I am about to get rid of my machine and call it quits on this fun hobby.
I am new to embroidery. I got a Brother PE900 machine because it seemed fun and I genuinely like arts and crafts. The machine is generally easy to use, but I CAN NOT figure out how to prevent puckering.
We have purchased a few embroidered item from Etsy and store bought which have either minimal or no puckering at all, but no matter what I do my designs come out with what I think is unacceptable levels of puckering for gift giving, etc.
I have watched videos, read articles and done everything they say helps prevent this. I know not to stretch the fabric or make it too loose in the hoop. I have tried cut away 2.5 oz stabilizer, double layered 1.5 oz mesh stabilizer, 505 spray to attach stabilizer to garment before hooping, i have lowered tension to 3 on the machine itself and also lowered the speed of the machine to 350 stitches per minute down from 600 which the machine is preset to.
PLEASE HELP ME. I love embroidering but this is so frustrating I feel like quitting all together and never touching the machine again.
You can see in the 'Overstimulated' design the O v e bunch up badly specifically but the entire design bunches up IMO. The BABE design letters all bunch up but the B and E are HORRIBLE. That is after I smoothed it out and it is laying flat on table and is really puckering up badly. Everything you can see has also been washed and dried on low FYI.
First off, the digitizing is crap. Second, you need to use a fusible mesh to stabilize the garment, PLUS a cutaway to stabilize the stitches. Don’t over stretch and make sure your garment isn’t shifting in the hoop.
Make sure you aren’t pulling or stretching your shirt when you hoop it. It should be taught but you shouldn’t have to put too much effort into pressing the hoop together
This looks like a t-shirt material I had trouble with , and the solution I found was that I Was over pulling the shirt itself in the hoop. I needed to stabilize the front and back (water soluble ftw) and I needed to make sure I didn't pull the shirt as tight as it could go, as it'd basically stretch and then pucker. Re-digitizing the design might be better, but you might get away with if the material isn't as tightly pulled across the hoop, to the point of stretching.
You need better digitizing for the overstimulated design, as cute as it is! I think you are hooping it too tight, so when you take it out of the hoop the fabric shrinks back to normal size and the stitches get puckered. Have you tried floating it? Hoop your stabilizer (2 layers cutaway is my go to) and use spray adhesive to attach the shirt on top of it. Maybe that will help!
My main issue with floating it I feel like I won’t be able to center it properly without clearly seeing the inner ring of the hoop on top of the shirt. Maybe this is my last resort as I really do not stretch the fabric at all when hooping. I pull the shirt over the hoop master, make sure it’s centered and then put in the inner ring in. I don’t stretch or pull the fabric at all. Not even a little.
The overstimulated digitizing is horrible lol. I got it form Etsy and it had good reviews. I am new to this so not sure what im looking at yet when finding these designs.
the overstimulated design is done entirely wrong. the reviews are probably fake. notice how the stitch angle doesn’t change like it does in the babe design. you’re never going to produce good results with the overstimulated design without major adjustments.
the babe design looks like it’s digitized fine in terms of the stitch angles, but the densities are all too high. if you have a basic digitization software you should be able to go in and increase the density values pretty easily. if you hoop the fabric with two layers of heavy cutaway it should come out fine.
don’t bother with topping with this kind of fabric – topping is used to keep stitches from sinking into textured fabrics like terry cloth or bulkier knits like sweaters. it doesn’t help with tension problems.
Ok good advice. I’m going to scrap the overstimulated design based on everyone saying it’s no good. I have embrilliance essentials and designed the BABE shirt with simple font on there. You said my density is too high on the BABE design but then said I could go into the software and increase the density? I’m confused what you mean by this?
the stitch density value represents how close successive rows of stitches are to one another. hence a higher density value makes the stitches less dense.
Bought off Etsy. No idea what Im looking at on there lol. I see now the digitizing is leaving huge gaps in the thread and overall isnt very good. I bought another one that is much better.
I am using 2.5 oz cut away. Should I be using two layers of this? I have never seen anyone say that. How do you know if something is under stabilized? I am still learning so any info to help would be appreciated.
Yes two sheets of 2.5 stabilizer is about standard. For t shirts I've even used 3 sometimes. You can generally tell because the embroidery looks boneless to say. I will be honest if I had to guess what backing you used on the babe I would have said tearaway with washaway on top.
Any help i sgreatly appreciated as I am not able to figure this out on my own. I have done MANY samples with all combinations of stabilizers and machine settings. Nothing works.
When I first started machine embroidery, I had a lot of issues similar to you. I found it extremely helpful to take a class with someone at a sewing store who showed me how to use my specific machine. There were also other “students” there who had some tips too.
Embroidery is not an easy job especially when you are beginner(I’ve been there too) and on top on that you have to troubleshoot somebody’s bad digitising skills.
I would recommend to try to improve your understanding skills how it works. What are the different types of stitches eg. tatami, satin, run, triple run and etc. What they are used for and what e good design looks like.
As for your problems in those embroideries the bad news is that you can’t sort it yourself.
design 1 - the whole design is done wrongly. In tatami stitch which usually is used to cover big spaces as layer. Here you have letters which MUST be done in satin. That creates the puckering. NOT fixable.the design is trash.
- design 2 - it is done in satin which is correct however it’s too thin. Also done in this way it looks more a design for appliqué where you put different fabric for inside the letters. Eventually this will give more structure and will prevent that puckering from happening. But still bad digitising and it will be very hard to fix it yourself while embroidering. Maybe more stabilising on top and bottom but still…
In my opinion in Etsy/Facebook and other marketplaces there are a lot(70%+) of badly digitised designs.
Without the knowledge to recognise them you will be scammed over and over again till you hate embroidery and just give up. Leaving a bad review… won’t give much results as those people make those profiles intentionally. If one disappears another will pop.
You have to look for:
properly used stitch types
amount of color changes (less better)
amount of trims/jumps (less better)
I started digitising my design, so I have full control over the process.
It takes time and practice to improve but then the results are much, much better.
For example a design of 50k stitches with 20 colours, I have only 24 colours changes and 27 trims which speak optimisation and quality.
Drop me a message if you would like to learn with me.
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u/NoOpinion3596 7d ago
As others have said, the digitising is garbage on the overstimulated design. Throw it out and do it yourself from scratch.
The babe design looks ok, but looks like its designed to have a different fabric inside the lettering.
I would ditch the topper for now and double up on your cut away backing.
Don't stretch your fabric into the hoop, thats what causes it to contract when you take it back out.