Sunday, July 11, 2010

In Line with Multi-Placement Embroidery

Have you ever turned down embroidering a baseball jersey job because the split-front design terrified you? What about sewing your clients logo around the bottom of a tablecloth for their upcoming show? Afraid you wouldn't be able to get the designs straight and lined up, especially multiple times? With a few pointers, you don't have to fear this ever again and your customers will be impressed with your professional skills.

The most common case of multi-hoop placements are by far the split front jerseys and jackets. Since you can't sew across the placket (or zipper) you have to embroider the design in two halves.

If it helps you on the horizontal plane, you can use an "L" ruler to get your horizontal perfectly correct to your vertical placket and mark with a chalk or fabric marker on both sides of the garment. It's imperative that your digitizer can see the jersey you're embroidering so the measurements are exact. I like to make sure the design overlaps slightly where it meets to make it visually appealing.

You must also have alignment markers on your hoops. Some companies have markings molded into the hoop itself for this purpose but you can simply mark your own with a ruler and marking pen. In this way, you can align your hoop with the placket (or your chalk marks) to get the designs straight on both sides.

You will hoop the fabric sides seperately, using your marks, matching the hoop marks to the chalk marks. Then you will drop (or start) your needle at the alignment point the digitizer has set in the design.

Assuming your digitizer is talented enough to set up your multi placement design, (....and NeedleUp can help you with this of course) you will work with them to set an alignment point on your design halves. This point is the juxtaposition for the two sides in relation to each other;

If you are just doing a design repeated several times, like along a hem, the second design usually starts from a point on the last design for a seamless sew.

There's a way to line up most any design, you just need a bit of practice and nerve enough to try it....not to mention a digitizer who will work with you. If you decide to go there, gives us a call!

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NeedleUp Digitizing can be reached at 303-287-6633 M-F 8:30 - 4