Little Mermaid

 The Mermaid
       Who would be
       A mermaid fair
       Singing alone
       Combing her hair 

       Under the sea,
       In a golden curl
       With a comb of pearl,
       On a throne?
              ~Alfred Lord Tennyson                                                                                    
                                                                               

     I did Katelyn's second tank top with a mermaid applique that I got from Designs by Juju.  I worked with it in the Artista software; I made it a little larger and added her name.  I used the Harrington font,  which was a true type font.  I brought it into the fonts folder of my computer, then brought it into the software and digitized it into stitches.  I curved and rotated it just a little, and it fit around the body of the mermaid perfectly.

This tank is a perfect example of why the right stabilizer is important.  I used a layer of polymesh behind the tank and hooped them both.  When I attached the hoop to the machine I slid a piece of tearaway under the polymesh, then added a layer of solvy on top.  I was working in pretty close quarters;  I had the medium hoop bunched up all around, and the solvy kept pulling up.  Finally it hit me!  I used the basting stitch function on the 780 and stitched around the perimeter of the design, holding the solvy in place.  

Then I just watched carefully as it stitched, making sure I didn't catch the tank,  and was thrilled when there was not a pucker to be seen!