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general chit chat about embroidery from a newbie feedback APPRECIATED

1673 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  fierra, 
F
Hi all....
I've started a custom embroidery business and just wanted to talk about some things I've gone thru so far hoping for some feedback and conversation about all things embroidery and digitizing.
I've got a lot to learn and did my first couple of logos last week. I'm still stuck mostly in auto-digitize world, not quite fast enough or know enough to manually do it, which is where I'd like to be. I want to be able to understand is but I'm guessing that comes with time and help (which is why I"m here, lol)
One of my logo's was too bulky in the area where it had to stitch the wording on top of the other items and it just didn't look good. I wanted to try and "cut out" the area where the font would go so I could make it denser, but the font was a thin font and since I didn't know what I was doing I didn't want to take hours to do it. I thought I'd try it another time.
My other logo....and someone please throw some feedback out there, I did on polo's and sweatshirts...it had a big round circle, among other things, that every time it stitched it left a small gap when it met itself at the beginning. It was like it had pushed the fabric down as it went along and that was like the fabric that didn't have anywhere to go.... I used two layers of cut away and a solvy on top and it still left the gap. I can't figure that one out.
Anyways, now I just got thru with a move and am getting ready to start working again and would love to get a good thread going to talk about some various aspect of this business.
I'm also trying to figure out pricing and time....
I'm charging $3-$4 per 1000 stitches for digitizing and embroidery work but what I'm finding is that I'm still so new and I'm such a perfectionist that I spend way too long on the few jobs that I'm doing. I would like to hear some tips from people so I can try to work that into my routine.
Well thanks everyone! Hope to chat with you all soon!
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L
When you use fill stitches to do something like a circle, you can prevent the "squeezing of the fabric" and causing a void by changing your start and stop points and your stitch angle. You should have a icon that you can click where you see the design "sew out" on your computer screen. Play with your entry and exit (some call it start and stop) and stitch angles to get something that only sews in one direction. Then click the icon to see if it sews that way on your screen. I have found that if you do your start and stop at the same point 90 degrees (or perpendicular) to your stitch angle then you will accomplish this.

Unless you get extensive formal training, a lot will be learned by trial and error. If you have more questions, I will try and answer as best as I can.
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F
Ahhh.....that makes sense....see that's why I love this place. I just moved and had to leave the little support group I had and am in a new place with 0 support so here I am.
That's great advice and I'll work on that now.
Any advice on the bulky-ness I talked about. It was a weave fill with branches and some leaves of a sating fill and then wording on top.....it just seemed too bulky and I had to find a good spot to put the letters. I would of liked to have made the letters denser but was afraid it would be WAY to much for the area....
Thanks for your help!! It's much appreciated.
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SunEmbroidery
If you're unsure about density I would wash some of your designs to see how they hold up. If your density is too much you'll have bunching problems.

I would digitize the simple designs myself (if you want to learn digitizing) and contract out the complicated ones to an experienced digitizer. You can learn alot by watching a well-digitized design sew-out.
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L
Call me anytime 727-785-1266 Digitizing Secrets. email [email protected]
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lizziemaxine
Until you get more comfortable with what you are doing you may want to use an established digitizer, especially for the more complicated logos. It will help you to learn by studying the way designs sew out when you have used a great digitizer.
Good luck.
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F
Thankyou....that is a good point!
and
Thank u all for answering!!!
Happy haloween
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