Last time, you cut and marked all of your pieces for Nifty Notepads. Now I will show you a little trick you can use to add lace and trims to your in-the-hoop-projects!

One of the wonderful things about ITH projects is that you don’t have to be a seamstress to create them. The designs are specially digitized to include seams, which attach pieces.

As you follow the instructions for Nifty Notepads by Pickle Pie Designs, you will come to the third color stop where the accent fabric is added to the front panel with a seam.

The yellow dashed line above) stitches a placement line for the front cover accent fabric (color 3), which is attached to the denim by color 4, (the red dashed line above). Note that the color numbers will vary according to the project you are creating.

For Nifty Notepads, stitch placement line (color 3) and the seam line (color 4) before actually adding the accent fabric. That way, you will know where to position the rickrack. Remove your hoop from the machine.

Cut the rickrack so that it is flat along one edge. Add a fusible tape, like Lite Steam-A-Seam 2, to the back of the rickrack and fuse it between the stitch lines. Line up the valleys of the rickrack so that they just cover the seam line (red above). Make sure it does not extend past the placement line (yellow above). 

Place the hoop back on the machine, position the accent fabric against the placement line, tape it down, and run color 4 again to sew the seam.

After stitching, open the accent fabric to the right and tape it in place. Continue with the rest of the stitching sequence. Your accent is now part of the seam.

This project was featured in Volume 112 of Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine.You can use this technique any time you have a joining seam built into your ITH projects, whether they be notebook covers like this or zippered bags, quilt blocks, and purses. This works when inserting lace, too!

Debbie SewBlessed