Embroidery Embroidery
About Embroidery: Embroidery is a type of garment decoration that involves directly sewing thread onto a material. It is generally more expensive than screen printing and is considered to generate more professional results. The following paragraphs detail the embroidery process from the creation of an embroidery design through the actual embroidering of a garment. (from Wikipedia) These are the basic steps for creating embroidery with a computerized embroidery machine.
Design files Digitized embroidery design files can be either purchased or created (digitized) with industry specific embroidery digitizing software. Embroidery file formats are many and varied and broadly fall into two categories: Source formats, Specific to the software used to create the design. (I.E the original file the digitizer keeps for the purposes of editing.) and Machine formats, Specific to a particular brand of embroidery machine. (I.E the files available for use with particular embroidery machines which are not so easily edited or scaled.) Generally every different embroidery machine manufacturer (brand of machine) has one or more specific embroidery "machine formats" specifically designed to service this particular brand. However even although generally "Machine Formats" where originally designed to service only their own specific machine brand, some formats such as Tajima's ".dst", Melco's ".exp"/".cnd" and Barudan's ".fdr" have become so prevalent that they have become ad-hock standards in themselves and are often even supported by machines built by companies actually in competition with the companies/machines that these represent. These "Machine formats" generally contain primarily stitch data (offsets) and machine functions (trims, jumps ETC) and are thus not easily scaled (with-out effecting the stitch density) or edited (without laborious manual stitch by stitch editing). Many embroidery designs (in various popular machine formats)can be downloaded from web sites on the net and one can be sewing them out within minutes. Please note however that there are many different brands of machines, and each may use a different format. So when purchasing or downloading free designs it makes allot of sense to ensure you get the right format for your machine. If your format is not available, conversion programs are available to convert from one machine format file to another (i.e. from .PES to .HUS or from .DST to .PCS, for example) however it should be noted that the results from many of these conversion programs (and even from some of the more reputable digitizing packages) are unreliable. A person who creates a design is known as an "embroidery digitizer" or "puncher". The digitizer, or puncher, users digitizing software to create their embroidery design. The digitizer creates the design in the native file format for the digitizing software. These are 'Object Based' design and allow the digitizer to easily reshape and edit the design later. The native file formats retain important information such as:
As a digitizer it is critical to maintain and keep the original digitized design file. Converting the design to a stitch file such as .DST, .PES and .DSB will lose many of the valuable information, and make editing and changing the design very difficult or impossible. Software vendors often advertise "auto-punching" or "auto-digitizing" capabilities. However, if high quality embroidery is essential, then industry experts highly recommend either purchasing solid designs from reputable digitizers or obtaining training on solid digitization techniques. Editing designs Once a design has been digitized, it can be edited or combined with other designs by software. With most embroidery software the user can rotate, scale, move, stretch, distort, split, crop, or duplicate the design in an endless pattern. Most software allows the user to add text quickly and easily. Often the colors of the design can be changed, made monochrome, or re-sorted. More sophisticated packages will allow the user to edit, add or remove individual stitches. For those without editing software, some embroidery machines have rudimentary design editing features built in. Loading the design After editing the final design, the design file is loaded into the embroidery machine. Different machines expect different files formats. The most common home design format is PES. Common design file formats for the home and hobby market include: ART, PES, VIP, JEF, SEW, and HUS. Embroidery patterns can be transferred to the computerized embroidery machines in a variety of ways, either through cables, CDs, floppy disks, USB interfaces, or special cards that resemble flash and compact cards. Stabilizing the fabric To prevent wrinkles and other problems, the fabric must be stabilized. The method of stabilizing depends to a large degree on the type of machine, the fabric type, and the design density. For example, knits and large designs typically require firm stabilization. There are many methods for stabilizing fabric, but most often one or more additional pieces of material called "stabilizers" or "interfacing" are added beneath and/or on top of the fabric. Many types of stabilizers exist, including cut-away, tear-away, vinyl, nylon, water-soluble, heat-n-gone, adhesive, open mesh, and combinations of these. For smaller embroidered items, the item to be embroidered is hooped, and the hoop is attached to the machine. There is a mechanism on the machine (usually called an arm) that then moves the hoop under the needle. For large commercially embroidered items, a bolt of fabric can be worked by a long row of embroidery "heads", producing a continuous pattern of embroidery. Each embroidery head is a sewing machine with multiple needles for different colors, and is usually capable of producing many special fabric effects including satin-stitch embroidery, chain-stitch embroidery, sequins, appliqué, cutwork, and other effects. Embroidering the design Finally, the embroidery machine is started and monitored. For commercial machines, this process is a lot more automated than for the home embroiderer. For most designs, there is more than one color, and the potential for additional processing for appliqués, foam, or other special effects. Since home machines only have one needle, every color change requires the user to cut the thread and change the color manually. In addition, most designs will have a few or many jumps that need to be cut. Depending on the quality and size of the design, stitching out a design file can require a few minutes or an hour or more. Samples of our Embroidery work |
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