I am embroidering on a cotton thin T-Shirt

[Coach]

The hoop is nice and tight, but the design is creating waves or to be more clear it is gathering the cloth to mat a 1/16 inch tall wave every inch or so. Can someone tell me which direction I went wrong to cause this?

Respect,

Coach

[Coach]

FYI, I did not pull the T-shirt material tight or stretch it.. The back mat is thick, AND TIGHT.

[TinaK]

Coach~

First, you didn't mention the type of backing you are using and your waves is called puckering.
How many stitches are in your design? What kind of pull comp do you have? Did you try spraying the t to the stabilizer as t's tend to move a little and spraying them to the stabilizer helps a great deal or use iron on no show mesh depending on your stitch count.

Are you using the actifeed and if so what is it set on?

[Coach]

First, you didn't mention the type of backing you are using
Alan: I am using 1.5 TA backing

How many stitches are in your design? 165,880

What kind of pull comp do you have?
Alan: I do not know what a pull comp is...

Did you try spraying the t to the stabilizer as t's tend to move a little and spraying them to the stabilizer helps a great deal or use
iron on no show mesh
Alan: What is a good "Iron on no show mesh"?

Depending on your stitch count.
Alan: May I ask what the break down for stitch count woul be, for when Iron on is go or no go?

Are you using the actifeed and if so what is it set on?
Alan: I am using the actifeed, Now..

The questions that you asked alone helped alot. If you can answer mine I will be closer to the goal..

By the way I posted another question this evening regarding my fills not making it to the outlines. The fills look fine when I zoon in on DS. but thay are willy nilly off by up to 3/8 inch away from the border lines in some areas. Any thoughts?

Thank You Much,
Coach Al..

[Juli in Kona]

I can see several problems.

1. Your design is way, way, way too stitch intensive for a light wt t-shirt!!!

2. Was that tear-away you are using? Not for a knit fabric! Use a heavy (because of the massive stitch count) cut away. Always use cut away for knits.

3. Look up "pull compensation" in the help files. That is a very big subject!

4. You can get a good "no-show" iron-on at American Embroidery Supple. But that is not going to be enough for your big design. You will also need a regular heavy wt cut-away under that. And, yes, you will need either the iron-on or glue it on. Otherwise you see what happens!

5. Fred Lebow can probably tell you exactly what you need. He is the expert on stabilizers.

6. Just MHO, but a thin t-shirt just is not the media for a huge design like you have. Get a very nice garment that will last a long time.

I am sure others will add their 2 cents, but this will get you started.

Juli in Kona

[TinaK]

Alan~

I agree with Juli in her answers...also can I suggest checking out Joyce Jaggers website as she has a ton of training videos and she also does a monthly seminar.

Here is the spot you can find the link to her site.

http://www.amayausers.com/marketplace/default.asp

Have you gone to classes yet?

[TinaK]

Your fills not making it to the outlines should be your outlines is not lining up with the fills as your outlines should sew last.

This is caused by the push pull effect of sewing which with proper stabilizer, proper digitizing should take care of that problem.

[signman]

Okay, I have to jump in and ask...how large is this design (inches) and why does someone want it on a teeshirt? At the usual rate of $1 per thousand stitches-you have $160 design going on a $2.99 shirt...so I'm really curious! The largest design I have ever done was around 90,000 stitches and that was a full jacket back. Teeshirt material is pretty much the absolute worst material to sew on...because even your backing material is thicker than the shirt. Puckering is almost an absolute 'given'...because the material isn't dense enough to keep the stitching from pulling tight. That's where your pucker comes from. So you have to create a balance of less density, looser thread, and digitizing so that your sewout doesn't have large areas with the fill going in one direction-this 'pushes' the shirt ahead of the presser foot and also creates 'puckering' and a shift in the pattern.
Your outline problem-in your digitizing, the 'centerline' of your outline should be slightly inside the outer edge of the part getting the outline-and then you 'expand' the width depending on how the sewout reacts with the material. So if your material is being pulled 'in' because of dense sewout, you need to move the outline in to compensate. OR, use the pull comp to 'push' (expand) the fill area 'out' to the outline. THe amaya doesn't 'see' what happens to material that shifts and puckers-it just keeps sticking the needle in where it is supposed to go if the material was perfectly flat and didn't move a micron.

[smeggy345o]

I recommend John Deer's book which explains push and pull. Also he has a video you can rent from smart flix.

http://smartflix.com/store/video/597...zing-Made-Easy

It is a great video and explains everything so that you can understand it with no problems.

[Coach]

The reason for the backpatch on a T-shirt is that I was handed about 5 T's by my daughter inlaw to procatice on. Fron that I have learned a ton of stuff. Like presser foot adjusting, using sharp needles, perfect bobbin tension, the word puckering and all the things included in the answers of this Topic.. I am super appreciative of your answers and am learning alot. Too bad there is not a file upload deature on this forum. I would share my finished product for feedback with all of the helpful people who are out here.. I suppose most importantly is thank you all.. I have learned from each and every reply... I will be checkin out that video soon. There is so much more to talk about.

[Coach]

I used the folks from digitizingmart for the design, I have learned a ton from just reverse engineering their work. From what I can tell most of the gaps are from poor digitizing. When I look at the graphical display in both the AMAYA V9 OS and Design Shop Pro+ the gaps do not show up, but when I right click>>Operations>>Convert to Wireframe, then scroll through the substitch chunks, I see that they have missed many of the areas. SOOOO, the combination ot Tshirt, Poor Digitizing, presser foot this and bobbin tension that has led to the bottom of a good bottle of wine... I hope to keep in touch as I have some questions regarding Digitizing.... Stitch Types and Whatnot.. Like where do I learn this stuff..

Happy Saturday and God Bless for all the help,

Coach

[Juli in Kona]

Where do I learn this stuff..????????

Well, years of experience helps. You just can't learn it from a book - you have to experience it. Practice, practice, practice. But, you are starting off good. Reverse engineering is very valuable. But, please, reverse engineer a good design.

Juli in Kona

[Coach]

I have placed a photo out on one of the websites I created. This is not my website, but I am pretty sure Captain rick wont mind me creating a page for sharing an Image with pals.

Here is a good question... Do the Digitizers at digitizingmart.com do each of these points one at a time or are they area's that have a fill of some sort. I have figured out how to do 'Normal, Walk Type fills. Here is a screen shot to support my question.
How was this section created? One I turned it into a Wireframe I was hundreds of stitch markers. Do they use Auto Digitizing, Some fill technique.. Actually i do not care what they do, can someone let me know the fastest way to create these Walk Type Fills?
SEE PHOTO: http://bodegabaysportfishing.com/coach_Al.asp

Thanks,
Coach

[TinaK]

Juli is right it is years of experience and alot of trial and error. Taking as many online and offline classes has really helped me. I have also got some great books and how to cd's to pick up the speed in learning. Check out the links posted above as they will help you start in the right direction and ask alot of questions as well.

I learn something new everyday in this business that is what makes it fun for me!

Your photo did not appear on the webpage you have in your last post.

[Steve]

165,000 stitches is way to much for a t-shirt. They just aren't designed for all of that thread. I have done a 180,000 stitch design on a jacketback but it is a different material. I have never used 1.5 oz. tear-away on t-shirts. 2.0 oz. or 2.2 oz. cut-away would be better for t-shirts.
As far as digitizing goes, it takes a lot of practice and I wouldn't attempt anything over 20,000 stitches until you have mastered small designs. I wasn't able to see AL picture either, maybe use www.tinypic.com and paste the link here