A Fun Guide from Eagle Digitizing to Creating Quality Embroidery Designs

There are some fundamental issues that can have a huge impact on design quality. We need to go back to basics and create high quality embroidery designs. The following content also has some reference value for Eagle digitizing.

Machine speed

Machine speed has a huge impact on design quality. I cringe when I see a machine go over 850 stitches per minute. I average 750 stitches per minute, but if I'm working on a hat it drops to 600 or 650 spi at most.

Today's machines are sold because they run faster and you can make more in a day. Yes, this is true, but it can also cause many problems that slow down production. The faster your machine sews, the more tension your thread will have. This can cause distorted satin stitches in small fonts and border-filled areas. The faster the machine speed, the tighter the thread will be drawn and the narrower the stitches will be. If the machine is running too fast, it can skip stitches or force the needle into bad places and create uneven stitches, such as on heavy leather or fabrics with wide ribs, such as twill. This really shows up on the twill cap.

Machine speed can also cause the thread to come out of the needle at the beginning of sewing and leave a long thread or loop at the beginning of the first part of sewing.

Bad tension

Your machine will require rayon or polyester thread. You shouldn't be switching back and forth if you can. This is something we have to do sometimes and I'm very upset when we have to but our customers insist on a certain shade and if it matches the rayon and not the polyester then that's what we use . I don't want to use any rayon thread on clothes that are going to be washed in heavy duty laundry detergent because it will fade. We haven't had any issues with our threads bleeding.

If you stick with polyester, you'll eliminate a lot of problems. In today's world, this is the thread you should be using. We've been switching gradually, we're using more and more polyester. It's stronger and of course, won't fade after bleaching. Your polyester thread must be run at a tighter tension than rayon thread. It's hard to keep the thread tension correct when you're switching back and forth. It needs to be adjusted for different types of threads.

Worn or wrong needle

A worn or wrong needle can create holes in the fabric. On knitwear, it can create runs. You really need to be careful with this. Sometimes you can use a sharpened needle on knits such as pique if you are using 70/10 needles and they are new. If you work with knitwear, especially performance knitwear, it is highly recommended that you change your needles to ballpoint needles. If you don't switch to a ballpoint pen on these types of fabrics, you can pretty much count on the holes in the fabric. This can have a huge impact on your design.

They recommend that you change the needle every 2,000,000 stitches, or after every 8 hours of continuous stitching on the same bar. It's hard to keep track of, we don't really do that, but I always have operators who are very detail oriented and know exactly when a needle needs to be replaced. You can hear the difference in sound as the needle goes down into the fabric. This comes from a lot of experience and a lot of trial and error.

Wrong backing

Using the correct backing or stabilizer is very important to stabilize the design of the garment. If you use the wrong backing or a cheap one, your design could tear right through the backing and not sew very well. It gets very twisted, especially after being washed.

This is something you have to be very careful about. For all your woven items, you will need a tear-away backing. Never use cutouts on woven fabrics, even if they are not shown. Many times the backing will shrink which can cause the design to pull up and wrinkle. I've had several complaints about support shrinkage not appearing. I've had several students tell me they've stopped using it because it was shrinking and their designs were distorted after washing. I have some items here that have been laundered and as you can clearly see, this one hasn't shrunk a bit! You need to always use a good quality backing.

Cheap supplies

Also don't use cheap spools. It's huge! Not only will they slow down your production, but they run very erratically, making it nearly impossible to maintain an even tension flow. I highly recommend the Filtec spools. Can run right up to the end, the tension hasn't changed, and we rarely have bad ones. Yes, they are more expensive, but the difference in appearance and production outweighs the difference in cost.

No topping on knitwear

This is a difficult concept to communicate to many people. The difference in your design is night and day when you use it. Every piece of knit that comes out of my shop is finished with a top. It keeps the thread on top of the fabric instead of letting it sink into the garment, and it's super easy to remove. Yes, that's another step, but at the same time we steam it off, we also remove the hoop markers from our project. I never want to see a dress leave here with a hoop print. That's no excuse at all.

Clothing not properly hooped

When you hoop your clothes, you want to make sure they are tight enough. If it is, the fabric inside the hoop won't move and you can hear the drumming when you hit it.

Hoop size

The size hoop you use is critical. Many embroiderers will use the same 15cm hoop for all designs. If the design was created for that 15cm hoop, that's fine, but you won't get the same effect if the design is smaller than that.

Most of the time, all we have to do is return to the basics to produce high-quality embroidery designs. Sometimes we forget the fundamentals and how important they are.