Buzzing Bench Cover

Go big or go home with the Large Connect designs included with the Solaris Vision. This collection of designs automatically connect to create designs that far exceed the already large embroidery field on the Solaris Vision. In addition there are several complimentary embroidery patterns included to match with the 5 Large Connect designs! Use this design collection for all sorts of projects or turn them into these fun throw pillows.

There is a SEWED Video that walks through the steps of the Embroidery of this design. The class is called Large Connect Designs – Solaris Vision and can be found on sewedclasses.com.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE INSTRUCTIONS AND PATTERN WITH ADDITIONAL PHOTOS.

Supplies

• Baby Lock® Solaris Vision or Solaris with Upgrade 3 sewing and embroidery machine
• Embroidery Foot
• Zipper Foot
• 10 5/8” Square Frame (Note: the design you use from Large Connect will select the hoop needed)
• Wood Bench (The bench shown was purchased on Amazon – 36” Wood Entryway Bench by Alaterre Furniture)
• 20” X WOF strip of cotton or home décor fabric for bench pillow top
• 1/2 yard of coordinating fabric for the backing
• 16” zipper or larger
• ¼ yard of coordinating fabric for piping
• 4-5 yards of 1/8” chording or coordinating home décor fringe or trim
• 1” Foam sheets -used 2 layers
• Baby Lock Ultra Soft Stabilizer (BLC204)
• Tear Away Firm Stabilizer or Cut-away Stabilizer
• Madeira® Cotona and Madeira® Rayon/Polyester thread to match fabric. Coordinating bobbin thread for sewing.
• Rotary cutter mat and ruler

Instructions:

The supply list will make one bench cushion. Use the layout at the end of the project with the piecing order for the cushion.

Selecting the design:

1. Select Embroidery.
2. Open Large Connect Category -Embroidery Designs and select the 5th honeycomb bee design. Touch Set.
3. Each design is sectioned into 3 design segments that will be connected using the Camera and Projector on the machine.
4. Select the first design that will automatically connect these together. The other three are individual sections that you choose from and manually connect or stitch as an individual design.
5. With this design collection you are limited to making edits and adjustments to the design.
6. Touch Embroidery and at this point we are ready to hoop our fabric and stitch out the design.
7. You will note that Pattern Connectivity with the Camera is automatically turned on.

Embroidery:

1. Fuse Cotton fabric with the Baby Lock Ultra Soft Fusible Stabilizer or stabilizer of choice. Please note that many of the designs in this collection are very stitch intensive and require a stable fabric. Using a heavier fabric or stabilizing the fabrics with interfacing or starch/terial magic type products can help to prevent puckering.
2. Hoop a section towards the left of the fabric strip in the 10 5/8” X 10 5/8” frame for the first part of the design. Allow extra fabric to the left as this will be trimmed up for the bench pillow after the stitch out is completed.
3. Thread the machine with the embroidery thread color and place embroidery bobbin into the machine.
4. Once a section is completed you will be prompted to place positioning stickers on the fabric to help with connecting the next section.
5. Follow the prompts on the screen as it walks you through step by step when to re-hoop and scan to connect designs.
6. If this is your first time using Pattern Connectivity on the Solaris you may want to do a practice run of the design to get a feel before using your project fabrics. (There is a SEWED Video that walks through the steps of the Embroidery of this design. The class is called Large Connect Designs – Solaris Vision and can be found on sewedclasses.com.)
7. When complete un-hoop press and trim up the bench cushion front fabric.
8. Set the machine up for Sewing using the standard foot and sewing thread and bobbin.
9. There is also a built-in machine video that will assist with how to stitch out these large connect designs.

Cushion Construction:

1. Because each bench size could be unique measure the area of your bench and cut the fabric for the project that measurement plus a ½” to each side for a seam allowance.
2. For the bench back cut two pieces of coordinating fabrics based off front measurements allowing a seam allowance for the zipper.
3. Place right sides together for the pillow back pieces. Using a 1/2” seam allowance stitch a seam using the Q-05 5mm basting stitch.
4. Select stitch 1-03 and re-stitch the seam about 2” from the outer edges of each with a standard stitch.
5. Press the seam open.
6. Insert the zipper into the basted seam using the Zipper Foot. Topstitch around all the edges of the zipper to secure it to the pillow back.
7. Once inserted use the seam ripper to remove the basting stitches and unzip the zipper half-way.
8. Trim this back piece if needed to match the cushion front fabric keeping the zipper in the center of the pillow back.
9. With the zipper foot still on let’s create some piping.
10. Cut the piping fabric into 2” strips. Seam the strips together to create a strip long enough to create piping for the entire perimeter of cushion size plus some overlap.
11. Encase the cording in the 2” strips and stitch to encase into the center of the folded strip. A serger is another great tool to easily make piping for projects like this.
12. If adding piping attach the piping to the edge of the bench cushion front prior to constructing the cushion.
13. Place the cushion front with trim and the cushion back (with zipper opened) right sides together and pin.
14. Stitch around the cushion edges using a ½” seam allowance.
15. When you get to the corners round off the corner rather than stitching to a point. Note: When you turn the cushion right side out the corners will be square.
16. Trim the corners and turn right side out through the zipper opening.
17. Insert cushion form.

Bonus Bee Pillow

While the designs for the Large Connect designs don’t allow much in the ways of editing there is a work around to be able to use those designs in a unique way.

1. Select Embroidery
2. Open Large Connect Category -Embroidery Designs and select the 5th honeycomb bee design. Touch Set.
3. Each design is sectioned into 3 design segments that will be connected using the Camera and Projector on the machine.
4. When you select one of the individual sections you still get limited options for making changes. However if you choose a section and save it to memory when you recall that saved design you have most of your editing tools back.
5. For this pillow IQ Designer was used to first create a layer of the honeycomb decorative fill for the largest hoop size.
6. Then the saved designs from the Large connect were opened and then edited. There are 5-6 layers of sectioned designs used to create the look.
7. Most of the design backgrounds were turned off using the De-select region feature.
8. Then designs were resized rotated mirrored and laid out in a desired format.
9. Lastly lettering was added using one of the newer fonts (Thinking of Betty) and centered on the screen.
10. Note that color sort is not an option with these designs b/c they are overlapping designs. If you want to consolidate on stitching steps you will need to manually use the +/- key to advance back and forth in the stitching sequence.
11. Once done a simple border was added and a zippered back added similar to the instructions above for the cushion.