Can't get rid of the small little puckers

[Impressive Threads]

Ok, I have been sewing out this design off and on for 2 days. It is basically a rectangle (horizontal) fill with a column border. It is going on woven dress shirts, mostly cotton blends. I have tried 3oz, 2oz and 2.5oz cutaway backing. My fill properties are: Fill 4, 3.5 density, stitch angel 85, stitch length 45. I have walk stitches underneath prior to the fill, then edge walk and standard underlay at density 18, angle 45. I am getting tiny little puckets on the top left and bottom right areas of my rectangle.
I have tried a different fill (7) and changed my fill stitch angle 90 which were ,y first design options.

For large square / rectangle fills what is best for dress shirt type of fabric. Please help I am wasting tons of thread.

confused in phoenix
Cindy

[Judy]

3.5 makes a buletproof design (in my experience). Try 4.5 or 4. And good luck!

[signman]

your fill density of 3.5 is the first culprit-way to dense, and then with a stitch length of 45..the stitches are pulling too tight because they are too long. I never use a stitch lenght higher than 25. And density, start at 4, then try 4.5.
Backings...on dress shirts, the shirt is really thin-a mesh backing is going to make a big difference and you won't need a ton of extra backing. It's the heavy (thick) backings and long stitches and tight density fighting you all the way.
My suggestions...go to density of 4 or 4.5 if it still covers good, underlay density of 15-20, stich lenght 30, not more. Mesh backing with 1.5 or 2 oz tear or cutaway with the mesh against the shirt. Try one, see if it puckers less, THEN get out your hand steamer or hand iron (heat press comes in handy!) and press the image area a bit. That should settle the pucker down! Sometimes there is nothing you can do about pucker-look at any 'satin' baseball jacket-there are 'pulls' all around the lettering and no one bitches about it.

[Impressive Threads]

Ok I tried the recommendations changed density to 4.2 stitch length to 30, mesh backing with tear away supporting and it looks great now. Thanks so much for the help.

Cindy