Specialty Fabrics Require Smart Planning

In Part 1 of a two-part series, our expert guides you through fast and efficient techniques to use when digitizing and sewing on various substrates.
May 1, 2009

By Pat Williams, Contributing Writer

In a perfect embroidery world, all designs would work on all types of fabrics. Of course, that perfect world just doesn't exist. In the real world, we take on jobs that call for digitized designs to be sewn on a variety of fabrics. And the smart embroiderer knows how to alter a digitized file or adapt sewing techniques to ensure letters and logos show properly on any fabric.

Deep pile fabrics present unique challenges, and this article will give you the tools you need to successfully digitize and embroider on these types of fabric. Some of the more challenging materials include terrycloth, velvet, polyester fleece, corduroy and loose knits.

Bath robes, golf and bath towels are popular terrycloth products that embroiderers can decorate and sell to the corporate, golf or home goods markets. Terrycloth comes in two main types: looped or velour. The conventional wisdom given to embroiderers who are decorating a terrycloth item is to use a water-soluble topping.

Though this sounds like a good idea, problems can arise when the topping is removed. Sometimes, as the topping comes off, it will pull tufts right out of a velour towel — leaving little blank spots or holes in the smooth finish. Looped terry presents its own set of problems. Lower grade or less expensive looped terry — the kind you might use for promotional golf towels — is easy to ruin when using topping to hold stitches. Even if only one loop sticks to the topping during removal, it can cause big problems. Since the loops are made of a continuous strand of thread, pulling one loop out will cause the loops right behind it to disappear. Keep pulling too long, and you'll end up with what looks like a run in the fabric.

Embroidery on velvet fabrics also can be trouble. You see it used often on apparel, home decorating pillows and specialty items, such as wine bottle bags. True velvet typically is a dry-clean-only fabric. If you spray it with water to remove water-soluble topping, you risk permanent water spots on the fabric.

Jackets and vests made from polyester fleece — often referred to by the trademarked name Polarfleece — are very popular in the corporate market. This type of fleece also is widely used in baby blankets, lap robes and similar gift items.

The attributes that make polyester fleece so popular — it is thick, soft and comfy — also present some challenges to the embroiderer trying to digitize and sew a left-chest logo. For instance, small letters in corporate logos may seem to disappear when sewn onto polyester fleece.

Corduroy — an apparel fabric often used in caps — also can be difficult for embroiderers. Corduroy is a woven material with ridges of tufted threads forming stripes of various heights and widths. Again, small letters and columns can disappear into the ridges between the tufts if your design and technique are off.

Finally, sweater knits often are loosely woven and present another fabric surface that will seemingly absorb small embroidered letters.

Solutions
The key to embroidering on these fabrics is to know what changes to make when you digitize or edit your design so that underlay will control these fabrics, rather than relying on a topping to do so. The techniques are similar for all of these napped and pile fabrics, and subtle differences are dictated by the thickness of a particular fabric. The loft or density of your garment's fabric will require you to adjust fill stitch densities.

To embroider a four-inch letter monogram for a towel, as shown in Figure 1, measure the widest column width in the letter. That measurement will determine if the design will need special handling of the satin stitches. Once towels get into the hands of the end user, they are washed frequently. Don't use a satin stitch wider than 8 mm, as anything that wide, or wider, may droop after washing.

Figure 1



It also would be easy for the user to snag wider satin stitches with rings or other jewelry. With this in mind, split the stitch columns in the widest part of this monogram to ensure a lasting embroidered product. Taking this measurement first lets us know how to proceed.

Since terrycloth can be loosely woven and you must contend with the pile, digitize this letter with a center walk underlay stitch. That's just a running stitch from one end of the letter to the other that will secure your towel to the backing. Also, use an edge walk or guideline underlay stitch to stabilize the final satin stitches that will go on top. A third method to hold down terrycloth loops is zigzag underlay.

In the case of terrycloth, make the zigzag with a running stitch, instead of the normal zigzag stitches that would go the full width of the column. Use a short stitch length so there are needle penetrations in the middle of the columns that will hold the terrycloth loops down. If the terrycloth is very plush and the monogram is large, you might use a double zigzag underlay.

The final stitches in this design show the long satin or split satin stitches. I split this column into thirds, as I like that look better than just splitting it down the middle. Where you split the stitches is not as important as making sure you split them so that no stitch exceeds the 8 mm maximum width.

You may need to increase density settings when digitizing these larger-than- normal letters. Sewing a satin stitch on top of a regular zigzag underlay — with both having densities set at normal levels — will produce rich-looking, nicely rounded letters.

If we were reducing this same letter to embroider on a hand towel and a washcloth, some of these underlay techniques would serve no purpose and could be eliminated. If we reduce this letter B to 2.5 inches, the widest column width is 7.5 mm and the narrowest part on any column is 1.8 mm wide. In this case, you do not have to split the satin stitches, since the widest part of the letter is less than 8 mm. You should still use an edge walk or guideline underlay for the wider sections of the letter. The running stitch zigzag underlay also may be appropriate for the wider sections.

In situations where you will be doing small lettering on napped fabrics and sweater knits, you often will end up with skimpy-looking lettering as shown in Figure 2. The solution is a light cross-hatch fill behind the letters (Figure 3).

Figure 2. Small letters sink into napped fabrics.


Figure 3. A light cross-hatch fill is a better solution for small lettering on fabrics such as sweaters.


This cross-hatch background is usually sewn in a color to match the garment or towel and provides a smooth surface for the top embroidery. This underlay is made by selecting the complex fill tool. Set the density from 12 to 20. It is just a very light fill; the amount of density you want depends on how much nap you need to hold down.

Now, set the underlay in one direction with the same density figure you used for the fill stitches. Use the same stitch length in both the fill and the underlay. Set the angle of the fill stitches at 45 degrees and at 135 degrees from the underlay. Typically, you would choose a 4 mm stitch length. The results of this technique are shown in Figure 4. You can use this solution for either looped or velour terry, as well as polyester fleece and sweaters.

Although you can digitize lettering with columns as narrow as 1 mm wide, when digitizing a design for sewing onto napped fabrics, it's best to increase lettering or column widths to a minimum of 1.5 mm.

Objects to be filled with step satin or fill stitches also should have the loops laid down with underlay before you sew the top stitches. Use cross-hatched underlay to hold this pile down. A cross-hatched underlay is two rows of running stitches, with the first row at a 45-degree angle from the final stitches and the second row at 135 degrees from the top fill stitches.

When using this underlay for looped and velour terry, use shorter stitch lengths than usual to ensure the terry loops are secure underneath your embroidery.

Due to the thickness of some napped fabrics, increase pull compensation or overlap of objects in your design. For very thick material, you may need to overlap objects by up to 2 mm to maintain proper registration.

When digitizing objects with complex fill tools in your software, make sure the fill is not coming from two directions to meet in the middle. If you do it that way, some little piece of terry loop or velour pile will invariably pooch up between the two sections. For the same reason, multiple blocks of fill stitches should start and stop so that you are always working from the center of the design to its outer edges.

Figure 4


Hooping Techniques
On napped fabrics that must not get wet — such as suede and velvet — use extra care in hooping. Avoid using adhesive backings, as they will leave a gummy residue on the product. The trick is to not hoop these items so tightly that the hoop marks appear in the first place.

Follow these steps to prevent any problems:

• Loosen the bottom hoop considerably.

• Place the backing on the bottom hoop.

• Place the garment on top of the backing.

• Place tissue paper on top of the garment.

• Place the inner hoop over the tissue paper.

• Tighten the bottom hoop.

• Tear away the tissue paper from the embroidery area, leaving it only between the hoop rings and the garment.

• Embroider your design.

• After embroidery, do not "pop" the inner ring out from the bottom hoop. Instead, carefully loosen the bottom ring and then remove the embroidery.

In the case of a hoop ring appearing, a suede brush may help but it is best to avoid making hoop rings in these garments in the first place.

Stay tuned for Part II of Digitizing for Specialty Fabrics, where we will cover woven and knit fabrics such as tackle twill and Lycra spandex.

Pat Williams of Image Embroidery in Sierra Vista, Ariz., is an award-winning digitizer with experience in accounting and small- business management. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Pat at Pwilliams22@cox.net, or visit imageemb.com.

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