Bizzare colours in your embroidery design?

Have you ever downloaded an embroidery design that has very bizarre colours? Chances are the design is in a DST format. DST is a commercial embroidery file format and as such it records colour stops rather than colour changes.  If you have downloaded one of these designs and you think that something must have gone wrong don’t worry, it is perfectly normal. You may use your software to change the colours to the correct ones using the colour list that should be provided with the design or you can simply stitch it using the correct colours.

How you will change the colours in your software will depend entirely on the software that you are using so I won’t try to cover all of that here. I use Generations software for everything except converting my designs to different formats, I use Buzz explore for file conversion. Now that brings me to another point. When a file is converted it will change to the nearest colour in the catalogue for that format. Sometimes this is not near at all and often it will eliminate a colour altogether as it may see two different shades of red as both being red and make them the same colour.

I personally would not bother changing colours in the software; I would simply use the colours of my choice in the machine as I was stitching the design. The other thing to keep in mind is that there are no rules about what colour you use. I like bright fun colours but you may look at one of my embroidery designs and decide you would prefer to stitch it in pastels. This is perfectly ok and I would in fact encourage it. Embroiderers are creative people by nature otherwise we would be doing something else rather than embroidery.

If you were to ask me to tell you the exact colours that I stitched a design in it would likely be no use to you at all as I have so many different brands of thread and colours that the chances of you having the exact same shade in the exact same brand is very unlikely.
So have fun be creative and happy stitching.

Tags: : embroidery, embroidery designs, embroidery information, machine embroidery

Common terms used in machine embroidery

Common terms used in machine embroidery,

Digitizing; Digitizing embroidery is the term used for turning an image into an embroidery design, this requires special software and the process can be anything from fairly simple to quite complex. Some skills and practice are necessary to become proficient in digitizing. This process was once known as punching as the person creating the design would have to punch holes in paper to give the correct instructions to the machine. Thank goodness for technology.

Hooping; Hooping or hooping up is the process of placing the item to be embroidered into the hoop for the embroidery machine. This can take some practice but it will become second nature to the persistent embroiderer.

Stabilizer; stabilizer or backing is placed in the hoop with the item to be hooped in order to keep the fabric stable as the machine moves it around. There are many different kinds of stabilizers and different fabrics will require a different type.

Embroidery designs; Machine embroidery designs are the digitized image that can be sent to the embroidery machine in order to be stitched out, they are also referred to as embroidery patterns.

Embroidery design formats; there are many different design formats for embroidery, the type of format that is required will depend on the embroidery machine being used. The most commonly used format is PES. Most embroidery design download sites will have the designs in a variety of formats.

Embroidery machine; and embroidery machine will sometimes be referred to as an embroidery sewing machine, however there are many embroidery machines that are purely for the purpose of embroidery and cannot be used for sewing.

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Embroidery project Butterfly fairy wands.

These are really cute for the school fete or fair or for a little girls birthday party

here is how you make them

Butterfly fairy wands
You will need
•    ½ meter of sequined tulle
•    Wash away stabilizer
•    50 cm lengths of dowel
•    hot glue gun
•    beading wire
•    beads
•    sequins
•    gold acrylic paint
Hoop up the tulle with one layer of wash-away stabilizer, embroider the butterfly outline onto it. You will find the butterfly embroidery design here. Cut around the edges of the design to get the butterfly shape. Dip the design in warm water to remove the stabilizer. Allow it to dry and iron with spray starch. If it is not stiff enough give it a spray with strong hold hair lacquer.
Paint the dowel gold drill a very small hole about 1cm from the end of the dowel. Feed a length of beading wire about 20 cm long through the hole with equal amounts on each side, wind each end of the wire around the dowel a little going in opposite directions tie it together to secure. Firmly fasten a bead on the tow ends of the wire to make the butterflies antennae, ensure that you have fastened it securely and that you cut the lose end very close to the hole in the bead so that the sharp end of the wire is inside the bead.
Using the hot glue gun glue the tulle butterfly to the top of the dowel and glue the sequins on the front.

Butterfly Outline

6.00×7.01 inches; 4,814 stitches
1 thread changes; 1 colors
Color Changes
1. whatever color you chose

Tags: embroidery design, embroidery design downloads, embroidery project, machine embroidery

Embroidering with metalic thread

Metallic thread can be very frustrating to work with, if you are constantly having thread breaks it is very frustrating and can result in your project taking a lot longer to complete that you had planned. Here are a few ideas on how you can reduce the thread breaks when embroidering with metallic thread.

Make sure you are using good quality, well maintained metallic thread. If you are using cheap, old or dried out thread it will break more often, check that the thread is smooth by running through your fingers.

Always slow the machine down when you are using metallic thread. It will actually save you time because you won’t have to continuously deal with thread breaks.

Select a design that is suitable for stitching in metallic thread. If the design was digitized for metallic thread the designer may have recommended a particular brand of thread.

Make sure you are using the correct size needle for the thread and that the needle is in good condition, if your metallic thread is a bit thicker than standard thread you may need to use a larger needle.

Because metallic thread kinks and loops more than regular thread this creates added tension as it passes through the thread guide, this can cause shredding and breaking. The use of a thread stand designed to smooth the thread can be helpful.

Heavy stiff tightly woven fabric and stabilizers are not recommended when using metallic thread as they can strip the metallic coating from the thread.

Check your machine tension; Make sure your thread tension is not to tight.

Make sure you have no rough edges or burs on needles and the needle plate.

Don’t use sticky backing or adhesives, the adhesive can build up on the needle and create drag which hinders smooth sewing

Tags: : embroidery, embroidering with metalic thread, machine embroidery

Why your machine embroidery thread keeps breaking

What Causes Embroidery Machine thread to break?
Here are a few reasons why you embroidery thread may be breaking, The first and most obvious one is your machine is not properly threaded try re-threading your machine ensuring the thread has gone through all of the guides and the tension properly. If this is not the problem then you might consider these other possibilities.
There may be burrs in the needle’s eye, on the thread guides, needle plate or the hook; Change the needle and try buffing the thread guides and needle plate. Buffing may alter  the timing, so it’s a good idea to change a defective hook.
Dry Hook; Since it gets dry faster, the hook must have regular lubrication. The hook assembly needs to be oiled every 4-8 hours of machine running time.
Needle too small; You should to change to a larger needle
An excessive amount of Adhesive spray; You need to be using exclusively Embroidery designed adhesive sprays, do not over use them. An excessive amount of adhesive build-up on the needle can make them drag and break threads. If this is occurring you need to take a look at the way you use your adhesive spray
Improper timing; If your machine isn’t timed appropriately, it can cause many problems along with thread breaks. For example, broken needles, poor stitching or at times no stitching.
Old Thread; Thread can be brittle with age and long contact with light, air as well as heat. You need to keep your thread in a cool, dark place to extend shelf life.
Bruised spool; A bruised cone of thread can occur when the thread falls on the floor, causing the lower winding of thread to undo and catch as the thread spools off. You can remove the affected part of the thread or exchange the cone.
Machine speed; A few of the designs increase the stress on thread. You ought to lower the machine speed as required
Lint build up; A lint build up around the tension discs, needle plate or bobbin cases could cause breakage. These areas ought to be cleaned regularly with air or maybe a brush.
Bent needle; This may happen after the needle hits a really hard object possibly Hoop, needle plate or the hook. If this occurs you have to replace the needle and look for burrs as well as the timing.
Improper tensions; If your tension is too tight, it can cause pulling, puckering and thread stress. If the thread is too loose it can cause the thread to stack up and loop. You have to alter the tensions to achieve a flat smooth look.
Using Tape for loose ends; Using tape can leave a residue and this can cause friction and thread breakage.

Tags: : embroidery, embroidery designs, embroidery hints and tips, embroidery information

Embroidery design downloads

When purchasing machine embroidery designs there are a few things that you should keep in mind. The first thing you must ensure is that the design you are purchasing will fit into you embroidery hoop. When you are downloading from a website the design information should be displayed with the design. It is good idea if you know your hoop sizes in both metric and imperial. for example a 4′x4″ hoop is the approximate equivalent to a 100mm x 100mm. With embroidery design downloads being available from a very large number of websites it makes it so much easier to simply grab that one design that you are looking for without having to pay $100 or more for a CD that contains a multitude of designs you may never use. However buyer beware, there is nothing more disappointing than searching the internet for hours 2 or 3 days before an event for that special design for a gift, finally finding what you are looking for, stitching it out and it is poorly digitized the design is useless and you don’t have your gift. Here are some tips to help you avoid this very frustrating experience. Firstly I can’t stress this enough and embroidery is not an embroidery until it is stitched out, so if you are not looking at a photograph of the stitched design be very wary. I am not saying that these designs will never be any good I am just saying you can’t be sure. A design can look OK in the digitizing software but may not stitch well due to stitching order and other factors. If you look at the image of the design you should be able to see the sheen of the thread and you will see that it is stitched on fabric. If it is an image taken from the digitizing software you will be able to tell if you look carefully. The next tip is this, if you have come across a website with a selection of designs that you like check for the free designs, most embroidery design websites will offer  a selection of free embroidery designs, download one or two of the freebies and stitch them out. Mostly you won’t get the digitizers best work in the free sections but you will get a good idea of the quality of the designs in general. It is a good idea to keep a record of where you got your embroidery design downloads from and bookmark the website. this way you will be able to find it again if you like the designs.

Tags: : embroidery, embroidery design downloads, embroidery designs, machine embroidery

Hooping up for machine embroidery

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The use of underlay in machine embroidery

While there are numerous suggestions for good machine embroidery designs , there are rarely any hard and fast rules. There’s no formula for digitizing all designs; you’ll find simply lots of variables involved. Rather, guidelines are balanced against the task taking place and the conditions under which a specific design will be sewn. These ought to be considered as you determine underlay needs:

Underlay must serve a purpose

Underlay should be consistent

Underlay should be orderly

Underlay ought to be appropriate

The 2 primary purposes of underlay are to stabilize the fabric by affixing it on the stabilizer and also to assist the top stitching. Imagine underlay as a means to at first baste the fabric on the stabilizer. The best way to do that has been what is recognized as an edge walk, and that is merely an outline on the design set within the edges of the cover stitching. On very small things, it may well merely be a line of running stitches up the middle, called a centre walk. On larger fields, this edge walk is followed by a light fill or zigzag as required with the fabric. In extreme cases, this light fill might be replaced with a mesh or grid of stitches. In this respect, underlay lowers fabric shifting through the sewing process, therefore also minimizing puckering. Proper choice and utilization of underlay lowers the push and pull distortion ensuing from machine thread tensions. By attaching the fabric to an appropriate stabilizer, the fabric even very unstable one acquires the stability qualities of the backing used.

Be aware that there are additional causes of fabric puckering that won’t be cured with underlay. These include; poor hooping strategies, poor or inferior stabilizing choices, and tight machine tensions, in particular when coupled with polyester thread. Underlay supports the top stitching by keeping a crisp, well defined edge between abutting elements of stitches. Underlay also helps prevent stitches from sinking into the fabric. Highly textured fabrics like terry cloth towels may benefit from the light net of underlay to keep down the nap and supply a smooth even surface for later stitches. Digitizers also use underlay creatively to include more loft to some sections of an embroidery designs to add interest, depth, and realism.

CONSISTENT AND ORDERLY
Underlay ought to be applied in a neat and organised manner, which occurs automatically when applied as an attribute option; it should not appear to be arbitrary scribbling. Consistency is not to mean that the same type or level of underlay ought to be applied to every object in your design.

APPROPRIATE
This one is tricky which is learned mostly from experience and tests. Selecting the right combination of underlay is comparable to: Fabric type, color, and stability; Design size, stitch count, density; Desired effect. Smooth, hard, stable fabrics like nylon, supplex, cordura, and several polyester mixes may demand only an edge walk. Leather, vinyl, paper, and metal really need no underlay in most cases to prevent unintentional cutwork. Textured fabrics and unstable goods will demand more underlay. Now you can realise why there is not “cookie cutter” procedure for underlay

When the design size increases, stitch count increases plus the risk of fabric distortion raises. Simply employing a larger hoop diminishes the soundness on the fabric. A design with big elements of fills, particularly if these fills run in lots of directions, radically boosts the chances for fabric push and pull. Underlay may also help handle design distortion, but remember additional circumstances that have an effect on distortion: Appropriate embroidery setup – stabilizer selection, fabric, thread, and needle alternatives; hooping technique; machine tensions; Proper utilization of density; Appropriate utilization of compensation. Innovative using underlay can significantly change a design. If a satin or fill area is sewn over an area of stitches with both areas having the same stitch direction, the top stitches will fall into the previous layer. This can be a good thing if you’d like mixing or possibly a bad thing if you would like sharply delineated objects. Including underlay prevents blending. Smartly placed and extra underlay adds loft to satin stitches. A good digitizer leverages underlay to his or her benefit

areas of concerns digitizers take into account when making use of underlay.

Color-Underlay, like under garments, shouldn’t be noticeable, so you should make use of the same color as the covering stitches. When using the auto underlay settings, you won’t need to think about this. If the initial global underlay is applied, think about setting it as being a different color so that it could be sewn in color that fits the fabric

Stitch Length — Work with a moderate stitch length to counteract the loop: ing of longer stitches and to keep your stitch count more sensible than would result with short stitches. Use smaller stitches only when needed to prevent exposure issues.

Density-Use only adequate density to meet the requirements of the job.

Placement-Underlay should not reveal or bleed through to the covering embroidery design . Make certain underlay never runs within the same direction as the top stitches. Pay close attention to placement and consistency in small objects, especially tiny letters.

Amount-Use underlay judiciously when and where needed; don’t use it in excess, which can unnecessarily run up stitch counts. Not enough underlay, on the other hand, may result in poor registration, fabric puckering, “fuzzy” or jagged edges on objects, and fabric show-through. At minimum, use enough underlay to securely and smoothly tack backing to fabric when dealing with wovens and knits.

Tags: : embroidery, embroidery designs, embroidery information, embroidery stitches, machine embroidery

Top tips for machine embroidery

H1: Top 10 Embroidery Design Tips for Beginners and Hobbyists Alike

At Embroidery Allsorts, we’re always learning from our mistakes, and want to share what we’ve learned so you can avoid making the same ones. Here are our top  tips and tricks every embroiderer should know. And if you have your own leave a comment on this post.

#1: Patience is an Embroiderer’s Best Friend.

Things WILL go wrong. If you’re patient by nature, embroidery is a great hobby for you. If you’re not, embroidery is going to greatly help improve that area of your life. All you can do is learn from your mistakes, be more careful in the future and try again!

#2: Make Sure Your Fabric Matches Your Design.

A dense, high stitch count design on a lightweight fabric will completely ruin the fabric’s flow. Choose delicate designs when working with lightweight fabric. And when stitching a design on a towel or high-pile fabric, choose a dense design that won’t disappear into the pile. Last but not least, for stretch fabrics, don’t try anything too large. Remember, the fabric will stretch, but the embroidery won’t.

#3. Understand When to Use What Types of Stabilizers.

There are many different embroidery-backing choices today that will stabilize your fabric while sewing designs – both permanent ones and temporaries you remove once the design is done. While the best way to discover what stabilizers might be right for you is to try them yourself, here are some fabric/stabilizer pointers to get you started in the right direction.

I recommend using “Cutaway” on unstable fabrics (e.g. stretchy or knitted); using “Tearaway” on stable fabrics (e.g. woven); and using “Washaway” on freestanding lace or garments, or some really cool 3D stuff with organza – this is, if you want to get rid of the stabilizer altogether once the embroidery has been completed. Again, like everything else, try some out and discover the possibilities for yourself.

#4: All Bobbin Fills Are Not Created Equal.

Every embroidery machine works best with different bobbin fills. Ask your machine supplier for their recommendations, and don’t be afraid to experiment until you find the one that works best for you. Also, bobbin tension can loosen over time, so make sure you know how to adjust this. There is usually a little screw that you can turn on your bobbin case. Your machine manual should have instructions on this. And if not, your supplier should be able to show you.

#5: Thread Breaking is a Warning Sign.

If your thread breaks, there’s usually a reason. Either your tension is too tight, or it’s not properly threaded. Your machine manual may give you some troubleshooting ideas, but here are some of mine. Don’t just rethread the needle and hope for the best. Check that you’re threaded properly the entire way, and also check the tension. If your thread is dry, you can use a very small coating of silicone spray on the spool of thread. But, remember, a very small spray will do. I don’t recommend you do what I once did and spray it all over your machine, up the wall and on your curtains! Also, remember to change your needles. If you have been using them for a while, they can get blunt and bent. If in doubt, change them!

#6. How to Color Sort

My advice is quite simple. Don’t! At least, if you can avoid it. Every machine embroiderer knows the pain it takes to keep changing the thread in your machine. That’s why, at Embroidery Allsorts, we keep that in mind with our designs. Our goal is to have the least number of color changes necessary to create a great result. If you color sort a design, you may experience some very strange results. For instance, your outline may disappear, or you may experience unsightly pathing stitches across your design. So unless you have great digitizing software, and really know what you’re doing, leave the design the way it is.

#7. Take a Test Drive on Your Design.

The greatest advice we can give you when you get a new design is to test-stitch it. Unless you are very confident in the digitizer and have used their designs before, test stitching is the best way for you to be confident that the design is exactly what you want and will work on the fabric you plan to use.

#8. Your Work is Only as Good as Your Machine.

A poorly maintained machine WILL produce poor results. That’s why it is very important that you know how to maintain your machine. Make sure you oil it regularly according to manufacturer instructions, and clean the bobbin race often. And right after you oil your bobbin race, wait for a bit before you start stitching, or you may end up with an oily design. If you, like me, have been silly enough to do this, here is how to fix it. Take two sheets of absorbent paper towel and fold them up a few times. Put one underneath and the other on top of your stitch out, and put something heavy on top. Leave it there for about a 1/2-hour, and the towel should soak up the oil.

#9 put your garment into the  machine with care

Well of course you are going to put it in the right way up and make sure that you have no other part in the path of the needle! Why am I telling you this? because we all get into a bit of rush from time to time and mistakes happen, so be careful when you are putting you hoop in your machine that the design is orientated the correct way for the item you are embroidering on and that all of the other parts are clear of the needle.

#10 Now it is your turn, let us know what your helpful hints are.

Thanks for reading, and happy stitching!

Tags: : embroidery, embroidery designs, embroidery hints, machine embroidery

The Humble Stitch

Even if you don’t digitize your own embroidery designs it is helpful to understand the way an embroidery design is put together and how this interacts with your fabric.  Today I am going to  talk about the humble stitch.

Think of your embroidery machine as a bit like a navman.  in order to make a trip you must have a starting point and a destination. To form a stitch you must also have two coordinates, so you have the starting point and the destination, this is one stitch. The stitch also has distances, or rather a stitch length. The next stitch starts at the previous destination point and continues to the next one.what  This means is; that if you think of your stitches going in between the warp and the weft of the fabric, the stitch should not be overly short or it may result in excessive stitching into a small area. This can result in threads or needles breaking or what can be referred to as “bullet proof” embroidery.

There are of course times when it is necessary to use short stitches but generally speaking they should be no shorter than 1mm or.04 of an inch. Short stitches are necessary for small detail and to give the impression of a curved line. Overly long stitches can also be problematic in that they can cause looping and they can snag. A longer stitch will give more shine to the design. A good digitizer will use a verity of stitch lengths in a design. This will give the design more texture and make it more interesting.  embroidery design balloon bear

Stitch density is another important consideration; the density refers to the coverage space between two rows of stitches. The denser a design is the better the coverage; however it always ideal to have maximum density and this is something to consider when you are selecting an embroidery design for a particular fabric. The more dense the embroidery design the less supple it will be (again “bullet proof” embroidery). The other thing to consider is that a more the design will result in a higher the stitch count, which means it, will take longer to stitch out and use more thread.

Tags: : embroidery, embroidery designs, embroidery informations, machine embroidery