100% Cotton Pique - hate'n it!

[J&O Enterprises]

Hi All,

I was wondering if there are any specific tips when sewing on 100% cotton pique style shirts. Does the AMAYA sew better on this type of material than the older machines due to the "softer" sew? I find that sewing a quality design on Pique takes twice the effort versus a tighter weave of clothing. I use just enough density in the design to cover (for instance 4 density may look good, where at 3.5 would distort the design a bit).

Any tips and insight as to how the AMAYA sews on pique would be great. I'm still tossing up the idea of trading my 4-heat 6 needle for two AMayas.

Thanks,

[J&O Enterprises]

Update; I increased density from 4 to 4.2 and the thread breaks were cut 75%. The reaminig breaks were more of a "thread-shread", but much improved overall anyway.

[signman]

We find that we end up using 3 oz. backing, I prefer 3 oz. cutaway, my wife prefers 2 1.5 oz. tearaway-faster to remove the excess for her.
Most of the designs we have to use a layer of solvy, and sometimes an extra underlayment to tie down the pique knit. otherwise the sewing goes down between the pique rows.
Pique is definitely harder than 'flat' material because you are trying to sew on a 'corrugated' surface so each needle piercing is in a different thickeness.
We have some samples of the 'mesh' and other backings to test-just haven't gotten to it it.
Your 'thread shredding' sounds more like you have your needle 'off center' a smidge-or the needle needs to be rotated just a degree one way or the other.
That's what we check when we get it. Also had a 'burr' on the rotating thread cutter that had to be polished off-took care of most of it.

[J&O Enterprises]

Thank you. I forgot to add that we did use solvy too. The final produt looks great, but it took work to get it. Removing density seemed counter-intuitive, but it actually provided a better "covered" looking design. I also like the idea of using dual 1.5 tear-aways to speed things up. Thanks,
Jim