Puckering Revisited

[Steve F.]

Okay, I am at my wit's end with this puckering thing. I have a logo that I am sewing onto woven shirts. It's about 8500 stitches in 4 colors. Part of the design is consists of fill stitches with a statin stitch border, then there is some statin stitch letters (not a font but digitized letters) about .7" tall. The density is 3.7 on statin and fill stitch areas.

Underneath this is some text (Ole Script Dak font) that is .35" tall.

When sewn out, there isn't a lot of puckering, but after washing/drying (low heat) it starts resembling a prune!

I have tried using two layers of backing, increasing the pull comp, increasing the density to as high as 4.5pts which were suggestions in previous posts I found on the this topic. Nothing has had a marked decrease in the puckering.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Steve
MetroMonograms

[Steve]

If you want to send me the design, I can take a look at it

[Mike Garber]

I have always struggled with puckering logos also. Besides digitizing, hooping and machine settings I have worried about backing shrinkage.
Could that be an issue?

Mike

[Juli in Kona]

Is the material shrinking with washing and drying? That is not the fault of the embroidery, but the material itself. Have you tried to wash and dry first and then embroidery? That might solve or at least improve the problem. Can you iron it flat again after washing?

Juli in Kona

[Steve F.]

I have used the same shirt for the various test sew outs. It has been washed/dried between each sew out so the fabric shrinking isn't likely the cause. I have sewn this on other woven shirts with the same result, but when sewn on a knit type shirt/blouse, no problem. I assumed (yeah I know) this was because knits are more stretchy and hence less likely to show the puckering.

I did forget to mention I am using ArcPoly thread. Don't know if that is a factor or not.

Thanks
S-

[HERB]

Any fill stitches going vertically (0 degrees)will cause puckering.

[Steve F.]

Thanks Herb. All fills are set at non-vertical angles. However, the satin stitches (sorry for the previously used incorrect spelling) are where most of the puckering occurs.

[flebow]

I can elimianate any concern for the shrinkage of stabilizer
Our "wet Liad " dense non wovens will shrink less than 1%

http://www.lebowconsulting.com/stabi...icles.htm#glos
The no show nylon diagonal mesh will shrink atbout 3-4%
You can presteam this

I hope this helpls
Pls feel free to e-mail me off list for samples
'
Fred

[Genie Zenowich]

Have we found Steve F's solution yet? I'm now experiencing the puckering on the Port Authority T-Shirt. Using the Dakota Collect. Ying/Yang Symbol with writing on top and underneath. I decreased the density and got it to sew out almost completely flat, then washed and dried and now puckered and puffy. If the density is decreased more, then there won't be enough coverage and it's not just the area around the symbol that puffs, all around the letters, too. I've hooped it nice and drum tight. Using that soft cut away backing that won't show through the white shirt. But the design puckered before washing before reducing density. The fill stitches are at an angle and the writing is in the small cp block. Would love to get this right after spending so many hours on the redo of the design, not to mention having sewn out 20 shirts before washing one and finding the puckering reappearing. It's getting personal now. I want to conquer this and won't settle for putting out puckering product! Sorry about the alliteration, got a little carried away in my dilarium! Thanks in Advance. Genie Z

[Buy The Stitch]

This may go against every law of embroidery that has ever been written, but I see more of this problem when I try to run the auto ActiFeed. I have been able to work around this issue on knits by setting my lower thread feed limit to 3 or 4. This feeds more thread, but doesn't seem to pull as tight.

I currently have more problems with lightweight wovens. I have talked to Robert at Melco, and still cannot resolve this problem. He recommended adding more underlay, but this did not help. I am sewing Block letters, ~1.5" tall, center walk and edge walk underlay at 30 pts., and I get puckering at the tips of the columns no matter what I do. Hope someone can advise.

[Juli in Kona]

1.5" tall is pretty big. I'd use more underlay.

Juli in Kona

[HERB]

Try dropping the stitch length to 22-24 on your underlay. The longer the stitch, the more the pull.

[Steve]

With large letters at 1.5" tall, I would probably use double zigzig as an underlay.