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    Imitating long-and-short stitch in machine embroidery

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 9,925 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    I have once written the theory of imitating the long-and-short stitch technique, which is used in hand embroidery. Today I will show you what comes of it. 
    Unfortunately, I do not have the fabric more suitable for such technique — organdy or batiste, for example. But I will use what is available — calico. It is transparent enough to suit my goals. 
    I decided against creating of the complex design, because you don't need one for testing. So I created a very simple flower pattern in order to use two colors for shading — green for the leaves and red for the petals: 

    In the original patterns created by the author of this technique, I didn't find any understitching, just the runs between different sections inside the intricate outlines. When I created my design, I suddenly got an idea to use the edge run as the underlay for the fills in order to outline the objects. It later turned out that I was right in using them: 

    My design that will imitate long-and-short stitch technique looks like this: the stitches on the right side of the fabric are hidden at the distance of approximately 1.5 mm within the outline. they lie inside the underlay, created by edge runs. The fill density is 0.8 mm. 
    In order to put my idea into action I hooped the water soluble stabilizer: 

    Then I embroidered all the fills right on it (they will show through the fabric under the flowers and leaves): 

    After that, the machine made a stop and I, having sprayed the fabric with temporary spray adhesive, stuck it directly onto the water soluble stabilizer: 

    I started the machine again, embroidered all the remaining parts of the design — the outlines of the leaves, flowers, and the flower cups.
    Took the hoop off and turned embroidery the wrong side up. The result was not so bad — the outline that stitched filling to the fabric, lay inside the filled areas: 

    With one exception: perhaps, the stitch ran too near the edge:

    But the filled area didn't fall to pieces, for it was secured by the understitching, which I was right to have inserted. Without it, the filling would fall into pieces. It means that the outlining stitch is necessary. You also need to pay more attention to the distance between the outlining stitch and the edge run. And everything will be just fine. 
    All that is left is to give the item a trial by washing as I need to remove the water soluble film anyway: 

    I creased the fabric with all my might, and the embroidery did not fall into pieces, which is good. Below is how it looks after the pressing: 

    Summary: this technique works, but does not look as neat as hand embroidery of a high quality. But frankly speaking, I'm unable to see the dance of the shadows or nuances that speak of beauty in it. In concerns both the hand and the machine embroidery.

    Seeking for 3D Puff replacement 3

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 3,148 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    I've already written about my attempt to find a replacement for the water soluble film, but today I decided to seek for a 3D Puff alternative in case there it will be unavailable. 
    My starting point was the concept of "embroidery on cardboard", which exists in the hand embroidery. On this assumption, I began to replace 3D Puff with its paper equivalents, which happened to be at hand. 
    I created a design according to the same principles that regulate the embroidery on 3D Puff. The only thing that differs here is that first, the underlay for the whole object is embroidered, then the machine makes a stop to allow me to remove the paper leftovers, and only after that comes the finishing layer of satin stitches. 

    First, I took the dense (95 g) tearaway stabilizer leftovers, which I usually use for the chevrons. I folded it in 4 layers and put into the hoop: 

    Having embroidered the first layer of underlay, I tried to tear off the stabilizer. It didn't tear easily, leaving fibers behind — they were not very long, but yet visible, and they stuck out in all directions. From all appearances, in case of using paper the density of the underlay is not sufficient for a neat tearaway line: 

    The finishing satin stitch layer did not cover them completely: 

    But the embroidery was puffy enough. These fibers may be easily singed with a lighter. 
    After this attempt, I remembered that I had a tearaway paper stabilizer (60 g), which tears neatly along the perimeter of the embroidery, and I thought that it might be appropriate. I folded it in 5 layers: 

    Embroidered the underlay: 

    The stabilizer tore off easily. But instead of the fibers rather big pieces of paper were left: 

    The finishing layer of satin stitches did not really cover those bits and the white paper showed in between the stitches. I did not manage to fix it, for on this kind of paper a lighter cannot be used: 

    But how puffy the embroidery is! 

    When embroidering on this perforated stabilizer, I got an idea to use paper napkins, for their textures are very similar to each other. And the napkins tear so easily! So I decided to embroider on them: 

    It was a very unfortunate experiment — tearing them off required considerable effort, and there were very ugly pieces left: 

    The finishing layer of satin stitches covered them rather badly, and the leftovers stuck out in all directions: 

    After this failure I found a piece packaging board (left from a T-shirt) and decided to put it to a test: 

    This is how it looks with understitching: 

    The cardboard tears off rather neatly leaving very small pieces behind: 

    These pieces are easily covered by the finishing layer of stitches; nothing sticks out and satin columns look wonderful: 

    The summary is as follows: You can replace 3D Puff with other materials. But you will have to test them all and find the right stitch parameters for digitizing. For me, the ordinary cardboard turned out to be the best of all. It is quite possible to embroider on it, even if you hoop 2 layers of it for additional puffiness. But you'll have to use a thicker needle, no less than #80. Of course, not any cardboard is good, you'll have to find one that tears easily, but I was lucky: mine did. But if you don't have the cardboard, you can choose something else from the materials readily available. Using stabilizer for 3D embroidery is a bit harder, with all these pieces and yarns, but you can manage without 3D Puff anyway. 
    P.S. Two of my first attempts to find an alternative for 3D Puff can be found here and here.

    Embroidery technique netting and practice of application

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 3 comments, 9,695 views
    Today I decided to check whether the high-quality lace embroidery designs on netting without using a stabilizer is possible. What kind of stabilizer do you need for the netting? Either water soluble film or other water soluble stabilizer. This means an extra cost, and not a small one; besides, you'll need to wash the embroidery afterward, which also complicates the matters. I also checked whether it was possible to embroider on such a delicate material as netting using any type of needle. I do not have SUK ball point needles, which do not cut through the yarn, only the standard
    R and SES ones. 
    I created a machine embroidery design: 

    Set the most ordinary density, 0.4mm. Put 2 edge runs of understitching under the satin columns. In my opinion, an underlay like this one allows for the satin columns to maintain their shape and work as a backbone, because the stitch has nothing to rely on within the particle, and it therefore creates the ugly ragged edges. 
    The reason for ragged edges is the large particle mesh size, so that some of the stitches fall first into one particle, then the other, and so on.
    And because the mesh particles are on different levels, the edges become ragged. I saw this method in the Italian embroidery design when I was just beginning to embroider on netting. 
    I hooped the netting without the stabilizer. It was the ordinary netting — knit and quite stretchy. There are no difficulties in hooping the netting. I just place it on the inner ring of the hoop and cover it with the outer one, without tugging it in the hoop and other intricacies. The pressure caused by the outer ring is enough to pull it tight. The crucial thing is not to overstretch the netting, in order not to damage the mesh even before starting the embroidery. Otherwise, it will break during the embroidery under the pressure of the stitches pulling it, and very ugly-looking holes will appear along the perimeter. 

    I chose a standard rayon #40 thread right away. Polyester, in my opinion, is not good for netting. I may be wrong, though. 
    Below is the result of my first attempt, still in the hoop: 

    Numerous perforations along the perimeter and in the corners are visible right away, as well as  the underlay showing in several places: 


    Below is the photo of the netting already unhooped but not yet pressed. The pull is not critical and can be corrected by pressing: 

    After the pressing: 

    In my opinion, there exists a number of reasons for perforations: 
    High density  No stabilizer  Wrong type of needlepoint  As I cannot change the type of needlepoint, I decided to lower the density by 20% (it allowed me to save about 2000 stitches), and in order for the fill to look dense enough, I changed the embroidery thread from #40 to #30. Now I'll try to embroider again. 

    The holes along the perimeter and in the corners are still present. Maybe not so many. 
    The pull is not so bad: 

    After pressing the item some of the holes become less visible, but don't disappear completely: 

    But if you try, you try. Then I decided to embroider on the netting with large square mesh. I hooped it without a stabilizer as well: 

    But my attempt to embroider on the netting with a large mesh particle size (on nothing, as one may say) didn't work out. Thread kept breaking, and the embroidery became distorted:

    That's why I decided to put a piece of thick water soluble stabilizer (80 microns) on top. Using thin stabilizer for this purpose is like flogging a dead horse.

    I instantly realized that I cannot spare the stabilizer this time. This is what I got — like it had been embroidered on the ordinary fabric: 

    Almost no puckering: See the photo of this embroidery after washing and pressing below. An excellent sample. I thought it would look much worse:

    Then I decided to try to embroider on the ordinary netting (like in the first 2 tests), but with the use of the thin water soluble film. But instead of placing it on top for cost reasons, I hooped it together with the netting, as required:

    In this case, the advantages of using stabilizer are apparent — the result looks much better than the one without it: neat and tidy, without the underlay showing. I cannot say anything about perforations until I wash off the film: 

    Below is the photo of the already washed embroidery:

    The pull is visible, of course, but I'll try to iron it out. The ironing goes smooth and without effort. And the most remarkable thing is the absence of the perforations along the perimeter.

    It means that the needlepoint and high stitch density are not so much the reasons for perforations as using only one layer of thin water soluble stabilizer. Stabilizer is a great invention. Though too high a density is not good for embroidery. To put in a nutshell, my experience convinced me of the futility of not following the standard procedure, even for cost reasons. 
    Here you can read my article about embroidery

    Making water soluble film reusable

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 5,505 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    Recently I became fond of creating FSL, and it raised the question of saving the water soluble stabilizer, for it is quite expensive. A well-timed advice that I've often seen on the Web instantly sprang to my memory: you may try to mend what remains of the water soluble film with an iron.
    So, thought I, if I find the correct temperature, I will be able to join the leftover pieces of soluble film together and use them again. 
    This advice came from Deborah Jones. This means that our American colleagues are prone to saving the consumables as well. She presents this method of working with water soluble film as a possibility of changing its thickness by gluing the layers together, and as a possibility of using the leftovers by joining the pieces until the resulting piece will be big enough to be hooped again. 
    According to this internationally acclaimed machine embroidery expert, the process should look like this: 
    Take 2 sheets of kraft paper (brown packing paper).  Place pieces of film so that they overlap (if you need to join them) or several layers on top of each other (in case you need to make it thicker) onto the sheet of kraft paper.  Cover it with the other sheet of the kraft paper.  Take an ordinary iron, set the temperature very low, and switch off the steam. Press the film down for some time (it is not specified for how long, so you'll have to calculate time yourself).  Here is what you should get: the layers of the film stuck together.  You may use waxed tracing paper instead of the kraft one. I've also seen recommendations to use the ordinary printing paper. 
    So I decided to give it a try. It seems so easy. 
    So I found kraft paper, took out the pieces of the dense water soluble film and tried to repeat the steps described above: 

    What can I say? I've tried it every known way. I set the iron to a minimum. The heat softened the film, but didn't glue the layers together. No matter how hard I tried to find the right mode, the pieces didn't want to join. Then I decided to use steam. When steaming them from a distance, the layers of film begin to stick together. But they stuck to the paper as well, sure as death, so I couldn't tear it away afterward: 

    No matter what kind of paper did I use: the kraft one, the printing one or even thin tracing paper. The result was the same — the paper stuck to the film, but the pieces of film stuck together, too, if you used the steam. Without the steam it was no good. 
    Then I thought that it must be the paper that didn't allow for the steam to spread evenly, and tried ironing without it, through the cotton cloth. I set the iron for wool setting, and steaming at «1» (numbers on my scale range from 0 to 7). And — a miracle! — the layers of the film began to glue together, and the result came off the paper without effort: 

    It turned out, that it was important not to steam the film for too long, just a few seconds would be enough. It requires practice, in order to sense the right moment for removing the iron. The only disadvantage (and quite a big one) of all these manipulations with water soluble film is that it seems to have become thinner and less durable after them. You can hoop the result at all accounts: 

    We'll see how the embroidery will look like on such an uneven surface (all these lumps and dents). 
    Anyway, the pieces of film may be of good service in future. 

    Cording, part 1

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 3 comments, 9,087 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    A few day ago I decided to practice cord embroidery, hence I have the required equipment. Without further ado, I chose the simplest possible design from the old Briggs’ Patent collection, which was originally intended for embroidery with cord or ribbon. Here it is: 

    I digitized the design with a simple running stitch using the same methods as described in my previous article on cord embroidery. Below is the preview of my design: 

    So I started the embroidery. Before pressing the start button I inserted the newly bought silk cord 3 mm wide and set the piping foot in a required way. The cord was of an appropriate size and could fit into the biggest groove under the piping foot on my machine. 

    But something went wrong. I stopped the whole process, soon after having started.

    The cord turned out to be too tightly woven, and the thread kept breaking. As I didn't have any monofilament yarn, I tried to sew it with ordinary polyester thread. 
    And I didn't like the result in the least. I chose one of my knitting threads — soft cotton one, made of several twisted fibers, and wound it instead of the cord on the same plastic spool. 

    This time, the embroidery went without any problems. There were no complaints about the quality of the sewing, except at one place. I even inserted bar tack stitches at the beginning and the end of the cord, and understood that the next time I'll better not do it. The quality was utterly disappointing. 

    Whether it was due to my knitting threads being unsuitable for the purpose or the design imperfections, I cannot say. And I want so much to know, where to use this fabled cord! 
    I instantly remembered, even without doing the web search, the embroidery samples of the old past, which can now be found in the museums around the globe. In those days cord was used in applique: it concealed the edge cut. Though it was, of course, done by hand, you can try doing something akin to this on your machine. 
    I've been searching for a suitable design for a considerate time. I perused lots of clipart and settled upon this picture: 

    Inside this intricately shaped thing, I decided to put an applique, the edges of which I would then decorate with a cord. The rest I intended to embroider with satin stitches, partly in the Thread Velvet technique. I had to modify the original design, adding several elements. The resulting design contained almost 32 thousand stitches thanks to the Thread Velvet: 

    Now that the design is ready, all I need to do is to embroider it. I hoop the fabric with the stabilizer: 

    And embroider the outline for the future applique: 

    Then I put the applique material on top: 

    Stitch it to the main fabric with the running stitch, outlining the design at the same time. Then, after the machine makes a stop, however more carefully trim the extra fabric around the edges: 

    Get the piping foot ready, placing it under the needle: 


    Hit the start button and begin sewing cord to the fabric. It'll look like this: 

    This is the cord already sewn along the perimeter of the applique: 

    On one of the photos above you may see that there are missing stitches inside. For that reason, I stopped the embroidery even before sewing the cord, added the missing elements and embroidered all the rest: 

    Some time after that everything is ready: 

    Now little is left — to cut the threads in the satin columns, in order to fray them a bit so that they look like having been done in the Thread Velvet technique. I did this with an ordinary razor blade: 

    The general look of the ready embroidery: 

    The closer look: 


    This experiment suggested to me that the cord looks splendid in combination with any embroidery technique. The design was not difficult to create. The second time I succeeded. The most important thing is to choose the right type of thick twisted thread or cord and correctly adjust the piping foot. 
    Although there were some mistakes. One of them is as follows. In my first version of the design, the applique was to be embroidered last. And only after that, I proceeded to cording. All other elements were embroidered at the very beginning, including the bulky Thread Velvet satin columns. This is how it looked before sewing the cord: 

    When I was cording the edges of my applique, the piping foot shifted a bit every time satin column appeared to in the way. And of course, the groove, into which the cord was inserted, shifted too, so the needle began to hit not the hole in the foot, but the foot instead, and therefore broke. On the photo below I've already changed the needle. 

    I didn't even finish embroidering the first sample. 

    See how thick were my Thread Velvet columns? 
    The summary: you can achieve anything by trial and error. 
    P.S. Cording, part 2

    Testing solid 3D Puff

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 2,492 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    Once more I was convinced how important is to choose your machine embroidery consumables properly. What's even more important is understanding what to use, how, where and when. Not so long ago I published an article on embroidery on EVA Foam. I embroidered on a soft foam material and was a bit disappointed, for I did not get the desired 3D effect. Though there are numerous photos on the Web with the embroidery that looks quite puffy. 
    I had a sneaking suspicion that the foam I used was not solid enough. Therefore, I, on my own account, bought a sheet of solid 3D Puff of the same thickness — about 3 mm. 
    I must say that I was satisfied with the result. Though I digitized in exactly the same way as the last time. So, this is all about solidity, upon which the creasing property of the material depends. What a pity that none of our consumable materials suppliers tells or writes about it. I'm falling under the impression that this is their way of increasing their sales: if one material turns out to be unsuitable, the buyer will return to purchase something else. Or maybe they are wrong, and their sales will drop, because a customer, having received an unsatisfactory result, won't buy anything from them the next time. Because 3D Foam is not the cheapest thing on the market. 
    This is what my logo looked before I used a lighter on it: 

    And this is the logo at its finest: 

    Only now I've decided to read the information on 3D Foam. You don't have to go far: go to the manufacturers' websites and read all that is written there, going deeply into details. Nobody can give you a better advice anyway. 
    Gunold, for example, states that soft 3D Puff is used for embroidery on garments, and solid one — for caps and logos. With this you can decide for yourself what and where to use. 


    Testing the trapunto technique

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 5,019 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    Trapunto embroidery technique, which produces an embossed effect, caught my attention long ago. Of course, I don't mean the traditional trapunto, but its machine embroidery counterpart. There are numerous materials on the subject; I've studied them, as I usually do, and came to the conclusion that doing something like that was within my powers. Therefore, several days ago I decided to bring a small project to life. 
    The most encouraging thing for me were the numerous affirmations that for imitating the trapunto technique any simple redwork design will do. 
    So I chose an image, which seemed interesting for my purpose. I created a design (7421 stitches), expecting for the batting to produce a raised surface in places with no filling. 

    Then I proceeded with my project according to the instruction I've found on the internet. 
    I chose ordinary calico for the right side, a piece of polyester batting 0,5 cm thick (not the one used for quilting, I don't have any, as don't yet have the compelling reason to buy it) and a tearaway stabilizer. 
    I hooped the following 'sandwich': a stabilizer, 2 layers of polyester batting, and calico: 

    I started the embroidery and the first thing I stitched was the outline, according to which I will then cut the batting on the wrong side. I chose the threads that contrasted the background, in order to see everything well. 

    Then I took the hoop off the machine and, having overturned it, began to cut the batting as close to the stitching as possible: 

    Having trimmed all the extra pieces I sprayed another layer of batting with a temporary spray adhesive and secured it on the wrong side of the hoop. 

    Then I inserted this hoop together with the batting into the machine and put a piece of stabilizer under it. 

    Then I embroidered the rest of the design: 

    The result turned out to be disappointing: 
    The upper thread was all in loops and the tension was difficult to adjust with such a thick basis (fabric+polyester batting+stabilizer).  The design had shifted because of the insufficient stabilization.  There was no puffiness.  I had a sneaking suspicion that the chosen batting was a bit unsuitable for a design of this kind, which involved using the ordinary fabric, too. To be more precise it was entirely unsuitable. Plus, the design should be digitized in the other way. 
    After that, I decided to read some more on the subject. Therefore, my second attempt to seize the trapunto fortress began with: 
    Making the design simpler  Checking if the type of the fabric was suitable for my purpose in case I didn't have a proper quilting batting.  This time, I decided to make a simple design with a number of motif fills around the assumed puffy areas (the stitch count here is higher than in the previous design, i.e. 13365). 

    First, I decided to test this design on the same fabric, i.e. calico. 
    I hooped my 'sandwich': stabilizer, 1 layer of batting polyester (the same as the last time), and calico. 

    Embroidered the design: 

    Trimmed the stabilizer on the wrong side. 

    The petals became a bit raised, but not sufficiently so: 

    At that point, I decided to check if my suspicions about my batting being unsuitable for this type of fabric were true and to embroider the same design on knitwear with other components — namely, the stabilizer, 1 layer of polyester batting (the same as the last time), knitwear — remaining the same. 

    During the embroidery I begin to see the long-desired puffiness — the surface of the petals became raised: 

    This is how the ready embroidery looks when still in the hoop: 

    And this is the look from the side — the puffiness in petals has been achieved: 

    Hence the conclusion: all ordinary fabrics require special batting, as for the knitwear and other stretchy textiles any one would do. 
    You should choose the design with care. Judging by the machine embroidery design collections in the Western shops, they prefer simple designs for this particular technique. I think, there is a grain of truth in it. 
    But it is not always possible, and you have to experiment. But it is even intriguing. 

    Splitting machine embroidery design file for rehooping

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 6,408 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    I've already mentioned that sooner or later you come across ready embroidery design files that need correction. For example, splitting it into pieces (which will be hooped separately) if the design is too large for the hoop. Today I want to tell how one can do it. I will split the design in the machine embroidery editor called Stitch Era Universal — read my blog to learn of its capabilities. 
    I have a file in *.dst format, where everything marked red is to be embroidered without trims, and everything marked green — with 2 trims only: 

    Let's pretend I don't have a hoop big enough to embroider this design all in one go. Indeed, I have a hoop slightly smaller than this particular design. In order to understand, which part goes where, I need to draw the rectangles in the editor — they will indicate my hoop. 

    You can see two rectangles on the photo below. The green rectangle is for the main part of the design, and the blue one — for the remaining one, in which I plan to put two branches, the upper one and the one on the right: 
    Now I need to take out those branches that are crossed by the green line (encircled in red on the photo). And instead of 1 file I need to create 2: for the item will be rehooped twice: 

    You can easily do that in the stitch editor. In order to do this, I need to find the starting point of the embroidery and single it out: I picked the first stitch of the right branch (marked with black arrow): 

    Here I will insert an automatic trim. 
    To do this I select Insert / Insert Trim in the Commands bar: 

    Then I go to the other end of the same branch and mark the end point of the embroidery. Here I also insert an automatic trim. Now my branch is a separate segment of the embroidery and I can change its color as I wish: 

    After that I repeat my actions with the second branch and insert an automatic trim in the beginning: 

    Then I go the last stitch of the branch and insert an automatic trim there, too. Now I can change color of the second branch: 

    This is how it looks after my manipulations: 

    All that is now left is to put bar tacks at the ends of separated segments (I'll need to draw them by hand) and also create the alignment stitches in order to match the two parts of the design. 
    So I draw a brace on the upper branch with an ordinary running stitch (marked black): 

    And on the right branch I draw the curve (also marked black): 

    All that I have left is to make a copy of this file and remove everything that does not concern hooping from both of them. Therefore, the first and the larger file of two will look like this: 

    And the second — like this: 

    Be sure to change the embroidery sequence in the second file: the alignment stitches should be embroidered first, and the rest should follow 
    Files are now ready. You can do the stitching. How to align parts of the big design, read here and here. 
    Of course, not all the designs can be split that easily. The design I had chosen was not the most complex one. In any case, the action sequence will be just about the same. 


    Embroidery on faux leather according to the theory of Visual Thinking

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 7,428 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    Today I've suddenly got an interesting idea — that everything in machine embroidery, as well as in our whole life, can be done according to Dan Roam's technique, suggested in his book The Back of The Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. It has four simple steps: Look, See, Imagine, Show. 

    First, we observe ("Look"), then we assess the situation ("See"): who/what, how many, where, when, how and why. After that we, using our ability of abstract thinking, try to envisage something that does not yet exist ("Imagine"). That is, we make the embroidery settings according to our knowledge and experience. And only then, having imagined the whole thing, we go to the machine to make sure to ourselves and to the others that our ideas were right ("Show"). From this moment, we start all over again: look, evaluate and so on down the line. We've now come the full circle. 
    The steps of the embroidery process are exactly the same (at least in my case). For example, today I found a piece of faux leather and decided to figure out at last how the embroidery process will differ from the one for woven textiles. So I conceived an idea of embroidering a BMW logo. 
    First, I decided to see what qualities this particular piece of faux leather possessed. Despite the fact that faux leather has a soft textile underlay, it turned out to be extremely stretchy. And besides, it is a very delicate material. One the other hand, it does not crease. 
    From this moment, I begin to size up the situation and make first decisions according to what I have seen and if there are materials available for embroidery on it. I understood right away that the faux leather has to be stuck onto stabilizer or the embroidery will pucker and look bad. As I don't have any filmoplast, I instantly thought of using a temporary spray adhesive. And because this material is crease resistant, it can be hooped, which is generally good for the embroidery. What is also good is that faux leather is thin, and, therefore, I won't need to use thicker needles. Moreover, I won't change them at all — I use #70 with a SES needlepoint. 
    Now "Imagine" step — I created the first version of the design relying on my limited knowledge of embroidery on faux leather and similar materials, about which I've written some time ago. Here is the preview: 

    I set the following parameters: lowered the density of satin columns by 20-25% (depending on their stitch length), and also lowered the fill density by 30%. I also increased fill stitch and underlay stitch lengths to 4.5 mm. And put double zigzag with the density of 1.2-2 mm as a foundation for wide satin columns (the outer ring with inscription), and lattice at 90° angle under the fills. I also moved the underlay 1 mm away from the finishing satin stitch layer. Thin satin columns went without the underlay. 
    Then I got to the "Show" part — embroidered what I have visualized. 
    I hooped the piece of faux layer with 2 layers of tearaway stabilizer. Prior to this I glued them together with a temporary spray adhesive:
     
    Embroidered the design: 

    Now back to the "Look" step to see the result. We've once again come the full circle. 
    While the faux leather was in the hoop, everything looked rather good. At least, the embroidery didn't perforate the fabric along the perimeter. This is an achievement — it means that these density settings are suitable for this type of fabric, as are the needles. But when I unhooped the embroidery, I immediately realized that it was pulled and wavy: 

    Hoop burn was also present, but it was not too apparent and disappeared in about 15 minutes. 

    From what I have seen during the embroidery I came to the conclusion that the waviness was present only on the outer ring, therefore, according to the theory, the density value was too high. There is nothing wrong with the density of satins columns, but it is obviously too high for the underlay. The reason is not insufficient stabilizing, but the stitch count itself. It would be better to make the underlay less substantial. And change the look of the fill, because it turned out to be no good. Besides this, making some corrections to the letters and the logo outline would do no harm. 
    So I made all necessary changes: 

    I increased the density of underlay under white parts of the design so that they were less transparent. Then I increased the thickness of the white outline and put the edge run under it — so that it did not sag down. I changed the filling under the letters in the satin stitch ring, and also made the completely another underlay for it — of the same round shape: 

    After that I rehooped the logo and embroidered it once again: 

    Here it is, already out of the hoop: 

    Of course, this sample, too, has its disadvantages. But it is much better than the first one. 
    Two logos beside each other: 

    This is how you may connect machine embroidery to Dan Roam's technique, with looking, seeing, imagining and showing are closely linked.
    How can it therefore be split between different people? 
    And how do you act when creating machine embroidery designs? 

    Hardware or software: which one is working wrong?

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 2,895 views
    It is always very good to hold someone or something responsible for your own troubles. For example, an embroiderer may say that he or she achieved a low quality result because of incorrect digitizing, and a digitizer, in his turn, may blame the embroiderer. In my opinion, in cases like it is only reasonable to share responsibility and figure out what happened and why. At times, however, it is not so easy. 

    I will start with the problem I've already referred to — thread breakage. In addition to what has been written before, I want to say that if thread breakage occurs all the time, and in all parts of the design, the machine is most likely responsible. But if thread breaks at one particular point, this is a sure sign of a digitizing mistake. 
    If you suspect the design to be the cause, but it is not possible to edit it quickly, you may verify your suspicions in the following way: load the design into the machine once again, increase its size by 3-5% right there on the screen, and try to embroider again. If thread breakage decreases, you'll have to change the design. I got this advice from Stephen Batts. And I think that his opinion is worth considering. 
    In order to find who's responsible for the unintentional gaps between the objects and in case you don't know whether the file is correct, rotate it at 90° and embroider again under the same conditions (positioning, stabilizers, needles, threads etc.). If the gap is still present, it is a digitizing mistake. One should not forget the importance of a rightly chosen stabilizer and correct hooping, which also may be the reasons for presence or absence of this defect. 
    If the outline does not land where it should, and its look varies on different samples, the insufficient stabilization may be the probable cause. In order to check if this is true, you can use a rather well-know technique — put a piece of stabilizer right under the hoop and see if that helps. 
    For example, in these days I often see how a straight stitch border unalterably encroaches on the design from the right and above, and unalterably makes a gap on the left and the bottom sides. Stabilizer are can't help this problem. This only means that it's time for me to check the tension of the driver belts on my embroidery machine. 
    I've also seen the following machine defect: I digitized and embroidered a simple rectangular satin stitch border 5 or 6 mm wide. The resulting square inevitably looked awful: horizontal sides were of normal width, whereas the vertical ones turned out to be 1-1.5 mm wider than planned. If I'm not mistaken, Pantograf was the reason. In order to correct this visual defect I had to artificially distort satin columns in the editor, make them wider so that the border looked the way it should. 
    As a matter of fact, if you have doubts both in the hardware and software, you should always have a test design at hand of which you are sure. Thus whenever you have any doubts, you may embroider it and everything will become clear. A so-to-speak express-method for finding the cause of the trouble. 
    Original text by: Marina Belova 

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