Knockdown Stitch of Embroidery Digitizing: A Guide & Why You Should Use It
What is knockdown stitch of Embroidery Digitizing?
A knock-down stitch is the base layer of stitching and is intended to sit beneath names, monograms, or embroidered designs. Its function is to hold down the diaper fabric, making the primary embroidery design more prominent. The single stitch pattern creates a flat surface that we recommend adding a second line of stitching above it if you want your design to show up more clearly.
Types of knockdown stitches
knockdown stitches are usually done in basic shapes like circles, squares, quatrefoils, etc. For example, a circular monogram might be stitched on top of a circular downward stitched area.
It can also be in the shape of an embroidered design and is intended to be placed on top. Some software looks at the overall shape of the embroidery design and creates a knockdown stitch that is slightly larger than the design but has the same general shape.
Stitches in a knockdown stitch
The inner area of the knock-down suture is not 100% dense. It's more or less a lightweight splice matrix.
The lightness of the first layer of stitching allows you to stitch the main design over it without making the area too stiff with so many layers of stitching.
Stylize knockdown stitch area
Knock down stitched areas are usually done in thread color to match the material below. However, there is no hard and fast rule that it has to be done this way.
You can also stitch one in thread color to contrast the color of the material and/or monogram underneath. This is a very sharp looking effect.
When to use a shot down stitched area
You may have heard that water-soluble stabilizers are the perfect solution for keeping diaper fabrics underneath embroidered designs.
That's true, but the water soluble stabilizer gets washed away! The long fibers of the fabric can hide elements of an embroidered design.
You can see this effect in the example below. The same embroidery design is sewn on two different towels.
The first is just done with a water soluble top and the other is done with knock down stitches. It doesn't even look like the same design! The version on the right performs better on the diaper towel texture! Because the embroidery design has a lot of detail and fine lines, the version on the left gets lost in the towel nap
What's the lesson here? Whenever you have a design, name or monogram with significant detail or a lot of thin strokes and you want to sew it on a fabric with a lot of texture, you should definitely use knock down stitches.
Another lesson? You might just like the look of knocked-out pins. Some people use them as decorative elements, even if the design or lettering itself remains
.
How to do a knockdown stitch
There are two ways to create knockout stitches. You can buy it as a file, or create it yourself if you have the necessary digitization software.
Buying knockdown stitch files is like buying any embroidery design file. They are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, you just need to find the design, name or monogram that suits you to stitch. For example, if you are stitching a monogram with a maximum letter size of 3 inches high, a knockdown shape of 3.5 inches – 4 inches would be a suitable size for use in the background.
There are several digitizers that offer knockdown stitch files in a variety of sizes and styles.
1. Bunny Cup Embroidery offers 28 sets of different shapes and sizes. Each shape has a generous border of satin stitching to finish the area cleanly.
2. Embroider Times offers a very basic set without the satin stitch border.
3. If you prefer to purchase individual files, check out the Creative Application Films offering. You can buy any shape you can imagine.
When you purchase one of these files to use with your embroidery design, you have two different options for stitching it out. You can splice the two files out separately, or you can combine the files into a program like SewWhat-Pro and download the composite file. The benefit of bringing both designs into the software is that you can preview how they will look. This gives you the assurance that your embroidery design will not exceed the bounds of the knock-out stitching.
Creating one yourself is really not rocket science. You just need some cheap software to help you do that.
Both SewArt and SewWhat-Pro allow you to create knockout stitches, but do it in different ways. The software you choose should depend on the shape you want to achieve. If you're trying to generate a basic shape, I suggest you use SewArt. There is no specific "knockdown" setting. You just create the desired shape (rectangle, circle, etc.) and convert it to a fill with a very light fill. The type of fill you should choose is X Stitch Fill with sep-10.
In SewWhat-Pro, there is a specific tool to create knock-down stitches to fit any design. This feature is located under the Tools menu and is called "Nap Nail". The great thing about creating a nap stitch stitching area in SewWhat-Pro is that you can set it to follow the outline of the main embroidery design. The ability to create knockdowns is also a feature in Joy Lovers. You can find the feature under the "Utilities" tab for audiophiles.
SewArt, SewWhat-Pro and Embryo Enthusiast are just three of many different embroidery editing or digitizing programs, but most of them have this feature. I'm only mentioning these three because of their low cost and ease of use.
