Impressions - February 2010 - (Page 36)

EMBROIDERY >> HANDS ON Production CONVERT TO APPLIQUÉ For many designs, converting large areas of stitching into appliqué is an ideal way to signiﬁcantly reduce the stitch counts in a design. But you must use extreme care when pricing appliqué as the stitch count is not indicative of the true cost of the job. Things to consider are: • The cost of the fabric. • The cost of cutting the fabric — will it be done by hand or contracted out? • The cost of applying the fabric — the embroidery machine must be stopped during the appliqué process. The length of down time will depend on the complexity of the design and what method is used to secure the cut fabric to the garment prior to stitching. • And, of course, you must always determine if the design and/or garment are suitable for appliqué in the ﬁrst place. INCORPORATE MULTIMEDIA More and more shops are providing multiple forms of embellishment, which means more creative opportunities to create mul- EMBROIDERY HANDS ON timediaDIGITAL DECORATING designs that combine embroidery with other forms of decoration. HANDS ON For example, sublimation can be combined with embroidery to create a large design SCREEN PRINTING with minimal stitch count. The bulk ofHANDS can be sublimated and a design ON embroidery can then be applied for highlights and/or special effects. The same TECH TIPS concept applies toON HANDS combining transfers or digital printing with embroidery. Should you decide to venture down the path of multimedia for stitch count reduction, you should be aware of one important detail: how to line up the embroidery on top of the printing. This is easier said than done. For some designs it’s possible to include reference marks in the printing that will later be covered by the embroidery. This will help with lining up the hoop with the sewing needle, but it won’t necessarily be very beneﬁcial during hooping. For the best result, try to create the embroidery aspect of the design such that there is a certain degree of tolerance in regards to placement, especially when using a multihead machine. Thus, if it shifts a satin segment with ITAL DECORATING the same density, the stitch count drops to 217 stitches. With this HANDS ON >> technique, you must be cautious about satin column width, as 12 mm is about the absoCREEN PRINTING — and even that may lute maximum width be HANDS ON too wide. You also can change satin stitches to run stitchesTIPS TECH in some cases. For example, suppose you had a 50 mm diameter ﬁlled HANDS ON circle with a satin border, using a density of 4.0 pts. The number of stitches in the satin border is about 700. Changing that satin border to a run stitch border with a 3.0 mm stitch length, would reduce the stitch count to 64. Making the run-stitch segment into a bean-stitch segment (my preference) would still only include a total of 174 stitches, compared to 700 for the satin version (see Figure 3). A word of caution when changing stitch types: Be sure that your choice does not alter the visual aspects of the design. In addition, take the fabric into consideration, as a satin border in the above example would be preferred over a run stitch border in certain situations, such as a thick or textured material. >> >> Use Info•Action #21 at impressionsmag.com/infoaction Use Info•Action #22 at impressionsmag.com/infoaction Impressions >> February 2010 impressionsmag.com http://www.nationalbanner.com http://www.bitousa.com http://www.nationalbanner.com http://www.impressionsmag.com/infoaction http://www.impressionsmag.com/infoaction http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - February 2010

Impressions - February 2010
Contents
First Impressions
FYI
Product Gallery
Working Wearables
On Design
Buying Equipment on eBay
Finance New Equipment the Right Way
Less Stitches = More Money
How to Find Good Employees
Online Directory
How to Create Textured Ink Effects
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - February 2010