How to Avoid Disappearing or Sinking into the fabric in Your Digitizing Embroidery

Knockdown Stitching is one of our most popular, easy to use and effective stitch settings. Some high pile fabrics—like polar fleece, sweaters, towels and corduroys—need this setting so the embroidery will show up clearly. In this article we walk through how to use the Knockdown setting and answer some common questions in your Digitizing Embroidery.

1. What is Knockdown?

Knockdown stitch is a layer of stitching we add to the underside of the embroidery design to hold down the fluffy fabric and make your embroidery text or embroidery design more visible.

2. Has the number of stitches increased a lot for us?

Knockdowns are made with open stitches, so they don't add as many stitches. In most cases, the knockout layer will only increase the overall stitch count by about 800 to 1,500 stitches.

3. Must the unstitching layer be the same shape as our embroidery design?

The knockdown layer can be box shaped or more organic, and it follows the general shape and circumference of lettering designs

Top: The organic shape follows the perimeter of the letter to be embroidered.

Bottom: The box-shaped knockdown layer frames the letters evenly at the top and bottom

4. Which fabric is best for removing stitches?

Removing stitches works best on fluffy or high pile fabrics.

When ordering embroidery digitizing for lettering, monogram or embroidery text, be sure to inform us of your fabric type. Why? Because some designs and most lettering have more of a chance of "sinking" or being covered in high wool.

Keep in mind that letters can get lost in the surrounding fabric and may not be as obvious as you'd like when you're embroidering on polar fleece or thick knitwear. This is where knockdown sutures can help!

The following fabric types benefit the most from removing stitches:

· Polar fleece

· Heavy knitwear

· Beanie hats and towels

5. If I use a dismantling needle, do I need stabilizers or toppings?

Using knockdown stitches eliminates the need to handle and use toppings, such as Solvy, to make letters stand out and more readable on high-pile fabrics.

6. Must the stitch layer be the same color as the fabric?

You don't want the knockdown to be a different color, because then the fabric will show through the knockdown stitch and look like bad embroidery.

7. What shape is best for knocking out the pin layer?

In ignition drawing, we do two styles of unstitching stitch: organic or box. Be sure to choose a style that suits your needs and let us know when ordering embroidery digitally. Choose according to your style preference and aesthetic. (See below for available knock-out stitch layer shapes)