Please HELP! Design on cap

[dnt]

I am sewing a fleur de lis with what looks like bricks inside with letteringon a brushed heavy cotton twill structured cap. I cannot for the life of me get the border to line up and I keep getting needle breaks and the top point hits in the crease of the cap and causes more problems. Suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Juli in Kona]

If you take your steam iron and carefully steam (put a thin towel over the hat or the iron will mark it) and just steam the seam. It will soften it so you won't get the thread breaks.

And make sure the design isn't too tall. I only go 2.5" or slightly less. Since I did that (and I'm a "push the limit" kind of person)my life became much easier. Too tall and you will have nothing but troubles and frustration to the max -IMHO!

Juli in Kona

[Just Sew It]

Exactly what Juli said and, on 6-panel hats, I just hoop the front (small piece on each side and the bill). No clips. I don't have an XT though.
JO

[dnt]

Thanks for the suggestions, but didnt work.
Anyone else?

[signman]

We had the same problem until our life saver service tech came up for routine warranty checkup. He spotted the problem immediately...
the hat 'brim' was hitting on the back of the needle casing (I use the CCF hoops) and so I ordered the adaptor to hold the brim back. Everytime the hoop would move forward, that brim would hit and you could see it pull the face about 1/4" and...snap,
another needle shot.
With the CCF, most images can not be any larger than 2" high (we have older Big Red also, not the XT).
And I use a very still 4" roll of backing-set sewout to go from bottom (brim) UP, and center 'out' for most lettering and designs. This keeps the face from puckering up like it would if you went from top down-and starting in the center first ties the face to the backing.
When you hoop the hat, I think it was Aaron told me a year ago to bend the crim backwards first on the 'precurved' hats-then when you hoop it, firmly push the flat of your hand to squash the face right down while you tighten the clasp.
I also 'steam' the faces on the 6 panel hats that have the extra binding sewn inside to cover that center seam. We use a handheld Oreck steamer-no covering-right on the center steam Unless you have bad water or use juice-steam won't discolor the hat. It does make it a little more pliable and easier to sew.
Remember-a design that sews perfectly on a shirt will not work on a hat..you have to remove some density, play with the fills, etc. to get it right.
I hate hats...takes too long to do them and make any money...but we do get orders too small to send out.

[Juli in Kona]

What kind of hoop do you have? Is it the extended? That is harder to use than the EMC (older style). If your outlines are off, perhaps you should go into the design and tweak them, using the hats you have done as a guide as to where you need to move the outlines. If it looks good on your screen, it probable is not good sewn out. Wheat you see is not exactly what you get.

If you are having t breaks still, then you have to lessen the stitch density in those areas. You can do that by just deleting individual stitches or by changing the density of the whole object. Threads usually break because it is simply too dense. The steaming should help some, proper hooping (no flagging), lessen density, slow the machine, use poly thread rather than the much weaker rayon thread, a smaller or even a larger needle (both have worked. One of these or a combination of them should improve things. Are you mostly doing bottom up/center out? And outline should be done immediately after the fill, especially if there are problems. You didn't mention what kind of outline it was, but maybe if you do the outline first then the fill it would work. Especially if the outline is a satin. Is the problem of the outline that it is outside the fill? If so, that means you might need to increase the compensation of the fill.

See if any of these suggestions help.

Juli in Kona

[Nevi]

hi
I can take a look at your design,and if you have a scan of the result you're getting perhaps its fixable.
If you send EXP or DST is fine.

bye
Nev
email direct: [email protected]

[dnt]

Nevi, I have given up for today and am searching endlessly on this site for prior suggestions and writing them down. I will get with you in the morning if not successful. Thanks!!!!!!

[HERB]

So lets say I have 20 machines and am running caps,,,Now I need to use an iron on each cap to get it to sew? Nope, not today. If this is what you are doing you are using a crutch for a bad design/improper hooping or one of many other issues. I do not want to offend anyone but if this group is going to be any good we need to eliminate the stuff that is wrong and teach the stuff that is correct and the answers to this problemn are junk in my opinion.

[Juli in Kona]

Except if you have a bunch of caps that have an impossible center seam. But I agree in general. Fix the problem.

Juli in Kona

[signman]

I can't say it's a crutch if it solves the problem...I tried the suggestion a couple months ago when I had the same problem...using a design that we had used many times before on different caps without a hitch-even sent the design out for a large volume order. But on one particular type of hat-the HAT was the problem-not the design. Too many layers of material and inside sewn liner right down that center seam. Steaming it DID work-and for the order we had-it was easy enough to keep ahead of our one machine and not get behind. Granted-with 20 machines you can't do this-but I am willing to bet there is no one here that can sew perfectly on EVERY type of hat from any manufacturer. So for this particular situation-the solution is not junk and isn't wrong. We have already found one hat company that we won't sell several of their hat models-because the hat is almost 'peaked' and makes you look like Zippy the Pinhead...all our clients must be flat headed neanderthals because it it the worst looking hat on them-even I can't wear them! And other hats are fine.
So sometimes it isn't the design, it isn't the machine, it isn't the operator-its the substrate.
Look at all the different suggestions given in the past for sewing on towels...is there only one right answer and the rest junk? No, it depends on the towel and what steps that particular operator has mastered to get what he/she needs for a result.