Learning new software is always a challenge and unfortunately, the program which accompanies the cutwork tool isn’t the most intuitive.  I mean, “hit the spacebar to select the hexagon” ?  So, it was with as much patience as I could muster that I sat down yesterday afternoon to work my way through a step by step project.

 

 

Assuming no previous knowledge and taking everything one step at a time, what could be easier?  

 

 

All went well, though a couple of occasions required close reference to the manual.  It took a while and I didn’t stray from the prescribed sizes and so on because I just wanted this to work!

And then I came to the bit where it says “Save as Hexagon_Cut. Export to machine and cut.”

Cut what?  How?  I need more advice, because if you recall from my last post, the cutting hadn’t been terribly successful.

 

 

At this point, I went back to the place where I’d found the original idea – Adeline’s blog.  Adeline has recently begun a FB group for users of the Designworks Program and though there is already a Designworks Yahoo Group which I read regularly, it was this picture on FB which caught my eye.  Thankfully, she had shared a step by step process for cutting the shapes so gathering up my bondaweb, my adhesive stabiliser and a few small bits of fabric, I created a sandwich to put in my embroidery hoop.

 

 

As soon as I began to sew, I felt more confident that this was going to work.  To begin with, the design had an initial running stitch around it, to hold everything in place before the cutting process began.  Replacing the needle with the cutting tool, I took a deep breath and started the next stage of the process.

 

 

The result was better this time.  Rather good in fact.  I cut six layers of fabric which seemed to work better than a single one and that line of stitching made all the difference.

 

 

I was pleased with the result and was ready to move onto the next stage – to create the applique stitching file which would instruct my machine to do the sewing.

That’s when I hit the brick wall.  After an hour or so fiddling about with the program, I simply could not access the part of the menu which I needed.  I tried all kinds of things, read the manual again, searched online, closed the program and restarted, had a cup of tea, said a few choice words but nothing worked.  Then I remembered the FB group and posted a question.  Could anyone help me, I wondered?

I hope so!