HATS, HATS, HATS!!!!

[RANDIM]

Hello All;

I am attempting hats for the first time and I am having a difficult time. The design is of a grizzly bear and everything sews out fine until it is time to sew the whites of his eyes and his white teeth. The it is a very small satin stitch in both areas and the thread gets real loopy. Even though it is such small areas the loopy eyes and teeth really mess up the whole design and I cannot afford to ruin any more hats. I am not quite sure how to fix it.

I am using the CCF frame, the actifeed is set at 10, I am using a heavy tear away backing, the hat is a Yupoong structured flexfit. Also does the auto thread break or bobbin thread detection disengage when sewing hats? I have run out of bobbin thread when stitching and had no warning.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

[signman]

Actifeed can't be 'set'...it's automatic. If it is 'stuck' on 10, then maybe it is shut off (standard)?
Now-something to think about-the 'eyes' are probably tiny, only a couple stitches-which means that it is done sewing almost as fast as it did the 'tiedown' stitches...so they haven't been 'sewn down' and hidden by more stitching. I'll bet this is the problem.If you can't do the white by having it sewn down first and then 'almost' covered by the other colors-try redigitizing the eyes. If the design is just a tiny little 'dot' and zoomed in looks like a circle with a fill-try making a manual 'star' pattern-just use the normal stitch and click back and forth like cutting a pizza-test and see how that looks. Instead of a 'fill' to make the eye, make this 'button' . For the teeth-a 'simple column' with satin stitch might work-instead of fill again.
Some fine details just really can't be done when you shrink a design down to fit the limited hat size.
But I know-sometimes the customer just won't budge.

[Rod or Sharon]

Randim,

The first question I have is, do you have an XT Amaya or one of the older Non-XT big Reds,as the group is calling them?

The next question is what level of software are you using? In the upper levels of 7.00.xxx there is a way to adjust the auto-actifeed. It is called "Auto Feed Lower Limit." This is found under "Settings", "Thread Feed" in OS.

If the eyes and teeth are not sewing over the center seam of the cap then 10 is to high for material thickness and looping would be sure to happen. If you are using the "Standard" mode of the acti-feed system, then using the "Settings by Color", in this case, would allow you to customize/program your individual needles/colors to sew at different speeds, material thicness, etc....In this case, you could activate The "Settings by Color" and choose a different material thickness for the eyes and teeth to sew and this would tighten them up. At 10, there is too much thread being fed in this particular area of the design.

You mentioned using the CCF cap frame, which leads me to believe you have an older Amaya.

Yes, the selecting the cap driver designation, automatically disables the bobbin detect. We use to disable it manually to sew caps, but somewhere around the upper 5.00.xxx or 6.00..xxx version of the software, this became an auto function, turning it off and on as the cap driver was selected from the hoop menu.

It is unfortunate that your first attempt to sew caps has given you the task of sewing the flex fit style of caps. These are by and large the style of caps most folks have more difficulty on....they are just a different breed of cat, so to speak. Don't be afraid to drop the presser foot down a bit to help hold the cap material down and prevent flagging. this leads to another question. If you do have one of the older Amayas, are you using the raised needle plate while doing caps? If so, the correct position of the presser foot would be all the way up and back down two or three clicks......

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[sschroed2]

It seems the only hats I do are Flex Fit because in my area that's what everyone wants. I don't have ANY problems sewing them. I use the CCF on my XT and set the pressure foot 1 click up from the bottom. I do use the stiff hat backing. Before I got my CCF hoop & was trying to use the WACF I gave up on hats. Now they are a breeze!

I sew designs with very heavy thread counts (up to 15k on a hat front). I use the auto settings on everything.

Sue
[email protected]

[Juli in Kona]

One click up on the presser foot is too little. Isn't it awfully loud? Having the foot come down too hard will move the material and can even leave bruise marks that can be permanent. I set it at least 5 clicks up!

Juli in Kona

[RANDIM]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I will try some of the suggestions and hopefully something will work so I can get through this. Y'all are a wealth of information and I really appreicate it.

Since this is a part time job for me, right now any way, I will be busy tonight sewing hats!!!!

[sschroed2]

Never had a problem with marks or anything else. Maybe my machine is just different. I also only use 75/11 titanium needles for the hats. The 1 click seems to work better for me than 2 clicks.

[Rod or Sharon]

Using the CCF with the XT, especially with the flex fit style of caps, leaves quite a lot of space betwin the inner side of the cap and the top of the sewing arm. The Xt 270 frame is designed to allow the cap to sit flat on the sewing arm.

I have tried the CCF and XT and find that on some caps it does seem to work better. I always use the CCF on my Big Red Amaya. But for the most part the XT cap frame does a fine job if used properly.

I, like you, have the presser foot down tight on the XT. All the way down to a couple of clicks up, depending on the cap. With a properly digitized design running at 1200 stitches a minute, having the presser foot down tight becomes more and more important.......

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[RANDIM]

I think I have figured out the problem....the eyes and teeth just happen to stitch very close to or on the center seam and they are the last things to stitch. Now....I am not quite sure how to "fix" it. I have an XT and use the CCF. Any more suggestions? Thanks for all your input!!!