To take up the slack (and fill my need for lushly embellished garb) I employ my machine to do some decorative finishing for me.
I tried, only a few times, to use the machine's built-in stitches to finish the edges of garments. I was never happy with the results, they always looked machine made.
Then I discovered Madeira's Lana Wool machine embroidery thread and I was blown away with the handcrafted look that you can get by using these threads.
I have done some embroidery with the thread, but the machine is temperamental about using the thread. You really have to tweak the designs to get them to work and you definitely need the titanium needles made specifically for these threads. I hope to eventually get the bugs worked out and be able to do some very hand crafted larger pieces of embroidery at some point.
What does seem to work well is decorative stitching. Not every stitch works well with the thread, and of those, not all aesthetically work for garb. Above is the border of a linen Norse coat I made this year for my boyfriend. This arrow-stitch seems to work very well on earlier period garb.