Understanding the Sewing Process II Embroidery Project

To properly understand this process, it is much more effective to see it in action. Turn off the power to your machine. Remove the needle plate. Now rotate the main shaft by hand, such that the bobbin hook is rotating counter-clockwise. You will be able to watch the entire stitch formation process as it happens.

Why is this important to digitizing? It’s this stitch formation process combined with fabric characteristics that make digitizing such as challenge. The stitch process exerts a certain amount of pressure on the thread and the fabric. A fabric that is unstable will have different sewing characteristics than one that is stable.

For example, when sewing denim, when the stitch is pulled tight, the fabric does not give in to the extra force and thus the stitch that you programmed tends to come out the way you intended it to.

On the other hand, when you are working with knits, the fabric is stretchy and does have a tendency to yield slightly to the pull of the stitch process. Thus, you find that many of your stitches are shorter than you programmed.

(Of course, thread tensions, backing and hooping can all play a part in this as well.)

In addition to the degree of stability (or lack thereof) of a fabric, you must also contend with the thickness of the fabric and any surface texture. These two characteristics will also affect how your stitches appear when