Embroidering on a polo - HELP

[Eye Kandy Designs]

Been trying to embroider a pretty simple logo on a Dickies polo shirt but it is just not turning out very well. It is all lettering (a standard Arial type font for the logo and melco script font for the name under the logo)...both are at 0.70" high. I have tried several settings but the columns just are not consistent. Was wondering if someone could give me some settings that they have found useful. Also I am using 2 pieces of backing...should I also be using dissolve material on top?

[Juli in Kona]

If the polo shirt is pique, try the topping. Pique is difficult.

Juli in Kona

[Eye Kandy Designs]

Sorry I am fairly new to embroidering...actually real new to it...mainly have been doing Dickies work shirts and flexfit hats thus far which are flat materials...but I am not quiet sure what pique is???...sorry if that sounds stupid...but I will learn...the material is 60% cotton and 40% polyester.

[Eye Kandy Designs]

Just looked up images of pique and yes I do believe that is what it is:
http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2...que-Fabric.jpg
This is one I found.

Can you give any more tips like density, short stitches...etc?

[Juli in Kona]

Did you try just covering it with solvy?

[Eye Kandy Designs]

Not yet...that was going to be my next attempt. I bought a shirt and cut it up so I can just run a bunch of samples and see what works best...but thus far have not been having much luck with it looking real clean...and what I mean by that is the column outside edges lining up instead of going back and forth and some of the text is distorting up and down instead of being a straight horizontal line it looks like a wave in areas.

Have tried:
Density 4.0 with a pull comp of 120%, no underlay
and
Density 4.0 with a pull comp of 110%, center walk underlay and adjusted the fabric to medium knit.

again text is .70" high

any other suggestions besides the solvy?

[Eye Kandy Designs]

sorry correction lettering is .40" high

[TinaK]

Why 2 pieces of backing how many stitches are you sewing and is your backing a cutaway or tearaway? Have you tried a fusible backing if you stitch count isn't huge I would do the fusible backing and watersoluable topping.

Good Luck!

[Eye Kandy Designs]

2980 stitches...text covers roughly a 4" wide by 1.5" high area.

I am using cut away backing...used one on the first one and then tried two thinking it might stabilize the stitches more in the fabric to prevent the waving. I am using a spray fabric adhesive as well.

[Juli in Kona]

And you could try lightening up the density just a bit to, say, 4.5. I would not skip the underlay. Do at least a center run.

Juli in Kona

[Eye Kandy Designs]

ok cool...stitching one out right now with the solvy and a density of 4.2...thanks for all the help you both are giving.

[flebow]

You really should need only one layer of a wet laid soft dense non woven cutaway 2 to 3 ozs to match your stitch count and stitch density

http://www.lebowconsulting.com/stabilizer-glossary.htm - wet laid

Unless its a light color and you can see the backing thru the shirt then one lyyer of the no show w diagonal mesh for about 1212,000 stitches = If you add a tearaweay - it will hold more stitches and improve definition esp on lettering

http://www.lebowconsulting.com/stabilizer-reviews.htm - mesh

If you want samples for your own tests - please e-mail me off list

Fred [email protected]

[Steve]

I agree with Fred. One piece of cutaway and solvy on top should do it. Make sure you have underlay. At .70" you should be using Edge walk underlay at 55%-75% Can you take a picture of the embroidery and post the link here? Free hosting at Tinypic.com This way we can see what is going on.

[GF]

Use Fred's suggestions for the stabilizer. After that, sounds like what Juli offered will get your density issue resolved. My contribution is to set your Lower Actifeed Settings to this: 45/101/5/4 and you should be fine. I embroider a lot of pique shirts and this is the setting I find works out really well. Auto Actifeed should be on (as opposed to standard). If you experience false bobbin breaks or thread breaks, adjust the top two numbers accordingly and practice this on your practice piece until you find the right settings because each machine is a little different. Let me know how you make out.

[Eye Kandy Designs]

Ok...so first off you guys are all amazing for helping me with this and not even knowing me and me being completely new to this site...so thanks for all the above advice and any further advice to come...I greatly appreciate it and am looking forward to learning from you (the pros...hehe)

Ok here is a scanned image of what I got...the cyan lines I drew in after the scan to show the uneven baseline....but you can see the embroidery looks really bad because it doesn't look evenly laid down, the columns in the text are not consistent, etc...really frustrating because it seems like a really simple job.
http://www.eyekandydesigns.com/embro...sionSource.jpg

This is what I did:
Red text was insterted in as a .eps file, converted to stitches - lettering, lettering height is .5", 4.2 density, 110% pull comp, center walk underlay of 20 pt and a fabric adjust set to medium knit and .25-.5 text height setting.

White text is Melco Script Font done in DS, lettering height is .4", 4.2 density, 110% pull comp, no underlay and a fabric adjust set to medium knit and .25-.5 text height setting.

I used two piece of 2.0 oz cut away backing and a solvy top. Acti-feed is set to auto. The shirt material is 60% cotton and 40% polyester...pique?...and speed is just at 700spm

So you guys have tossed a lot of tips out above but I think I have put everything out on the table now for you to see what I am doing and my results...so based on these any suggestions? Going to try some of the settings Steve and GF have suggested now and Fred look out for an email from me later today.