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What makes us call ourselves as a superior quality pucker free digitizers? The best indicator of quality comes from peers like yourselves than what we can say about us. The latest verification on solution to puckering was done by Yolanda in South Carolina. Yolanda had tested four digitizing companies and posted us the scan of the sewouts. Here it is in Yolanda's own wordings: For years, I've always been bothered by the amount of puckering on my own corporate logo embroidered on finely woven dress shirts. We've always been hesitant on selling the higher end dress shirts because we know puckering can be a huge issue, and nobody seemed to know how to fix it. However, I recently started using Abcoln for digitizing, and when I brought up the issue with them, they walked us through a series of steps, specifically recommending different backings, hoopings, thread sizes, and needle sizes to try. After reviewing our results, they gave us three different versions of the digitized design to test further, and we were able to find a combination of settings that worked. ~VOILA~ a problem we've had for 7 years is over! From my personal observation, this is what we normally hear when a person utilizes our service for the first time. We have been in the embroidery digitizing business for two generations, and it requires a dedication to excellence, on every single order. This has helped embroidery companies achieve a special status in their community. Word of mouth has happened for most Embroiderers and we have been praised repeatedly for this very reason. How do you ensure that there are no puckering issues through digitizing? Abcoln is a pioneer in offering digitizing services, especially on crisp and clear quality embroidery digitizing. Both of our embroidery machines (cap attachment included) are dedicated solely and exclusively for sewing out the samples of your orders. Every single order goes through our sampling process, sewn out and thoroughly verified before it gets delivered to you. As a practice, we repeat this process, until we are satisfied with the resultant quality. Sometimes, we have identified improvements and sewn them again for an ehanced appeal and elegance. My personal objective is to save your production time and invariably your personal time involvement in these designs. Place an order with us and you and your client will be able to marvel at the difference. Sign Me Up. Let Abcoln prove me. I need more details. What is puckering? When manufacturers make fabric, they don't expect anything to be added to it. But, when we add stitches with embroidery, those stitches add weight and tension to the fabric. The weight and tension pulls the fabric inward, making it contract. There are a combination of reasons that cause puckering: 1. Incorrect digitizing, causing a high distortion factor. 2. Inadequately stabilized goods. 3. Fabric that was stretched during the hooping process. 4. Machine setup and threads. 5. Thread displacement. 1. Incorrect digitizing: Designs which have a relatively high stitch count for its size, combined with various factors, including varying stitch directions, shading, layering, and details are the typical culprits. When a needle penetrates into the fabric, it causes distortions to the layer of the fabric. This is like a very heavy object falling on a trampoline, causing smaller ruptures (distortions), which are irrevocable. The action of the needle and bobbin threads forming the stitches creates tensions and pull on the fabric. This being the #1 cause of puckering, a reliable high quality digitizer like Abcoln.com is ideal to help resolve the dreaded puckering issue. 2. Inadequately stabilized goods: During embroidery, the more a fabric stretches the less stable it is. Counteract this with stabilizers. Stabilizers are products that may be placed behind the fabric (backings), over the fabric (toppings), or applied to the fabric (starch, temporary spray adhesives). The hoop is a critical part of the stabilizing formula. Fabrics that are hooped between the rings of the hoop along with the backing, especially if the stabilizer has been further secured to the fabric with an adhesive, are more secure and stable than “hoopless” embroidery in which the fabric is attached to a stabilizer that is hooped or adhered to the hoop. The higher the design’s distortion factor and the more unstable the fabric is, the more the item must be augmented to provide suitable results. 3. Fabric that was stretched during the hooping process: Unless you are sewing on Lycra or similar fabric that is worn stretched across the body, fabric should be in a neutral position in the hoop. That means the fabric should be smoothly hooped and not stretched or distorted in any way. If you pull on the fabric after hooping, you are stretching it! After embroidering, the fabric will relax back to its normal state and presto! It puckers. In the case of Lycra, the goal is to stretch it to the point it will be worn on the body for a smooth embroidered finish. You are right: It will look hideous hanging on the hanger but we really only care how it looks hanging or stretched on the body. 4. Machine setup and threads: The tighter the needle and bobbin thread tensions on the machine, the more pull there is on the stitches thus resulting in more distortion. And, as your machine speeds up those tensions increase. As tensions increase, thread is stretched and pulled tighter and tighter. Polyester thread will stretch to a point before it breaks. This thread has as one of its attributes a thing called “recovery.” You can think of this as having a memory of its natural relaxed state. Over the 24 hours after sewing and removing from the hoop, it will attempt to return to that state. In other words, after being stretched during the sewing process it will “shrink,” producing—you guessed it—wrinkles and puckers around the embroidery. 5. Thread displacement: This is an often over looked reason for puckering. While we talk about embroidery on an item, we are technically embroidering through it. Each needle penetration except the first and last has two pieces of thread in it—one going in and the second coming back out after the bobbin thread has been picked up. That thread requires space. The more tightly woven a fabric is, the less breathing room there is between fibers, leaving little or no space to accommodate this extra thread. The fabric fibers are pushed apart for the embroidery thread. The fabric has to go somewhere and at some point, wrinkles, puckers, and cupping result. Proper stabilizing can reduce this effect, but only to a degree. Finally, you have a beautiful creation that your customer would be excited about. Please feel free to utilize the professional help of ABCOLN.com, if you have any questions. Sign Me Up. Let Abcoln prove me. I need more details. Here are 10 Tips and Tricks to combat PUCKERING, to create a clean, crisp embroidery design. (Based on an article) The following tricks had been used by organizations as a "How To" guideline, to help the embroidery really stand out: 1. Prepare the fabric by preshrinking it. If your fabric shrinks after the embroidery is applied, all your efforts beforehand are for naught. 2. Provide the best possible match between fabric and design. If that design must be sewn on that fabric, look for an expert digitizer like Abcoln.com who can help combat puckering. 3. Can you offset distortions with stabilizers or starch? Try using adhesives with your backing (I prefer sprays or double-stick embroidery tape rather than sticky backings.) My favorite stabilizer is fusible no-show mesh.Using duct tape to prevent slippage 4. Make sure you pay close attention to hooping—fabric should be in a neutral position and not slip at all during the sewing process. Use a hooping aid or duct tape to make sure slippage can’t occur. (Tear lengths of tape in half lengthwise and wrap around hoop onto backing) 5. Baste your design to the stabilizer before starting the design. Some machines have a built-in feature or use software to add a basting stitch before sending the design to the machine. Convert It Mac and Color It will do this for you effortlessly. 6. Optimize your tensions by using a tension gauge. Make sure your tensions are comfortably loose and balanced. A little bit goes a long way here! When adjusting the bobbin, try an 1/8 of a turn at a time. If tensions are too light, looping will occur. 7. Slow down the sewing speed. 8. Switch to rayon thread. 9. Use the finest (smallest) needle that can penetrate the fabric without damaging the fabric, thread, or allowing the needle to flex. This is a good rule to follow any time but pay particular attention when pucker prevention is paramount. Using a sharp needle with tightly woven fabrics can also reduce puckering. Embroidery needles are slightly rounded (somewhere between a sharp and a ballpoint). 10. When in doubt, appliqué! Just joking, but only halfway. Appliqués work on a wider range of fabrics than full stitch designs but that’s a subject for another article! As always, please sew a sample embroidery on a similar fabric before trying it on the actual product. In this specific case, it is best to test it over and over again, till perfection. Thanks to Lindee for their help with solidifying and improving on this list. Adaptations about how Abcoln can help has been done to the original list. Sign Me Up. Let Abcoln prove me. I need more details. Was this post helpful? If you could write back to us, we would love to hear about it. Your support, encouragement and thoughts will help tailor this post in making it even more tuned and useful. Here is our email address for you to reach us: abcolnfashions@gmail.com Sign Me Up. Let Abcoln prove me. I need more details. This page was updated just now (mid November) |
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