The Basics for Successful Embroidery

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Keys to Success

• Quality Stabilizer • Quality Thread • Proper Needle • Proper Hooping Technique • Alignment • Appropriate Design Selection

Slide 3 What is Stabilizer?

• Every project needs a solid foundation to be successful. • Stabilizer provides support for the fabric being embroidered and prevents it from puckering or stretching during the embroidery process. • Projects that have not been properly stabilized often have misaligned outlines and the project does not hold up over time. • Protect the time invested in creating your embroidered projects by providing a stable foundation from the very beginning.

There are three major types of stabilizer. They are classified by how they are removed from the back after the garment is completed.

• Cut-Away • Tear Away • Wash Away

Slide 4 When can you use a tear-away?

1) If the fabric is firmly woven

2) If you want to get rid of most of the excess stabilizer

• Designs that have a low stitch count or to support decorative stitching • Keep in mind that as you embroider on a tear away product, it will become less stabile as it is being perforated through out the embroidery process

Slide 5 LIGHT WEIGHT TEAR AWAY

• 8,000 or less stitches in design.

• Easier to pick out than medium weight stabilizers.

• Good for paper piecing.

• More than one layer can be used if desired

Slide 6 ULTRA CLEAN & TEAR OR MEDIUM WERIGHT BLACK

• 8,000 to 25,000 or more stitches in design

• If you are unsure – Use two layers.

• Area behind stitches is very soft with Ultra Clean & Tear.

• MediumWeight Tear Away is available only in black.

Slide 7 FUSIBLE TEAR AWAY

• Supports about same number of stitches as a medium weight stabilizer – but is lighter in weight.

• Temporarily (lightly) fuse to the back side of the fabric and very easy to remove!

Slide 8 HEAVY WEIGHT TEAR AWAY

• 25,000 or more stitches in design.

• It has a very firm stiff texture, but it will soften during washing and wearing.

• Easy to pick up with tweezers and remove.

Slide 9 When can you use a cut-away?

• Cut-Aways are the most sturdy of all types of stabilizers and support the greatest number of stitches.

• You should always use a cut away on knits or stretch fabrics, but they can also be used for woven fabric.

• Stays in the design, to maintain the integrity of the design with washing and wearing

Slide 10 HeavyWeight CutAway

Advantages: • Supports the most stitches (25,000 or more) • Stitch out will look good

Disadvantages: • Heavy • Does not drape as well • May see a line of demarcation

Slide 11 PolyMesh

Advantages: • Supports 8,000 to 12,000 or more stitches • Flows with the body • No visible line on the front

Disadvantages: • Is too soft for some designs with lots of satin stitches or long decorative stitches.

Polymesh comes in three colors: white, black, beige.

It would be considered a light weight cutaway and is good for t-shirts, knits and lightweight woven fabrics such as batiste.

Another great benefit of this stabilizer is that it does not shadow through to the right side of the garment.

Slide 12 Fusible PolyMesh

• Designs with lots of outlines or detailing

• 8,000 to 12,000 or more stitches in design.

Slide 13 Gentle Touch

• Protects delicate skin • Covers bobbin stitches

Slide 14 Wash Away Stabilizer

• Best used for projects in which it is important to remove all stabilizer. • Can be used for cutwork, stand alone lace, and reverse appliqué • Most common function of a wash away toppings is to keep the stitches from sinking to the fabric.

Slide 15 AquaFilm Topping

• A MUST for napped fabrics

• Keeps stitches on top of fabric.

• Used as a topping ONLY.

Slide 16 AquaFilm Backing

• 8,000 to 12,000 or more stitches in design

• Can be used with tulle or organdy to create a lace “effect”

• Can do double duty as a topping

Slide 17 BadgeMaster

• 12,000 to 15,000 stitches

• A clear heavy water soluble stabilizer.

• It can be torn away from the stitching after the design is completed • Can be used as a backing when you want all traces of stabilizer to be removed

• Easy to tear away excess. Any remaining bits will be washed way with water

Slide 18 AquaMesh

• 12,000 to 25,000 stitches

• An opaque water soluble stabilizer.

• It is a very stable product and is not susceptible to premature perforation during the sewing process.

• Can be used as a backing when you want all traces of stabilizer to be removed

• Cut away majority of excess stabilizer. Any remaining bits will be washed way with water

Slide 19 AquaMesh Plus

• 12,000 to 25,000 or more stitches in design

• Great for “hoopless” embroidery

• Perfect for lapels, collars, etc. where the back will be seen

• Do NOT use when creating stand alone lace

Slide 20 Paper Backed Pressure Sensitive Adhesive

• Stabilizer that has a sticky surface on one side with a protective paper coating.

• The stabilizer can be a cut away, a tear away, or a wash away. You will choose the type depending upon how many stitches your design has, what type of fabric you are using, and how much of the stabilizer you want

to have removed on the back side Plus

Slide 21 Embroidery Thread

• A high quality polyester thread that is strong and will not bleach. • You should always consider the project and the end use and care when selecting the thread.

Slide 22 Facts about Isacord Polyester Thread • Isacord is color fast to detergent, chlorine and light. • Isacord has twice the strength of rayon thread. • Isacord has superior abrasion resistance both when dry and when wet, which keeps embroidery looking new. • Isacord is engineered from the finest raw materials. It has just the right amount of elasticity to embroider without looping or puckering while virtually eliminating thread breaks. • Isacord thread colors are created using tiny increments of dye that are verified by computer to assure that the dye lots are always true. • Isacord thread is never over-dyed. Over-dying means that a manufacturer will dye their “missed” colors to black, which weakens the thread. • Isacord thread has more twists than other brands; it unreels smoothly and does not loop. • Isacord has a special finishing process that improves performance. • Isacord thread is specially certified and approved for embroidery by the apparel industry.

Before Bleach After Bleach

Slide 23 Bobbin Thread

• 60wt polyester (Bottom Line)

• Not necessary to match colors-white on light and black on dark. If item may be seen on the back, you may want to make thread to the item’s color.

Slide 24 Embroidery Needles

• Not the same as your sewing needles. Embroidery needles should not be used for regular sewing either. • The eye in the needle is one size larger than it should be for the needle.

• Non organ embroidery needles should be changed every 1-2 hours of embroidery • Standard Organ Embroidery Needles: Last about 8 hours • Titanium Organ Embroidery Needles: These needles have a high technology coating which extends the life up to five times that of conventional needles. (approximately 40 hours)

Slide 25 Titanium needles

• Great for longevity • Good for heavy fabrics • A MUST for sticky backed stabilizers

Slide 26 Paper Backed Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Stabilizers

• Clean the needle frequently

Slide 27 Embroidery Hoops

• In the world of embroidery, we work with the metric system. Approximately 25 mm=1 inch • Small 50 x 72 • Medium 130 x 100 (scant 4” x generous 5”) • Large 255 x 145 • Mega 400 x 150 • Jumbo 400 x 260 (15 ¾” x scant 10 ¼)

• Deco Hoops: – Hoop A – Hoop B 200 × 140mm (7.9” x 5.5”)

Slide 28 Proper Hooping

• Spray embroidery adhesive on stabilizer

• Use template for alignment

• Hoop all layers

Slide 29 Place the inner hoop with template over the marked lines on fabric

Slide 30 Plastic template doesn’t fit?

Slide 31 If the arrows match, the notches match

Slide 32 Loosen screw before hooping

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Slide 34 Push inner hoop down ever so slightly

Slide 35 Adjust center needle position if needed

Slide 36 Proper Hooping

To Avoid Hoop Burn:

• Loosen Set Screws

• Don’t Force Fabric

Slide 38 A word on designs…. • Good Quality designs will result in good quality embroidery results • It is good practice to test stitch embroidery designs with the same fabric, stabilizer and thread that will be used for the final project. • When evaluating the appropriateness of a design for the fabric, a good rule of thumb is: if the stabilizer required for the design selected will significantly change the hand of the fabric, the design is too dense for the fabric.

Slide 39 Planning your time

• Round # of stitches up to the next 1,000 and multiple by 2. • 9 (# of 1000’s) x 2 = 18 minutes (approximately)

Slide 40 How do I get more designs?

• How to get designs from a design usb stick and embroidery cards • How to get designs from the internet – www.berninadesignstudio.com • How to get the designs from computer and cds

Slide 41 Rules of Good Embroidery

Keep the following points in mind when looking at embroidery designs, both your own and others: • Stitches are neat, smooth and even • Design looks good – shapes, colors, balance • Shapes are filled with correct fill and outline stitches • Stitches are angled to match shapes • Shapes are stitched correctly – no unwanted gaps • Details are clearly defined • Lettering is clear and easy to read.

The stitchout should also have the following characteristics: • The design sews efficiently on the machine • The fabric does not pucker around stitched areas • The design is free of loose ends.

Good embroidery quality starts with good design. You then need a good quality machine to stitch it out But even that is not enough if you do not use the correct fabric, threads, backings, tension, and so on. Consult your machine manual for advice and get as much advice from other embroiderers as you can.

Slide 42 Design Extension

Different embroidery machines understand different languages. Each has its own control commands for the various machine functions.

Before you can stitch a design, it must be in a format which can be interpreted by the machine. Stitch or ‘expanded’ designs are low-level formats for direct use by embroidery machines. They contain only stitch coordinates and machine functions. They are generally created ‘on the fly’ when sending designs to machine. They can also be output to embroidery disk or design card

The design extension that your machine reads is .exp

Slide 43 Design Extension

• When purchasing embroidery designs, you want to purchase .ART files. By purchasing .ART files and using Artlink or higher levels of Bernina software you have full capabilities of editing the design.

• If .exp is the only format available, it will be fine, just do not do any editing ±5% in scaling.

• To get the design converted to the format that your machine will read (.exp) you open the .ART design in software and then “write” it to the appropriate machine.

Slide 44 More about .exp • .exp is a stitch based file • Stitch files do not contain object information such as outlines or stitch types, but present the design as a collection of ‘stitch blocks’. Stitch blocks are created wherever colors change or trims are detected in the design. Stitch designs are generally not suited to modification because stitches are not regenerated • You should not scale stitch designs by more than ±5% or some areas may be too thickly or too thinly covered

Slide 45 Embroidery Software

BERNINA embroidery software gives your creativity wings: design, edit, and embroider motifs yourself, and discover a whole new dimension to embroidery!

http://www.bernina.com/en-US/Products- us/BERNINA-products-us/BERNINA- Software-us/BERNINA-embroidery- software-us/Embroidery-Software-7-–- DesignerPlus-us

Slide 46 Art Link Embroidery Software Allows you to: • Open Designs • Mirror Image • Resize designs • Rotate • Design Transfer • Print design templates

Slide 47 Printing Paper Templates

Slide 48 View > Artistic View

Slide 49 Edit > Print Preview

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Slide 51 Send design to from the computer to the machine

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Select machine / method of transfer Then click OK

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Slide 57 Broken Threads

Slide 58 If thread breaks immediately after threading

• Double check threading path

Slide 59 If thread breaks immediately after threading

• Use an embroidery needle • Change the needle • Make sure it is properly inserted all the way up in the machine • Use the proper size and type of needle for the thread and fabric