Reducing Stitch Counts I Embroidery Project

Within the commercial embroidery industry, there is constant pressure to keep stitch counts low. The underlying drive is to reduce the embroidery costs for the customer. Certainly, in a competitive marketplace this is a reasonable concern, but you must be careful not to sacrifice quality in an effort to pacify a customers cost expectations. With that said, we can move on to discussing some techniques for reducing stitch count.

There are three basic techniques for reducing the number of stitches in a design: Adjust density, increase stitch lengths, and change stitch types.

Adjusting density Reducing the density of satins and fills is the simplest method for lowering stitch counts. However, you must be very cautious when doing this. Each segment must be reviewed individually to determine if fewer stitches will result in lower quality. Assuming that the proper settings were used to begin with, you will likely only be able to reduce density by 5-10% at the most. Keep in mind the fabric for which the design will be sewn on. Smooth, stable fabrics such as denim, can usually handle a greater reduction in density than knit fabrics or those with a textured surface. In addition, pay attention to the contrast in fabric color and thread color. Large differences in color, such as black thread on a white fabric, will require more density than in situations where the colors are more complimentary.

Example: A 30mm X 30mm fill segment with a density of 4.0pts has about 1220 stitches. If you reduce this by 10%, the new density is 4.4pts which yields about 1108 stitches. That’s actually a significant change for such a small area, so you must be sure that there is still enough coverage for the specified fabric.