How to Embroider on Thick, Thin, Stretchy or Stable Materials

Follow these tips to create the best finished sewing on any weight substrate.
June 1, 2008

This design, a chef outline, has a center walk underlay, which is sufficient in most cases to make columns stand up from the garment. However, soft knits may need an edge walk to prevent the stitches from sinking into the material.

Most embroidery shops get a variety of customers who request jobs of all types and sizes. In the small town where I live, we don't turn away anyone. Whether the buyer is looking for one "grandma" shirt or hundreds of items, our staff takes the order. Consequently, my staff needs to know how to handle all different types of fabrics or substrates.

For example, in a typical day, we may be required to embellish placket shirts, polyester fleece blankets, leather jackets, denim shirts, caps, bags, sweatshirts, T-shirts…you name it. We once embroidered a wheel cover for the back of an SUV. And just before I sat down to write this article, we had a request to put a name on a gun case.

In other words, substrates of varying weights, thicknesses and stability go under the needle all day. Some are thick and some are thin, and you should know how to produce great results on all of them.

For the purpose of this article, let's assume a restaurant owner requests twill chef's coats, plackets for the wait staff, six-panel caps, T-shirts and other gift shop items, including fleece blankets, CD cases and sports bags — all decorated with the company logo. Each of these substrates will require knowledge of how to tweak digitized artwork, appropriate backing and various hooping techniques.

DIGITIZING DO'S
As a digitizer, I know the easiest person to blame for substandard embroidery is me. Therefore, I take my job very seriously in terms of creating a design specifically for the fabric upon which it will be sewn.

In the order from the restaurant owner, there are three distinct substrates. The easiest and least likely to cause problems are the items made from solid fabrics — the chef's coat, CD cases and bags. My favorite theme here is efficiency. As any other good digitizer would, I try to achieve the best results with the fewest stitches; that's where the money is.

A minimal amount of underlay is necessary to secure solid fabrics to backings. Stitches do not sink into them as they might when sewing on less-stable substrates. I would try to use each thread color only once, walking from one color block to the next, avoiding time-wasting trims whenever possible. I would repeat a color only if there were apparent layers in the design that couldn't be achieved any other way.

The second category includes knits. The stretchy properties of plackets, T-shirts, sweatshirts and polyester fleece make them unstable surfaces for embroidery. Many knit fabrics also have a nap that can be more difficult to cover if you can't prevent the threads from sinking into them. A common mistake is to add more density to the design, which adds to the stitch count.

Instead, proper underlay is the key to great embroidery on knits. Stitches will certainly sink into knit fabrics unless you provide a way to make them stand up above the material. A fill underlay running 90 degrees off the direction of the stitches is the best solution. In the case of polyester fleece and other napped fabrics, it may even be necessary to use two underlays, each running at 45-degree angles from the stitch direction of the fill. Columns may need an edge walk underlay rather than a center walk, or possibly both.

All that underlay will definitely add to the stitch count in the design, but never as much as increasing the density of the fill would. Plus, the embroiderer will avoid unsightly fabric buckling that can be caused by too many stitches.

The last substrate category in our diverse order is caps. Headwear is a different breed when it comes to digitizing. I've devoted entire articles to this subject, but space does not permit an extensive review here. I'll just say this: Efficiency be hanged. Cap designs perform best when they are digitized from the center out and from the bottom to the top. Why? Though caps are usually constructed from stable fabrics, most are flimsy and hard to hoop. The most stable part of a six-panel cap is near the seam that secures the crown to the bill, followed by the area of the front center seam. Working up and out from those two stable portions pushes the fabric the same distance with each pass of the embroidery machine, allowing for better registration in the design.

Other than digitizing for caps, which usually requires extensive editing — if not a completely separate file — moderate editing of a design is usually all that's required to accommodate the changes necessary to move from one fabric type to another. In today's world of sophisticated digitizing and editing software, a click of the mouse is all it takes to add underlay when needed.

HOOPING HELP
Military precision: That's the term that comes to mind when I think about hooping. Sloppy hooping presents more problems in embroidery than any other oversight, in my opinion.

When a garment is properly hooped, the fabric's tension will present a firm structure on which to place the design. In the case of knits, this must be done without stretching the fabric at all.

Achieving an even tension in the hoop is easy. Just place the bottom portion of the hoop on the inside of the garment, centering it where the embroidery will be placed. The backing of choice should be between the hoop and the garment. On the outside of the garment, insert the top portion of the hoop. This placement is easy if you have a hooping aid. If not, the eye works well, too.

Once the hoop is in place, a gentle tug on the fabric outside the hoop will increase the tension. Be careful not to pull knits too much. When the hooping is complete, make sure the lines created by the weave — commonly called the grain of the fabric — are straight in both directions, vertical and horizontal.

STABILIZE IT
Many backings are available but the two most common types are cutaway and tearaway. My backing of choice is most often a medium cutaway. Cutaway backings provide more stability than tearaway simply because they do not pull apart in the embroidery process. Tearaway backings weaken, especially around the edges of the design, with each needle penetration. The nice part of using a tearaway, though, is that removal is easy and the inside of the garment looks nicer and is more comfortable against the skin when there is no unsightly backing left around the edges of a design.

Because of the properties of the different types of fabrics in the restaurant order we're discussing, we will choose different types of backing. Medium tearaway backings will be sufficient for the stable fabrics in the twill coats, bags and caps. The CD cases would present a different problem in that they cannot be hooped with ordinary methods. They could either be embroidered with a specialty frame or by placing them on sticky backing using a standard frame.

Knit fabrics need a stronger foundation to prevent movement during embroidery. In general, a good rule to follow is that the less stable a fabric is, the more stable the backing must be. A common fear when embroidering placket shirts or lightweight T-shirts is that heavy backing will show through the finished garment. Another concern is that, in most cases, embroidery lies against the skin when the garment is worn and the remnants of very heavy backings can be scratchy and uncomfortable. Mesh backings are great in these circumstances. The mesh is translucent and lightweight, allowing for better draping of the finished garment than heavier backings.

There are many backing choices and it takes a bit of research and experimenting to find what works best for you.

FINISH IT OFF
When my mom taught me to sew when I was a child, she would always tell me that the inside of the garment should look as good as the outside. I also remember, when entering 4-H competitions at local county fairs, the agonizing moments when the judge would turn that garment inside-out and inspect the stitches of every seam, ensuring the construction techniques were done correctly, the stitches were even, the upper and lower tensions of the machine were set correctly and that all ends of the thread were clipped.

The same care should be taken in finishing every garment. First, remove the backing. With tearaway, this is simple. It is usually already perforated by the stitches, and a slight tug will remove excess from the edges of the design. Cutaway requires more care; trim close to the edge of the design without actually clipping any stitches.

As for the rest of the design, the machines should have been properly set before embroidery, but clipping any unsightly threads also will make the design picture perfect. After all, that's what we are trying to achieve: picture-perfect embroidery on every piece, regardless of how thick or thin the substrate may be.

Barbara Geer has owned Grand Central Graphics, Inc., Middle River, Minn., since 1990 and also offers the embroidery design collection, Grand Slam Designs. Barb is a frequent contributor to many industry trade publications and a speaker/educator at trade shows. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Barb at barbgeer@wiktel.com.

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