As a quilter, I don’t often get to take advantage of the many decorative stitches on the Janome MC9400, which is a shame. There are so many decorative stitches to choose from on this machine and a variety of options with them. You can adjust the width and length of most of them and you can even switch them up vertically or horizontally or even mirror some of them. This makes for an almost limitless number of decorative stitches on the Janome MC9400 and, if you want to design your own stitches, you can use the included Stitch Composer to do that.

With all these options for the decorative stitches on the Janome MC9400, I really wanted to be able to use them in my quilting and I’ve found a way to do so by creating my own fabric with them.

To make your own personalized fabric using the decorative stitches on the Janome MC9400, you’ll need a few things:

Fabric – a solid colour fabric works best

Fabric Stabilizer – you’ll need one or two sheets of lightweight tearaway or another type of fabric stabilizer

Thread – I like to use a 50 weight thread that is close in colour to my fabric

Janome MC9400, of course

The first thing you need to do is to choose which decorative stitches you want to use on your fabric. I chose ones that were similar in that they stitched in bars. I didn’t choose any wavy or long stitches, but you can choose any that you like.

Next, you should always stitch out a sample of your chosen stitches on the same fabric, ensuring that you have a fabric stabilizer behind your fabric. This is when you can decide if you want to use the stitch’s default settings or want to make some changes. Be sure to write down the stitch number and any changes that you have made to it on your sample fabric so you’ll easily find these stitches on your Janome MC9400 when you want to create your fabric.

Now comes the fun part! You’re going to make your own fabric! I like to use my walking foot when I stitch, ensuring that the zigzag needle plate is on the Janome MC9400. I have different foot options: Decorative stitches are best done using the Satin stitch foot F or F2 which is an open toe foot. The Border Guide foot (optional accessory foot, is also a good choice)

THE JANOME BORDER GUIDE FOOT – also available for both 7mm and 9mm machine models. Pic courtesy of Sew4Home

I like to do this type of stitching on a diagonal for an interesting effect, but you could certainly stitch them in rows if you’d like.

The front of the stitched fabric

The back of the stitched fabric with stabilizer

For more information on how to use decorative stitches on the Janome MC9400 to create your own fabric, click here.

If you’re wondering how you might use this created fabric, why not try it as fabric in your pieced quilt blocks or in tote bags, purses or pouches? The fact that you can personalize this fabric makes it so versatile and so you.

Have fun with this easy technique using the decorative stitches on the Janome MC9400.

For videos and more information on the Janome MC9400 sewing machine, visit my Chatterbox Quilts’ YouTube channel.

Happy stitching from Kim Jamieson-Hirst, Janome Canada Artisan in Calgary, Alberta.