Level: Intermediate
Time: 1 hour per Tshirt

When my four year old nephew went back to school, he and his little classmates needed class Tshirts for field trips. Janome DigitizerMB software is the perfect tool for creating custom T-shirts!

Janome Supplies Required
Any Janome Embroidery machine (Kira used the MB-4)
Janome DigitizerMB software
Janome Embroidery thread in chosen colors
Janome Tear-Away stabilizer
Janome Blue Tip needle 75/11

Fabric and Notions Required
Blank T-shirts
Child’s drawing

Instructions

1. Have child create drawing for digitizing. Kira’s nephew did a self-portrait and signed his name.
2. Scan the artwork into your computer and create image files of each.
3. Open DigitizerMB, Easy Design.
4. Click on Set Up / Work Environment. Select the appropriate hoop for your machine.
5. Select Image/Insert Image to import image file into the Digitizer EasyDesign screen.

6. Place the cursor on the lower right corner of the image and drag the mouse to resize the image to an appropriate size for the hoop.
7. Select border tool from drawing tools menu. This tool is automatically set to a satin stitch run line with a width of .08 (which Kira used). If you wish to change this setting, use the Select tool to highlight the line, and click Object Details. For more detailed instruction on Manual Digitizing, you may consult this section of our Software Lessons area.

8. “Redraw” the image, by left and right clicking along the drawn lines with your mouse.
9. The thread color is automatically selected at red, but you may select a different color if necessary by highlighting the traced line and selecting a new color from the color chart.
10. Kira reduced the color selection of her drawing to only four colors to make stitching out the designs easier, and to give the field trip T-shirts a more uniform look.
11. Send the completed design to your embroidery machine.
12. Hoop Janome Tear-Away stabilizer and the T-shirt in the appropriate hoop for your machine.
13. Embroider the design.
14. Repeat for each t-shirt design.
15. Each child has his own personal self-portrait T-shirt.

They’re each so proud to wear their own shirts, and they are now very easy to keep together on their field trips.