Mapping a Design Requires Careful Planning

Even with the efficiency and speed of electronic digitizing, advance focus on correct mapping will ensure your design sews without distortion.
July 1, 2008

By John Deer, Contributing Writer

With more than 24 years of digitizing under my belt, you can imagine that I've seen my fair share of changes within the industry, and none more profound than the emergence of digitizing software. I remember many years ago seeing a design appear on a computer screen of a DOS system for the first time. It was remarkable to be able to move individual stitches around and zoom in to any section of the design.

I'm guessing that seeing those capabilities today wouldn't put you on the edge of your seats, but not too long ago, it was like a miracle being performed right before my eyes. My first two years of training as a "puncher" were on a manual 1905 Schiffli machine. Imagine 20 yards of fabric spanned across two looms and then digitizing every stitch one at a time, while the machine was producing hundreds of emblems in real time. There was no room for error, no reverse, no "undo" button and no second chance. I remember having nightmares almost every night when I first started training; everyday I had new designs that had to be digitized perfectly with no margin for error.

I also clearly remember the first class I ever gave on basic digitizing. It was so long ago that I didn't even have a laptop. A tool of the trade at that time was an overhead projector and teaching methods included drawing with markers on a large paper pad mounted on an easel. Looking back, I have to admit I was a terrible presenter.

Never mind the fact that I was incredibly nervous. I think the real problem was that I was explaining embroidery theory in a single talk when mastering the application of that theory had taken me years.

Sometimes I think audience members left more confused than when they came to the class. I did impress them enough with my knowledge of the subject matter that they felt they got their money's worth, but I'm not sure my early students took anything practical with them that they could apply in their shops.

BETTER TECH & TEACHING
After years of writing articles for embroidery publications and teaching seminars at ISS shows, I stepped away from the commercial industry a few years ago and moved full force into the home sewing industry. In that time, I have hosted hundreds of sewing events and taught thousands of home embroiderers how to use their "home" digitizing software.

To be honest, the information I teach home digitizers is exactly the same as what I taught in the commercial industry. The only difference is that I think I've become more sensitive to the fact that when people are getting started with any endeavor — whether a business or a hobby — both start at the same place: the beginning.

Given all this, I honestly feel that creating quality designs for any modern embroidery machine has more to do with possessing a solid foundation regarding digitizing theory and less to do with what software you're using. And an important part of that foundation is understanding the importance of mapping your design before you digitize.

My personal concept of digitizing is that it is an art form I feel I acquired as it was passed down through generations of "punchers" before me.

Since there are so many different digitizing programs available, when explaining the theory that goes into creating a design, it is important that it's presented in a way that every user understands. The visual quality of a design is dependent on the way it is constructed. The underlying stitches that you don't see directly impact what you do see.

When assessing the visual quality of a design, we use the term registration — the alignment of stitches of the sewn sample. Bad registration will be noticed right away — fabric shows through where it shouldn't, or stitches pop outside of outlines or objects don't line up, etc. If the sewn sample looks distorted compared to the artwork, that's a sign of bad registration. If all the objects and stitch types in the design align perfectly, that's a sign of good registration.

Proper registration is the result of planning or mapping your design properly. Keep in mind that sometimes embroiderers will compensate for bad registration by using multiple layers of stabilizer to give the fabric more stability. The rule is that a design that's digitized well only requires one piece of stabilizer. Of course, knowing how to hoop properly also will ensure that a design runs well. But if the registration looks wrong, the fault is usually with the digitizer, not the user.

Mapping a design is all about planning the design before you begin. As simple as it sounds, having a game plan will save you much aggravation. When I started manual digitizing in the old days, My designs had to be planned from beginning to end or the consequences would be disastrous. Every start and stop point, and every jump stitch and color change was planned before I even started. On those old machines, a color change involved 15 to 20 people changing 456 needles. If a jump stitch crossed over in the wrong place, 456 jumps had to be pulled out by hand — one at a time. I remember taking my drafts home in the evening so when I got to work the next day I wouldn't waste time.

PLOT YOUR PLAN
Taking 15 to 20 minutes to plot a course of action before you start a design is time well spent. It will help you navigate your way through the design and make it sew out more efficiently. When I ran my custom digitizing company, I would often get designs that were digitized by someone else for the sole purpose of editing. My mother ran our samples at our office (a great way to keep up quality control), and when she ran one of these files, she would often say the design was doing a "chicken dance." You sat there watching the design stitch out and wondered what on earth the digitizer was thinking.

The first thing to do when planning a design is work out the sewing order of colors. Look at the dimension of the design. I'm not an artist, but I do know enough about art to know that if you're painting a landscape, you look at it dimensionally. You paint the sky first because that is the most distant object, then you build the painting forward one step at a time.

You also want to identify the largest objects in the design. Even if they don't fall first in dimensional order, larger objects should be mapped first because they will cause distortion in the design when it's sewn out.

THINK IT THROUGH
Mapping a design for digitizing is all about common sense. If you think about it, every task someone does is usually thought out before they start. If you are taking a road trip, you plan it with a map. If you mow the lawn, you have a plan of action.

I use an example in my class that gets the point across in a fairly humorous way. When I married my wife, Jennifer, 19 years ago, she informed me that I'd have a couple of household chores to do. This was a bit of an adjustment because I grew up in the city as an only child. (Translation: I'm just a little spoiled.) My beautiful wife, on the other hand, is from the country and has four siblings — she definitely was not spoiled. Finally, I'm also a little bit of a slob and my wife is a bit of a clean freak; so it's true when people say opposites attract.

One of the chores she gave me was vacuuming. I didn't know at the time, but apparently there are rules for vacuuming wall-to-wall carpeting. You need to vacuum in nice, even, straight lines and you must make sure there are no footprints on the areas that have been done.

Digitizing and vacuuming have a lot in common. If you keep your vacuum in the closet and return it there without leaving any footprints, you need to have a plan of execution if you're going to vacuum the whole house without leaving footprints. You need to plan things so you back yourself out of each room in the most logical way possible.

Can you see how the vacuuming lines resemble underlay and satin stitches? Planning your way through a design is similar to any task you do on a daily basis — you plan it out logically.

MAP YOUR STRATEGY
Another thing to look out for is making sure the flow of stitches in a design stays consistent. If you have a lot of fills in a design — and the first fill stitches go from the top of the design to the bottom — then you should keep the same top-to-bottom flow for all other fills. This makes the stitches smooth in one direction on the fabric. If you map fills in multiple directions in a design, that might shift the fabric in multiple directions and throw off the registration.

I find mapping designs to be one of the most exciting parts of digitizing. After 24 years, I still enjoy mapping out a design. In fact, I find myself digitizing in my spare time because I enjoy the challenge each design brings. This part of digitizing is a continual learning experience. The reason mapping is so challenging is that every design is different; designs need to be digitized for different and challenging mediums and techniques.

Leather is different from denim, which is different from Lycra spandex, which is different from fleece and piqué knit and terrycloth — you're starting to get the picture. I promise that it will never get boring. So start by making notes for each design you digitize, and you'll find that your own system will start to develop and that mapping is the key.

John Deer, one of North America's leading experts on digitizing and embroidery, is a third-generation embroidery guru who has led hundreds of workshops and seminars on digitizing, embroidery techniques and running a decorating business. He owns and operates AdorableIdeas.com, which features digitized stock designs and educational products for the home embroidery market. He is returning to the commercial market with a variety of new software products. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail John at johnd@ punchperfect.com.

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