing the design. Remove from hoop. Trim off stabilizer close to stitching. Remove remaining bits with a paint brush dipped in hot water (sponge works well also).

If you choose to remove the washaway stabilizer by rinsing it out, keep in mind that most TESAs become a gummy mess when wet. Most TESAs dissipate over time when applied to natural fibers, however, fleece, which is not a natural fiber, will hold TESA for a very long time. Although you can force dissipate most TESAs with a hot dry iron, you may also melt your fleece in the process!

• 9. Assemble the lid.

Set the embroidered cover on top of the flat part of the two-piece lid, then screw on the ring. A small dab of white glue or double-stick embroidery tape will hold the lid in place if it slips around

“Holiday Greetings” Jar Cover - Supplies

• Two 8” squares of fabric, cut with a wavy edge rotary cutter or pinking shears
• Tearaway stabilizer
• Small piece of polar fleece or batting cut slightly smaller than the template (as for previous project)
• “Holiday Greetings” design (lg002017)
• Appliqué circle design (lg002018)
• Continuous border (lg002001)
• Circular baste stitch (lg002026); this file was added after the collection was released and is also available as a free download at LindeeGEmbroidery.com in the Freebies section.
• Stitch editing software (I used Embrilliance Enthusiast)

Instructions

These instructions have been broken into two parts. The first part covers editing the design to extract parts and recombine them. The second part is the embroidery process.

Editing the Designs in Software

Learning to edit designs will give you much more flexibility with the designs you already have and permit much more creativity. If you’ve never done any design editing, the steps below may seem cumbersome. Work through them several times until you are comfortable and you’ll find yourself looking at designs in a whole new light!

If you have edited designs before, you’ll find these steps very basic. While I’ve provided screen captures, my intent is not to teach you how to use Embrilliance Enthusiast but to give you ideas of what your design should look like and what you might look for in your own program.

• 1. Extract the leaves from the continuous border design.

Open the continuous border design in your editing program. Select the design and rotate it 90° counter clockwise.

Delete all the colors except green (or whatever color the holly leaves are) leaving just the holly leaves.

Currently the leaves are one bunch of stitches, not two separate leaves. You can see that there is just one object in the Objects pane

Go into stitch edit mode and select all the stitches in one of the leaves. (I chose the one on the left). Your software will have some tool that will let you drag a marquis (box) around the stitches or a lasso tool to draw a free hand selection around the desired stitches. When selected, choose cut and then paste. This will separate the two leaves making them easier to manipulate as objects instead of stitches. Save this file.

• 2. Merge in the “Holiday Greetings” design.

Merging will add another design to the current file. If your software can’t merge, open the design in another window and then copy and paste it into your holly leaves design. Position the text between the holly leaves.

3. Arrange the design elements and then group together.

Move and rotate the leaves around the lettering until you are happy with the design. Select all the objects and choose Group to combine them into one object. Save your design.

• 4. Add a circular basting line the same size as the placement line in the circular appliqué.

Open the circular appliqué design. Enlarge the design so the circle will nicely cover the jar lid. I enlarged the original design only slightly (105%). If you resized the appliqué, measure the size of the first color area. One way to do this is to select the first color object, and copy and paste it into a new file. This will guarantee you are measuring just this part and not the entire design. Mine is 70.35 x 70.35mm.

Open the circular baste design (originally the same size as the tack down stitch in the circular appliqué) and size it to the same size as placement line and then copy and paste it into your Holiday Greetings file.

Originally I demonstrated how to lengthen the stitches by disabling the stitch processor and enlarging the design without adding any more stitches then turning the stitch processor back on and shrinking the design to its original size, which maintained the stitch length and reduced stitch count eftectively making the stitches basting length. However, not all editing programs will alter the stitch length on running stitches when resizing no matter how you do it. (EmbroideryWorks and Embrilliance won’t) so I’ve digitized a basted circle and added it to this collection. It’s also available as a freebie download at LindeeGEmbroidery.com.

• 5. Center the design elements within the basted outline.

Use your program’s alignment tool to center the grouped text and leaves with the circle both horizontally and vertically.

• 6. Resequence and save for sewing.

The final step before saving and sending your design to your embroidery machine is to resequence the design. The basting stitch needs to sew first, then the lettering, then the leaves. The leaves sew last so that if your machine doesn’t trim and you forget to, the letters won’t sew over the jump thread.

7. Print a template.

If you resized your appliqué, you will need to print a new template. You can simply print the design file you just created using the outer basting stitch as a template pattern.

Sewing the Jar Topper

The following “hoopless” method of sewing works well on low-intensity designs on stable fabrics that may not be large enough to fully hoop within the rings. It is an easy method of getting designs centered without a lot of precision hooping. It’s probably overkill for this simple little project so if you have another method for hooping, go for it.

This project requires two hoopings and no further sewing. As with the previous jar topper, the first hooping sews the design area and the second stitches the layers together.

• 1. Load and sew decorative design.

Hoop tearaway stabilizer. Sew basting stitch onto hooped stabilizer.

Draw vertical and horizontal center lines on the stabilizer with a pencil and ruler to aid in placement.

Fold one square of fabric in quarters on point and lightly finger press to mark center. Spray back with TESA. Align in hoop.

Back up one color change (or to beginning of the design) and restitch the basting line to attach the fabric to the hooped stabilizer. Sew design for top layer. Remove from hoop and remove stabilizer. Do not remove basting stitches yet.

If you are using a fill-stitched design with running stitch outlines, you may want to sew on the grain for the top layer and have the lower layer be on point otherwise you risk registration problems with your design.

• 2. Load appliqué circle design.

Hoop another piece of tearaway, sew the placement line, and mark as you did for the first part of the design.

Fold the second fabric in quarters (square), finger press to find center, spray back with TESA, position on hooped stabilizer.

Resew color one of appliqué to attach fabric to stabilizer and provide a placement guide for the fleece or batting and top layer

• 3. Place polar fleece.

Mist back of polar fleece with TESA. Using the outline as a guide, center polar fleece within stitching.

• 4. Place top fabric.

Mist back of embroidered square and smooth over top centering design over polar fleece. The points of the square should be offset from the first one (top square will be on bias)

• 5. Remove basting and finish.

Remove the basting stitch on the top piece and sew rest of design. Remove from hoop, remove tearaway.

Since perfect alignment is not critical on this project, you could just remove the basting before placing the top piece. The basting stitch is a good trick to know when absolutely precise alignment is required

Secure around jar with elastic cording or rubber band with a ribbon over it.

“Ginger Cookies” Jar Cover

I’ve saved the easiest one for last! No editing, no fabric to cut, no funky sewing directions. Just hoop up a doily, stitch a single design as is in the center, and lace some ribbon through. What could be easier?

Supplies

• Purchased doily
• Tearaway stabilizer
• Ginger Cookies design
• Ribbon (1/4” wide)

Instructions

Hoop doily with tearaway. Embroider design. Remove from hoop, remove stabilizer, lace ribbon through edging, tie over jar and you’re done!

By the "Lindee G Embroidery" Team