Thursday, July 29th, 2010

The use of underlay in machine embroidery

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While there are numerous suggestions for good machine embroidery designs , there are seldom any hard and fast rules. There’s no formula method for digitizing all designs; you will find simply way too many parameters involved. Rather, guidelines are balanced against the task taking place and the factors under which a specific design will be sewn. These should be regarded as you determine underlay requirements:

Underlay must serve a purpose

Underlay should be consistent

Underlay should be orderly

Underlay should be appropriate

The 2 main primary purposes of underlay are to stabilize the fabric by affixing it to the stabilizer and also to help the top stitching. Imagine underlay as a way to initially baste the fabric on the stabilizer. The best way for doing that is with what is called an edge walk, that is merely an outline of the design set inside edges on the cover stitching. On tiny things, it could merely be a line of running stitches up the centre, generally known as a centre walk. On bigger sections, this edge walk is followed by a light fill or zigzag as required with the fabric. In excessive cases, this light fill is going to be exchanged with a mesh or grid of stitches. In this respect, underlay decreases fabric moving through the sewing process, therefore also minimizing puckering. Correct choices and utilization of underlay reduces the push and pull distortion resulting from machine thread tensions. By affixing the fabric to an appropriate stabilizer, the fabric even very unstable one acquires the stability qualities of the backing used.

Don’t forget this there are many reasons for fabric puckering that won’t be put right with underlay. Included in this are; poor hooping strategies, poor or inferior stabilizing choices, and tight machine tensions, in particular when combined with the polyester thread. Underlay supports the top stitching by keeping a crisp, well defined edge between abutting areas of stitches. Underlay also avoids stitches from sinking in to the fabric. Highly textured fabrics like terry cloth towels can benefit from a light net of underlay to keep down the nap and supply a smooth even surface for later stitches. Digitizers also employ underlay creatively to add additional loft to some sections of an embroidery designs to add interest, depth, and realism.

CONSISTENT AND ORDERLY

Underlay ought to be used in a neat and tidy manner, which occurs automatically when used as an attribute option; it should not look like arbitrary scribbling. Consistency does not mean that the same type or level of underlay must be applied to every object as part of your design.

APPROPRIATE

This one is difficult and is learned mostly from experience and assessment. Selecting the best mix off 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 many polyester blends may need simply an edge walk. Leather, vinyl, paper, and metal really need no underlay generally in order to avoid unintentional cutwork. Uneven fabrics and unstable goods requires more underlay. You will understand why there is certainly not “cookie cutter” method of underlay

As the design size increases, stitch count rises plus the potential for fabric distortion raises. Simply utilizing a larger hoop reduces the stability on the fabric. A design with large elements of fills, particularly if these fills run in several directions, radically boosts the odds for fabric push and pull. Underlay might help control design distortion, but keep in mind additional factors that influence distortion: Appropriate embroidery setup – stabilizer selection, fabric, thread, and needle selections; hooping technique; machine tensions; Proper utilization of density; Proper use of compensation. Creative use of 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 is often a good thing if you want blending or perhaps a bad thing if you need sharply delineated items. Including underlay prevents blending. Smartly placed and extra underlay adds loft to satin stitches. A good quality digitizer leverages underlay to his or her gain

here are some of issues digitizers look at when using underlay.

Color-Underlay, like under garments, shouldn’t be seen, so you have to use the same color as the covering stitches. When utilizing the auto underlay configurations, you won’t even have to think about this. If the initial global underlay is used, take into account setting it as a different color so that it may be sewn in color that fits the fabric. Stitch Length Use a moderate stitch length to stop the looping of longer stitches also to maintain stitch count more reasonable than would result with short stitches. Use smaller stitches only as needed to prevent exposure issues.

Density-Use only adequate density to meet the needs of the job.Placement-Underlay must not reveal or bleed through to the covering embroidery design . Be sure underlay never runs in the exact same direction as the top stitches. Pay close attention to placement and uniformity 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. Too little underlay, on the other hand, may result in bad 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 using wovens and knits.

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