Round Patch Problems

Embroiderymax · January 18th, 2017, 11:37 PM

Hello everyone,

I have only been embroidering for about 6 months now and enjoing it.

My daughter asked me to make he a round patch and I thought Oh that should be easy.... Every time I have tried to stitch it it turns out oval shaped.

I have tried different fabrics and tweaking the the stitching on the patch. My last two attempts I tried heave duck canvas and when that did not work I tried 2 layers of the canvas with the grain of the fabric turned 90 degrees from each other hoping to keep the shape from stretching. I have also tried different stitch angles and thread densities to no avail.

The patch is 3 inches in diameter and between 15 and 17 thousand stitches depending on my tweaking of the design. I am using a Janome Memory Craft 12000 and have had no problems up until now. At this point I am not sure is it a design error, hooping error or more that likely user error.

Any help, tips, advice would be greatly appreciated.

Bill

lrsbranding · January 19th, 2017, 09:25 AM

I have never been able to get a round solid fill object to sew perfectly round without squishing or distorting the design when digitizing. It is pushed out of shape by the fill. The fabric will determine how much to distort the design. I have lots of designs that look wonky on the computer but sew great. Same principle as fonts. The verticle parts will push up and look taller than the horizontal.

Embroiderymax · January 19th, 2017, 10:22 AM

Thank you for the quick reply....

Do you have a good way to determine ( guesstimate ). The amount of distortion to build into the design? I am guessing it depends on the fabric and design but is there a god rule of thumb other than trial and error.

Thank you again..

Bill

lrsbranding · January 19th, 2017, 10:46 AM

I'm sure some of the master digitizers have a mathamatical formula to figure it out. All I have is the SWAG method, (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess) also, I will recycle solid fill bent out of shape perfectly out of round circles from past designs that are known to sew out.

Embroiderymax · January 19th, 2017, 10:51 AM

Thanks again

I will measure how much it is out of round close and start the tweak the design from there. This project started out as a fun experiment and now I am at the point I am not going to let it beat me lol

Thank you again for all your advice. Now I have a new direction to start.

Bill

MMMEMB · January 19th, 2017, 10:55 AM

yes that is correct, round will make oval
it is digitizing issue try using double cross underlay and light density on top since you are using more underlay, try using salvy that might help

lrsbranding · January 19th, 2017, 11:05 AM

I understand that. I've had plenty of jobs that turned into a quest. I will be crying "I am not surrendering. You will not break me!" as I'm curled up on the floor in the corner shaking.

digidana · January 19th, 2017, 12:09 PM

its the design. to stitch a perfectly round circle, it needs to be digitized as an oval-ish.

run the stitches at a 45 degree-ish angle, use a nice wide satin outline, cross-stitch looking underlay, stitch it on twill if you can.

if you digitize it as a circle, use maybe a .25% compensation depending on the size of the circle. if that's not enough, use more.

if you'd like for me to take a look at it, i'd be happy to help, no charge.

Robert Young · January 19th, 2017, 12:26 PM

Digidana is spot on!

If it were a smaller circle I would use about an 10 percent comp... but at this size 2 should do it. Do not digitize a circle but put flat parts at the top and bottom of where the stitches go back and forth.. so if you simply went straight across (not recommended as Digidana advised, the flat parts would be at the top and bottom.) you can digitize it that way and then simply rotate it to get the angle. (easier for many that way) Then add a nice thick satin border.

digidana · January 20th, 2017, 04:51 PM

there isn't an exact formula. depending on the size of the circle, and the type of fabric its going on, the formula would change anyway. its trial and error...but here is something that might make it easier to see what robert and i are saying. the steps of a perfect-ish circle: