Embroidery Digitizing: The incredible shrinking (or enlarging) design

There will be times when a customer decides they want a left chest size version of the jacket back they just had digitized (or vice versa) and you will have to explain to them why it will have to be redigitized. It’s hard for a customer to understand since to them, we’re just pushing computer buttons and all the magic happens in the program, right?

If you’re enlarging a design from a 4” chest size to 10” or 12” jacket size you will likely have to have portions (or all) of the design repunched or satin stitches converted to fills.  Once a satin or column stitch gets above a certain width, a fill stitch needs to be used instead so that the machine is not making huge movements and stitches are not too wide.  If a satin stitch is wide enough for a pencil to be inserted on the open end of the column, it is much more likely that the stitching will snag and ruin the embroidery, especially on jacket backs since the wearer will lean up against seat backs, etc.

There’s also the issue of detail.  What seems very detailed at 3-4” wide looks elementary when enlarged to 10” and gaps appear between joints and other elements that were not an issue in the smaller compact version of the design.  Any flaws that might have been virtually unnoticeable at chest size now appear. Remember, as you’re enlarging the design 250%, you’re also enlarging the spaces and gaps between elements 250%.

Conversely, if your intention is to shrink a design from jacket size, you are going to have the opposite issue.  Fill areas will become too small or narrow to use fill stitches efficiently and must be converted to satin stitches.  Satin stitches, such as outlines, that get even smaller must normally be repunched with running stitches once they get below about 1.5mm wide.  Some design details get too small to even include in the final design and must be eliminated.

These things are important to talk to your customer about, especially if they will be ordering both chest and jacket sized versions of their design. If there is an element that cannot be included once the design is small enough for chest applications, sometimes the customer will opt to leave it off the larger version so the two designs will still look exactly the same. Either way, you are giving your customer the information they need to make an informed decision when they order their digitizing.

For more information about NeedleUp's digitizing services, please visit our website at http://www.needleup.com where you can view some of our most recent work and get pricing and more information on contacting us.  Donna Lehmann is owner of NeedleUp Digitizing and she can be reached at 303-287-6633