Embroidery Troubleshooting
Tips
and Tricks
Presented by September Brown
Diamond Threadworks
www.diamondthreadworks.com
diamond@netwrx1.net
Introduction
We all want to increase productivity, decrease downtime, satisfy our customers,
and make a profit. Even if we are only making gifts, nobody wants to waste
their time and money. There are many types of problems encountered when
embroidering, including problems with your machine, tension, and other
adjustments, problems with threads, needles, fabrics, hooping, and stabilizing,
designs/digitizing, and problems with your customer's satisfaction. Here are
some tips, tricks, and fixes to help prevent embroidery problems, fix mistakes,
save time, save money, and increase satisfaction. These ideas have been
gathered from classes, internet sources, embroidery lists, magazines, and good
old fashioned trial and error. Many of these ideas are not set in
concrete, and there may be other methods that you prefer over the ones
mentioned, but perhaps you will still find some useful help here. It
doesn't matter which road you take to get to your destination, so long as you
arrive.
Test sewing
Somebody once said "There are two kinds of embroiderers. Those who test
sew, and those who wish they had." Prewash a few yards of white
cotton fabric, and tear it into squares. If you make them eleven inches,
you can get 4 pieces across a 45 inch wide piece of fabric, and you will have
around 10.5 inch squares after the edges fray a little. Use your stack of
squares for test sewing, and use the good tests for quilt squares. You can
also use them for pockets on a purse, shirt, bag, or other project. There
are more ideas on the test squares
page.
Tension problems
Do a tension test every day when you first turn on your machine. Stitch
three satin stitch columns, such as the letter "I". The
underside should be 1/3 bobbin thread down the middle, with top thread showing
on the outer 1/3rds. You shouldn't need to adjust your bobbin tension once
it's set, so always adjust the top tension and only change the bobbin tension as
a last resort.
If upper thread is lies straight along the top of the fabric, then the needle
tension is too tight, or the bobbin tension is too loose. If the lower
thread lies straight along the fabric, then the upper tension is too loose, or
the bobbin tension is too tight. If the bobbin thread suddenly shows on
top in the middle of stitching out the design, you may have a buildup of lint
and dust in the bobbin case.
Upper Thread Breaks
Caused by:
Upper threading not correct
Upper thread tangled or knotted (such as metallic thread on wrong spool)
Spool set incorrectly
Wrong needle
Damaged shuttle
Lint in the bobbin case
Upper tension too tight
Needle set incorrectly
Needle blunt or bent
Thread too coarse for needle
Roughened hole in throat plate
Bobbin Thread Breaks
Caused by:
Upper thread tangled
Bobbin threaded wrong in shuttle
Bobbin tension too tight
Bobbin wound unevenly
Broken Needles
Broken needles cause the hook to get burrs. Use a crocus cloth to lightly
sand out the scratch. Broken needles are caused by:
Wrong size needle for thread and material
Needle bent
Hitting a loose presser foot
Hitting edge of hoop
Embroidery too dense
Fabric too thick for size of needle, such as over seams
Skipped Stitches
Caused by:
Needle inserted wrong
Wrong type of needle (too small for thread)
Wrong combination of fabric, thread, and needle
Dust and lint clinging under the needle plate
Upper threading incorrect
Needle blunt or bent
Needle rubbing presser foot
Long satin stitches will skip if too long (they won't catch the bobbin thread
every time).
Holes in fabric
For tiny holes, enlarge the design by 3-8 percent, and print it out. Use
your printout to see if you can overstitch with the larger design to cover the
hole. For larger holes, or to remove old embroidery, carefully cut design
out of fabric. Use spray adhesive to apply cutaway stabilizer to the back,
use a light fill stitch to fill the hole, then resew the design. If you're
embroidering on knits, make sure you're using a ballpoint needle and not a
sharp.
Hooping and Stabilizers
Ideally, you should only use one piece of stabilizer for most jobs, but you
should never use more than 2 pieces of light or medium stabilizer. If you
need more than that, then there's a problem with the design. If it's not
worth your time to re-edit the design, then don't embroider it. If a
design is too dense, it may look good when you first stitch it out, but it may
buckle and never lay flat once it's washed. Never spray the garment with
sticky spray, always spray the stabilizer, then stick the item to that. Always
hoop the stabilizer with the garment, don't float it under the hoop. The
money you save will be wasted in the price of the ruined garment. The
garment should not slide against the stabilizer in the hoop, but should be
adhered to it, especially if it's a knit. Adhesive sprays, adhesive
stabilizer such as hydrostick, or basting-in-the-hoop are all designed to
prevent the garment from moving, puckering, and bunching up.
Use a cutaway for knits. Tearaway stabilizers will look great until you
wash them, then as the backing degrades, it will not continue to be stable, and
the design will start to cave in. Designs that are digitized too dense
will also cave in.
Tearaway stabilizers are ideal for woven fabrics such as cotton. It's the
perfect choice for placemats, tablecloths, quilt squares, and cotton shirts.
Water soluble stabilizers are often overused. As a backing, they can be
used for chiffon, organza, and other lightweight sheer fabrics, where a stiff
backing is not desired after the item is embroidered. They're also perfect
for making lace. Lace designs should have sufficient underlayer built in
to make the design hold up without unraveling once the stabilizer
is dissolved away. When embroidering on polar fleece and terry cloth,
water soluble sheets can be used on top to temporarily hold down the nap of the
design while it's being embroidered, but it's only temporary. If the
design is not digitized with a good "mesh" underlayer to continue
holding the nap down, the nap will work it's way up through the embroidery after
several washings. If your design does not have a good underlayer, use
bridal tulle or netting in the same color as the fabric instead of the water
soluble topping. Water soluble stabilizers are generally not necessary on
knits or cottons.
Adhesive stabilizers such as hydrostick are ideal for small items that are
difficult to hoop, such as ribbons, socks, and collars. They come in both
cutaway and tearaway versions, and can be used for the same types of fabrics
that regular cutaway and tearaway can be used for. Hydrostick cutaway is
ideal for knits that you don't want to hoop, because you can get your stabilizer
tight, then stick your shirt on without stretching the knit, making it easier to
get your placement correct.
Hoop Marks
Remove with steam for light or medium fabrics. On light or dark fabrics,
spray with magic sizing and lay aside for 5-6 minutes until it's dry.
Whole design placement is off
If you're partway through embroidering, and you realize that your whole design
is placed wrong, stop and look at the situation. If you're too far into it
to remove the stitching, then go ahead and finish embroidering it. At that
point, your shirt is ruined anyway, so you might as well not ruin the design you
started sewing. Cut it out of the shirt, and appliqué the square onto a
new blank shirt, or make a matching tote bag to go with it. You could also
use it for your sample book. Cut the rest of the shirt up into squares and
use them for stitching out samples for customer orders. Keep selections of
t-shirt knits, cottons, fleece, and piques on hand for your samples.
Problems with designs
Most stitching problems go back to the design itself. If you have a
problem that shows up in the same spot every time you sew it, then it's not your
machine, it's the design. You need to re-edit the design. One of the
drawbacks of the digitizing programs with the automatic features is that the
designs nearly always have to be reworked. The main problems
are that they will start sewing the design (or the underlayer) right in the
middle of a color block, go to one side, start back at the other side, and
finish in the middle
again. The method adds tons of extra stitches that aren't necessary, and
slows down production time. The other main problem with the automatic
digitizing systems is that many designs have too many unnecessary color changes.
It
all adds up to slowed production, and increased chance of thread breaks, density
problems, and problems with outlines meeting the color block fills.
Outlines off
Usually caused by poor stabilizing, but if your test samples are always off in
the same place, then the problem lies with the digitizing. What direction
is the fabric nap in relation to the stitch direction? Are there several
design areas that have the same stitch direction? Long satin
stitches pull more than short stitches. Designs that are too dense will
push the fabric and make the outline go on top of the filled areas.
Fixes:
Re-edit the design, use a basting stitch to hold fabric in place better (especially
if you use spray adhesive and don't hoop the shirt), hoop the shirt also, add a
thick satin stitch around the outline, use permanent markers to fix tiny areas.
Never float your stabilizer with a knit, always hoop your stabilizer. The
money you save will be wasted when you waste the shirt.
Fills that aren't filled
Re-edit the design if it's worth it, or trash it if it's not. If the gaps
are slight, you can put some fabric underneath the stitching, that's near the
same color of the thread. For example, you can use white fabric on a black
t-shirt, underneath the white thread that has a gap in the design.
Sew the outline to hold down the fabric like an appliqué, trim the fabric, then
start embroidering the design from the beginning.
Customer Satisfaction
Communication is the key!
Put it in writing, before and after the sale
Felt and test samples
Felt looks great. Everything looks good on felt. It stretches,
pulls, and pushes quite a bit without wrinkling the surrounding material.
That's why you should never use it to stitch out samples on. It won't look
as good on the actual fabric, and the customer will be disappointed.
Instead, when you mess up an order, like a shirt, cut that shirt up into 5 x 5
squares, and use those to stitch out your test samples on. Try to use the
actual fabric the customer's order will be sewn on, or as close as you can to
that fabric. Felt would be good to use for samples in your design catalog,
but be sure to let the customer know that it won't look the same on a shirt.
Test Samples
Staple your test sample to your order form. Have the customer sign off on
it before you do the job. That way, he's already okayed not only the
design, but also the fabric and thread colors, so he can't come back later and
try to get the job for free/reduced price, saying you messed up.
Names and Monograms
When doing names, have the customer write the name, and go over the spelling of
each one right then and there. Don't re-write the names onto the order
form, just staple the customer's list onto it. Charge $10 for putting in
names, $5 to rip-out first names only, $7.50 to rip out first and last names.
Rip-out fees apply to names spelled wrong by the customer when the
order was placed. Charge more if there was a logo. These are minimum
fees. If the messed up name's your fault, would it be worth it to you to
have to rip it out if you were only charging $5 to put it in? Charge as
much to remove it as you would to sew it in, but build it into the price in the
first place, and add it on again if it's the customer's fault.
Allow for waste
If the customer wants to supply the shirts, make sure you tell them to allow for
waste, and to provide a few extras. When you place your quote, tell them
that if they want 100 shirts, they'll need to provide 105, with a waste margin
of plus or minus 5 shirts. That means that if you need to deliver 95 - 105
shirts. If you get to 100 with no waste, go ahead and do the extra five
anyway. When they reorder, you might mess up 10 of them, and they'll be
more understanding when you can only deliver 95. Either way, the customer
knows ahead of time what to expect, and you can't be held responsible for the
wasted blanks. Have a disclaimer sign or a notice on your order form,
saying that you aren't responsible for damage to blanks that the customer
supplies. If they want you to embroider on their leather jacket, it's not
worth it if you mess up $15 worth of embroidery if you have to replace a $200
jacket that's damaged. Don't let that prevent you from attempting the job,
however. Just make sure they know that you don't take responsibility for
the leather, but you'll do it if they really want you to. Have them sign
or initial that they understand and agree.
Reverse Stitching
Remove stitches from the back only, never from the front. Cut down the
center of the bobbin thread, and the top thread should just pull off the
front. Keep tweezers, tape, and razor handy.
Tape is our friend
Removes lint
Removes clipped threads from new embroidery
Removes basting stitches from quilts and baste-in-the-hoop items
Cleans threads off carpet by trashcan
Tips for specific applications
Appliqués
Method 1) Embroider your design, choose the size and shape of your
appliqué, and cut out the design around the fabric. Use a spritz of spray
adhesive and stick it to your garment. Tack it down with a zig-zag stitch,
then go back over it with a satin stitch if you like. You could also tack
it down with a running stitch, then go back over it with an appliqué stitch.
To prevent the edges from fraying, you can sew a running stitch around the
edge, iron the edge under, then apply it to the garment.
Method 2) Make your own appliqués by hooping wash away stabilizer and
fine
netting and wash way again (like a sandwich) hoop this three layers
together. choose your design. Do several of them in advance and use them
to
make quick gifts by just adding the appliqué to an item.
Patches
Professionals use a merrowing machine to put the edging onto patches made
from twill fabric. Most patch makers have relatively inexpensive fees, and
many sell blank patches in various shapes and sizes. There are lots of
different methods to make your own patches on an embroidery machine, but here
are a couple of them.
Method 1) Choose a design with a solid fill. Hoop a sheet of
polymesh and
embroider your design. Cut out the design. You don't have to be
super close, just a rough cut will be fine. Use a wood burning tool to go
around the edges. It will shrink the polymesh up against the thread, and
seal the edges as if you'd used fray-check. Lay your design face down on
several layers of paper napkins or paper towels and lay a piece of Steam a Seam
II on top. Iron this on the back of the design. The paper napkin
will absorb the excess Steam a Seam II from around the design. The patch
is now ready to iron onto your garment. Steam a Seam II works best if you
are going to wash your item much. If you don't want your design to be
permanent, brush on Aleene's stick it over and over again.
Method 2) Choose a design and make a solid outline around it, such as a
2-4 mm satin stitch circle border. The design does not have to be solid
filled, and can have "loose" elements such as lettering if you like.
Choose a sturdy fabric you like. Embroider your design, and finish
the edges as above, or trim close and use permanent markers on the edges
if you like.
Leather
One person said to use a 75/11 ballpoint needle, claiming that sharps will perforate the leather and the
design will punch out. However, they make a leather embroidery needle that
is a wedge-shaped sharp-point needle. The stronger wedge-shaped shaft
gives it the strength it needs to punch through the tough leather, and the sharp
point allows it to go through cleanly without ripping the leather, as a
ballpoint needle can. Test the design on a sample of the closest type of
leather you can find. Re-edit the design if needed before stitching on the
actual item.
Metallic Thread
Important points to consider are name brand of thread, thread delivery
system, tension, and needle. Not all brands of metallic thread are the
same, even though they may look alike. Superior Threads brand of metallic
is coated with a clear finish to help it run smoother, and protect it from
shredding and tarnishing. It has a nylon core for strength, and rice paper
construction for flexibility. Metallic thread should be mounted so that it
unwinds off the side of the spool. If it comes off the top, it adds
another twist every time it comes around, eventually causing kinks, breaks, or
thread nests. On a home machine, you should use the vertical spool
pin. If you're using a large cone of thread, buy a King Kone spool
adapter, which mounts on your vertical spool pin. You shouldn't have to
change the preset tension in most home machines, but there are a few brands,
particularly the POEM, that don't use 40 wt thread for their ideal
tension. If you're not sure, do a tension test as mentioned at the top of
this page, and adjust tensions carefully if needed. If you need to, it's
okay to skip the last thread guide or tension disk, especially if you're just
changing the tension for one thread color. The main goal of the tension
disks is to establish a workable tension from point A (the spool) to point B
(the fabric). It won't hurt the machine if you skip a spot along the way.
The needle needs to be able to accommodate the thread you're using. A
Metafil needle is a 90/14 sharp needle that has a deeper groove, larger eye, and
Teflon coating on the eye, making it ideal for metallic threads. If you
need a ballpoint needle for knits, or don't have a metallic needle handy, you
can substitute a 90/14 ballpoint needle or use a topstitch needle, which has a
larger eye. Be careful if you decide to use titanium needles.
They're stronger, but if they don't break under pressure, then they may bend and
damage your machine when they come back down again.
Presentation
Always fold your shirts neatly when you present them to your customer.
Have the embroidery facing the customer, not folded up inside. Never leave
hoop marks or thread bits. Put the embroiderer's name on a tag and attach it
to the garment. If you have a large job, sort shirts by size.
Consider wrapping shirts individually in clear cellophane shirt
bags.
Tools to keep on hand
Hand needles for skipped stitches
Thread
Permanent colored marking pens - use for bobbin threads on top, or for very
small spots, not for coloring in large areas
Magnifying glasses or a jewelers monocle
Good light source
Razor blade
Stitch remover with pressing ham
Packing tape with holder
Steamer
Iron
Pressing cloth
Spray bottle
Magic Sizing
Extra ballpoint needles
Spare light bulb for machine
Machine oil
Tweezers or hemostats
screwdrivers
Know when to say "when"
When bad digitizing is too time intensive to be worth repair
When the time to repair garment is more costly than cost to replace and
redo. This also applies to parts of the shirt that get caught up under the
hoop and get stitched to itself. It's too time consuming to
"unstitch" it, and generally ruins the shirt anyway. Just cut
the shirt off the hoop, cut it into test squares, and get a new one.
When you have someone who wants a good deal - when a customer looks for flaws
and gripes, just to get you to lower your price because it's "flawed",
then they're just trying to get a good deal. If they aren't willing to let
you make it right at the full price, then you don't need them as a
customer. Chances are, they'll gripe about you to their friends anyway, no
matter what you do. If they perceive it as flawed, then you don't want
them to have your product anyway.
Other stuff
· Don't sew over and over - ever. Either remove the flawed stitching, or
start over on new fabric.
· Use iron-on tricot to cover back of embroidery. Polymesh stabilizer is
also very soft, thin, and lightweight, and would be suitable for baby
items.
· If you're using white thread for a filled area on black fabric, put a piece
of tear-away on the top. Stitch the underlay, tear it away, then finish
the design.
· Avoid poor quality garments. They can be costly in mistakes.
· Don't undercut your prices or tell your customers "I can't believe the
commercial shop wanted to charge you so much." The commercial shops
are trying to pay their employees, and pay expenses, and someday, if we ever get
our own shops, we'll have to charge that much to be able to keep in business.
We can get the same prices if we ask for them, and we're cheating ourselves by
not asking, plus we're making the commercial shops look bad. In some
cases, the commercial shops can do things cheaper, particularly in terms of
volume sales, so we need to keep our prices up to what they are charging in
order to be fair to ourselves for our time.
· Use a black marker to mark the slit in the spool, so it's easier to find the
end of the thread.
· You can digitize a French knot. It will not be just like a French knot
done by hand embroidery, because you can not wrap the thread around the needle.
Make a "look a like" and size it according to the thread weight,
fabric, and the design. In other words, don't make it too heavy on fine
fabric. Digitize a few tiny horizontal running stitches, and cover it with
a few longer vertical stitches and a couple of extra locking
stitches. Digitize the edge ends with a smaller length of stitch than in
the middle.
· To remove sticky residue on hoops, use shaving foam, alcohol, goo-gone, or
place hoops in the dishwasher. Turn off the heat dry cycle.
· Put the stabilizer directions inside the tube they come off of .
· Use a toilet paper roll to store cords, just loop the cord loosely back and
forth and slide into the roll. This is much less damaging to the cords
than twist ties.
· Use quarter inch two-sided tape on the bottom of the inner hoop. Set
the hoop down on the fabric where you want it and, then it won't move when you
put it into the outer hoop. Helps a
lot when lining up multiple hoopings too.
· When you print out your template, make all your notes on that template.
The XY coordinates, the settings on your machine, the brand name of the thread
and the color number, the good and bad things about the design, and the time it
takes to stitch out. Place the sample with the template in a clear plastic
sheet protector sleeve, and keep it in a notebook.
· For quick design centering on dish towels, hand towels, etc., iron the item,
and then lightly press a centered vertical crease by folding the item in half;
very quick with no need to worry about pins or marks not coming out. If
you want the center of the item, fold the item in half the other way and lightly
press a horizontal crease; where the creases intersect will be the exact center
of the item. This tip will also work if you want to have designs
aligned with each other, such as along a bottom border-just press a crease to
represent the line you want the design(s) to sit or be centered upon.
Then fold and press vertical creases the determined number of inches apart.
You will have an instant placement guide that will press right out when you are
done embroidering.
· When embroidering a design to frame - place bridal tulle on top of your
fabric and stitch through it and your fabric. The tulle will give the look
of cross stitch after it is framed if you use the same color as your base
fabric.
· When you baste in the hoop, use Vanish basting thread. When you're
finished, spray with a light mist of water to dissolve, and the bobbin thread
will fall away. Works great for basting together quilt layer, too!
· Only use machine oil, never use petroleum based products like WD40, because
they will ruin the nylon parts of the machine, such as the tension disks.
· Never place magnetic things (such as magnetic scissor holders or the magnetic
fabric guides that stick onto the throat plate) near your computerized machine,
as it can damage your board, and erase your design cards. Don't use metal
bobbins for the same reason.
Prevention
Don't take a chance on lost communications or errors with orders. Use
staples instead of paper clips, and avoid using post-it notes. Write it in
the right place the first time.
Forms to help you avoid mistakes:
Work Order
Data Cards - don't rewrite names if they bring them in and hand them to you,
just staple them to the data card instead.
Design Approval card or form - always have the customer sign off approval of the
stitchout before you start the job. Staple the stitchout to the form.
Digitizing order form
Summary
Plan ahead
Prevent mistakes
Fix problems when you can
Know when to quit
Where to Get More Information
Join the embroidery list "New Designs" at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newdesigns
with over 5000 home embroiders who
are friendly and always ready to help each other out.
