Digitizing Fundamentals XIII Embroidery Project

Engineering a design to embroider properly is just as challenging, if not more so, than making it look good. You must go back and focus on the basic building blocks of embroidery - the stitches. Determine how to best manipulate the stitches to ensure smooth, high-speed sewing with minimal thread breaks while preserving the necessary artistry.

The building blocks of a design that runs well are:

Underlay

Underlay serves as the foundation to support a design. It has four basic purposes as follows:

Density

Density is a measurement of the number of stitches within a given area. You adjust density according to the fabric and the design’s size.

Things to Consider About Density:

Push-Pull Compensation

During the sewing process, certain areas of a design may shift in position, change shape or change size. This is known as PUSH and PULL. It is caused by a combination of factors including fabric properties, type of stitch, size of segment area, lack of underlay and improper density. It is one of the most frustrating aspects of embroidery digitizing.

Cornering

Stitches must lie down neatly around sharp corners, without “bunching”. There are several cornering techniques as follows:

Short Stitches

In order to maintain equal density in curves, short stitches must be used along the inside of the curve. Otherwise, “bunching” and thread breaks will occur in this area.

Lock Stitches & Running Starts

A lock stitch firmly attaches the thread at the beginning of a long stitch or a trim, therefore keeping your stitches from pulling apart. Lock stitches are placed at the beginning and end of a segment to prevent the stitches from unraveling. The same concept can be created using “running starts.”

Pathing & Roadmaps

PATHING means to plan the path of stitches through each element so as to ensure proper connections between elements, by creating the appropriate entry and exit points for each element. This also helps keep the stitches flowing. Once a logical path has been established, then a roadmap can be created for the design. The roadmap is an informal set of instructions for digitizing the design from beginning to end.

Designing great embroidery is a result of visualizing and focusing on the design from beginning to end and then creating a game plan to ensure that it looks good and sews well.