thread feed and material thickness settings

[Mama Kass]

I've been looking through old posts and I haven't found an answer to this question: Should I use higher material thickness or lower column feed to reduce puckering and skipped stitches on column elements which are as much as 3/8" wide? Don't they both simply feed out more thread? When we bought our new yellow thread feed rollers for our Big Red a few years ago I started using a column feed setting of 65 (a Melco telephone tech told me to raise my setting by about 15 points from the default of 50). I left the run/fill at 100. Since a lower column feed number means less bobbin and more top thread on the back, would lowering this setting loosen up the columns and reduce puckering? The small amount of fill that we use stitches out fine at these settings. I placed a post on 4/28 called "skipped stitches" if you need more info about other settings, backing etc.

[YDCustom]

It seems to me that you would want to increase your material thickness rather than adjust the thread feed. You are correct in thinking that the thread feed will increase the amount of top thread that is fed out but won't adjust the stitching because there will be less bobbin thread so there is no net gain of thread. By increasing your fabric thickness, you are telling the machine that you need more total thread (bobbin AND top) to complete the stitch.

The bigger question is why are you getting the puckering in the first place? Are you hooping tightly enough? Using appropriate backing? Using appropraite underlay? Sewing the design in a good order? It could also have to do with stitch angle. I find that columns that are open at the ends pucker worse than columns that are closed at the ends somehow (either by being capped off like a serif font or by having the stitches angled at the ends of the column).

Skipped stitches could be caused by a needle that is off center or a rotary hook that is no longer aligned properly.

We routinely sew columns up to .4 inches onto fine linens without puckering or skipped stitches. I have had to tweak my hooping and backing over time but have pretty much settled on the tightest hooping I can get with two layers of 1.5oz tear away backing. I use an edge walk underlay and sew from the center of the design out (this way any fabric distortion is pushed out of the design in all directions, rather than trapped entirely at one end).

[Mama Kass]

Yesterday I spent quite a long time on the phone with Rod who was a great help in explaining the difference between what happens with the thread feed and material thickness adjustments (in addition to tons of other advice). Despite some of the bad-mouthing of Amayas that I've seen, we've had this machine for 8 years without a service call! So it's probably time and we're working on that.

I use two layers of 1.5oz diagonal mesh with a layer of tear-away for crispness. I try for drum tight hooping, but with the jacket back hoop that can tough to achieve, even with the hoop wrapped in athletic tape. Ours are usually large, open designs with lots of curving, curling columns and sharp tipped ends and stitch counts often exceeding 50,000. The puckering mostly occurs at the points of elements that have long satin stitches angling toward the tip. This and the use of metallic thread and heavy double zigzag underlay to get the look of thick free-motion embroidery are probably the biggest culprits - laying down too much thread too quickly in too small an area.

Rod also suggested using capped ends more and never exiting a column at a sharp tip. I think I may be expecting too much of a machine running at 800spm to produce the same look as can be achieved slowly, by hand. I'm just going to have to do some more work on my column points to find something that works better.

[YDCustom]

What follows is brainstorming from 20 years of fiber arts background. It's not even anywhere close to machine embroidery gospel (or necessarily even good ideas).

I'm not sure what sort of work you're trying to replicate, but I'm wondering if doing a miniature version of your element instead of a traditional underlay would help? So say a football shape that is supposed to be .4" at the widest could get a .2" wide one under it. If you did the whole design in miniature and then again in full size you might get the effect you want. It would up your stitch count and sew time though and that may not be a good thing...

I wonder if there were a way that you could lay a bit of cotton cording in the center of these columns? It would be a bit more advance set-up but could save you in the long run if you're losing big projects to the puckering. It seems like it would be easy to do on the straight areas but I haven't quite worked out the curves - fabric glue maybe? I wouldn't use pins as that will probably cause all kinds of problems when the needle hits the pin.

What about doing your underlay in a regular thread and then doing your top layer in the metallic? Again, probably a digitizing pain but it wouldn't increase the stitch count.

Puffy foam? I don't necessarily see that as being a great solution in some situations, though.

[Mama Kass]

Thanks for storming your brain. I have actually used the mini version as underlay on some elements such as grapes and berries, but I find with vines and the like, double zigzag underlay at a density of 10 can achieve the look and is much easier to digitize.

If you saw the designs you'd know why the cording wouldn't work - curls and swirls all over the place make it too difficult to lay cording in while embroidering and almost impossible to place precisely in advance even with a digitized walk guideline.

The look we're trying to achieve (very heavy metallic) is also probably the cause of the puckering. We could probably reduce the puckering some by using regular thread as underlay but at the price of appearance.

I've always dismissed the idea of puffy foam as not workable with large designs consisting of lots of curving satin stitch columns and open spaces. If anyone has had success with this, I'd like to hear about it.

I think further adding to our puckering problems is that we use satins and velvets that cannot be hooped tight enough in the large hoops without crush or "burn" marks. Everything that reduces marks also lessens drum tight hooping. Right now I hoop my backing really well then apply the fabric to the backing using a very light mist of adhesive and thoroughly pin around the design area with silk pins which don't leave marks like basting does. Again, any other suggestions would be welcome.