Hooping on Commercial Machines

pefbc4

For anyone out there who has a commercial emb. machine.Do you use adhesive temporary spray when embroidering on special fabrics like velvet.I attended a machine demo and the rep didn't seem to be familiar with this technique.I use this method with my home embroidery machines all the time so as not to "burn" the fabric from hooping the material.Also does anyone add a "fix"stitch around the border of the design before it stitches to stabilize the material? The home embroidery machines do this but apparently the commercial don't. How in the world do you know that you have the embroidery placement accurate? The "trace" mode doesn't really give you a good enough idea of how good the placement will be.???Thanks to anyone who can address these questions as I've never had a commercial machine.

Earl Smith

Hope I can help you with this one. I have not had much experience with velvet but what I would use would be my biggest hoop and use sticky backed backing. I wouldnt hoop it directly because, as you say, this would burn the fabric. I might also use tape to hold the fabric down
As for the fixing stitch. This is all done in the software. The software is usually external and not in the machine. If we needed a fixing stitch around the border then we would program one in. First though we would probably run a satin or tatami understitch (depending on the overstitch) and then the border or edge run stitch to secure the fabric to the backing. We would also adjust the pull compensation for the fabric.
As for tracing the image. In the software you would center the design at zero/zero then on the machine you set the hoop so the active needle is in the center of the hoop (zero/zero). Run the trace and the machine will show you if the design runs within the limits of the hoop.
Hope this helps.
Earl.

pefbc4

Thanks Earl-What about using temporary spray adhesives to fix the material onto the hooped stabilizer? I understand about "zeroing".I guess my comfort zone is to know that the design won't be rotated,shifted or crooked when stitch out.If you are embroidering on a wide open large oeice such as a blaket then it probably isn't that critical.On smaller pieces it might make a defference,like a small bag or a onsie for a baby.Perhaps this will help you to understand what I meant.With the machine I have now I can selct the four corner postions of the design and center point and makee sure the design is on center and not rotated or askew.Hope this explains better.

Lizd

Hi. I use temp adhesive all the time with my commercial machine when I do applique work. No reason you can't use it as you describe. I often use clamps in conjuction with my fast frames, though, instead of sticky backing or spray adhesive. I also sometimes use basting stitches aound the outside of a design to help keep my fabric in place while stitching. Mostly I've found it to be helpful with nylon type jackets, slinky blankets, and such. I add the basting stitch to the design myself using embird software. As for placement, I use a combination of homemade templates, sticky avery labels of different sizes printed with crosshairs, and marks on each piece of each hoop to align my stickers. Sometimes I just print out the design template in real size and pin it to whatever I'm sewing and align it in the hoop that way. Hope some of this info helps! --Liz

Earl Smith

I must confess to using the spray adhesive too. More on the bigger items than the smaller. Just enough to hold it until the understitch is down.
As for placement, you are right it is a problem on the smaller items. What Lizd said is a good idea. Print the design out in real size and use that. Or what I do is digitse a running stitch with big steps to sew out first around the border of the design and make the machine stop after this border is sewn. Thats done in the software as the first step of the design. Then I put in the hoop with only the backing in and sew this border onto the backing. After the machine stops I take the hoop out of the machine and use this "border to aline the material. Put it back in the machine and carry on sewing. A long winded way but it works. Dont put a too compact border stitch in or it will cut out the backing.
Earl.

Flint54

Have only used adhesive spray on appliques, also used it on a very light slippery fabric to help it keep alignment and registration. When we used it for the applique we used it on the back of the applique to hold it in the outline while the tack stitching was done. There are many uses for it, don't forget to also try non-staining fabric safe silicone spray on top, it will keep the needle lubricated enough to keep from gumming up with the adhesive, if you don't have the silicone try a topping of plain old wax paper, the slight amount of wax will also lubricate the needle. This will take a bit more clean up of the embroidery though.