feb17_images_digital

KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES

Split satin stitches like those seen here allow you to maintain the dimension and some of the shine of traditional satin-stitch lettering, while reducing the likelihood that a long, loose thread will catch or snag. The wing-tip also shows splitting in the longest satin stitches for the same benefit. [Photograph courtesy of Celeste Schwartz]

rough surface. For smaller text, thicker borders or other elements classically rendered in satin stitches, a split-satin stitch could be em- ployed: simply make sure you use a fairly short maximum stitch length. Split-satins maintain some of the shine of a standard satin, but stay tighter to the garment sur- face, helping to eliminate snagging. They won’t wear exactly like a fill, but they are much more likely to stay intact compared to an equally wide satin stitch. It’s important to also use a sufficiently dense, structural underlay combination (think edge-walk/contour followed by one or two passes of zigzag underlay) to make sure that the extra stitch penetrations in the top stitching won’t allow the ground material to show through. Adding appliqué Appliqué provides another worthy option for durable decoration. Standard roll-cut polyester twill is incredibly tough on its own. When attached with a tight sat- in-stitch border and secured to the gar- ment with heat-press adhesive, it provides large areas of coverage with very little chance of material failure. Some customers may not like the shine of standard appliqué twill, but it can still be used to lighten a filled area without compromising the look of stitching. A light density fill placed over the same or similarly coloured appliqué gives the semblance of a fully-stitched area. This technique is also useful when custom- ers want to move large full-back designs

from jackets to their lighter workwear: the lightly-filled appliqué area creates a much lighter hand and causes less garment dis- tortion than a solid fill. If your customer doesn’t mind the tex- ture but wants more visual interest than an unbroken block of twill provides, stand- ard white polyester twill is easily printed through sublimation. This allows the addi- tion of anything from a custom colour or pattern to a full-colour photographic print. Patch it up The alternative to correcting embroidery designs that can’t survive the same de- structive forces as their garments is to plan for replacement. Emblems are a fantastic option for hardy workwear that regularly outlasts embroidery thread. Any emblem, from the classic stitched-on patch to the hook-and-loop backed removable variety usually seen in military and law enforce- ment uniforms, can allow a garment’s decoration to be replaced with fair ease. Gaining greater awareness of the end-use of your products, the way the materials perform, and the best way to design your embroidery to address the conditions in which your garments will be used is important: it will help you to create quality products that stay looking great in the long term, no matter how or where they are worn. And though many decorations aren’t required to withstand extreme treatment, you are sure to win the appreciation (and repeat business) from those customers for whom durabili- ty is critical.

technicians, polyester can be unsafe. Use flame-resistant threads and stabilisers for any garment worn on these worksites (and others where flame-resistant clothes are required, such as welding businesses). Do this whether the piece is express- ly designed to be protective or not. A flame-resistant garment decorated with conventional thread has an open path for fire to penetrate; the cost savings aren’t worth the risk to your customer. Designing against destruction Digitising may be the most critical step in creating durable decorations. Though materials strongly affect how embroi- dery endures, there’s a key difficulty that only digitising can fully address – name- ly, snagging. The most heavily-used workwear tends to be those items that are made for those who work outside, with work jackets being central to many workers’ uniforms. With jackets come large jacket-back designs, almost always featuring text executed in satin stitch- es. And there’s the rub… Quite literally. When workers slide past textured walls or push through branches wearing jackets emblazoned with large satin stitch let- tering, snagged and torn stitches are the common result. The very nature of satin stitches is the problem; when executed properly, they are long and lofty, sitting high above the substrate. After a couple of good snags, these columns of largely untethered loops can unravel until they hit a short stitch or locking stitch sequence. Knowing that your design must survive some scrapes means omitting as much of that loose stitching as you can. With larger text/elements, a standard fill stitch bordered by a thin, tight satin edge will provide a lower profile and will be much less likely than a satin letter to unravel if snagged. I prefer the look of satin-stitch lettering with its discrete segments and directional shine; however, my customers’ ‘torture-testing’ has proven that a fill with a short stitch length is a better choice and most often survives the odd contact with a

Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator. He works for Black Duck Embroidery and Screen Printing in New Mexico, US. w www.erichcampbell.com

76 images FEBRUARY 2017

www.images-magazine.com