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7 Posts
Hello,
Working on some lettering that varies in size from 1/4 to 1/2 inch approx. I've been searching through posts for a few days, gathering up all of the lettering tips I could find. It has greatly improved but I am still not satisfied with my results. So far, I have done the following:
Switched to a 65/9 ball point needle.
Switched to 60wt thread (Sulky Poly).
Switched my bobbin thread, full and evenly wound.
Stitched out a tension test, made adjustments accordingly *
Adjusted my hooping methods.
Lessened the lettering stitch density.
Played with adjusting the lettering underlay.
* Bobbin tension is factory set and can't be changed, but my top thread tension was VERY slack. Snugging it up helped a lot and the lettering isn't as "jagged" but now I am seeing the bobbin thread showing through the top and I wasn't seeing that before. According to the manual for my machine (Futura CE250) if I am seeing the bobbin thread, tension is too loose - this is confusing to me since when it was too loose I didn't see bobbin thread lol)
I haven't fiddled too much with the stabilizers and I am still trying to figure those out. Right now I have 2 kinds, a lighter and a slightly heavier one (no idea what they really are, bought them several years ago!). I've been using the heavier one.
I have been testing on several fabrics since I will need to do similar lettering on them all, one is a t-shirt, one is a fleece type for a barn jacket, and one is a light canvas type (like for a carry bag). The lettering on the fleece looks the best but a little edgy still, on the t-shirt the bobbin thread shows, just testing the canvas now and haven't looked at the results yet.
I have tried a few different fonts, some from my EmbroideryMagic2 software and some from the EmbroideryFontsPlus software mainly to see if one was better digitized than the other... pretty similar results though :/
QUESTIONS:
Is it typical to need to adjust top thread tension dependent on the fabric and/or stabilizer?
Is it typical to adjust the lettering properties/characteristics dependent on fabric?
Should I be using something on top, like a Solvy for any of this?
Sorry for the very long post, but any other tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated! I'd be happy to snap a few pics of my various testing and post them up later if it will help
Sincerely,
Terri
Working on some lettering that varies in size from 1/4 to 1/2 inch approx. I've been searching through posts for a few days, gathering up all of the lettering tips I could find. It has greatly improved but I am still not satisfied with my results. So far, I have done the following:
Switched to a 65/9 ball point needle.
Switched to 60wt thread (Sulky Poly).
Switched my bobbin thread, full and evenly wound.
Stitched out a tension test, made adjustments accordingly *
Adjusted my hooping methods.
Lessened the lettering stitch density.
Played with adjusting the lettering underlay.
* Bobbin tension is factory set and can't be changed, but my top thread tension was VERY slack. Snugging it up helped a lot and the lettering isn't as "jagged" but now I am seeing the bobbin thread showing through the top and I wasn't seeing that before. According to the manual for my machine (Futura CE250) if I am seeing the bobbin thread, tension is too loose - this is confusing to me since when it was too loose I didn't see bobbin thread lol)
I haven't fiddled too much with the stabilizers and I am still trying to figure those out. Right now I have 2 kinds, a lighter and a slightly heavier one (no idea what they really are, bought them several years ago!). I've been using the heavier one.
I have been testing on several fabrics since I will need to do similar lettering on them all, one is a t-shirt, one is a fleece type for a barn jacket, and one is a light canvas type (like for a carry bag). The lettering on the fleece looks the best but a little edgy still, on the t-shirt the bobbin thread shows, just testing the canvas now and haven't looked at the results yet.
I have tried a few different fonts, some from my EmbroideryMagic2 software and some from the EmbroideryFontsPlus software mainly to see if one was better digitized than the other... pretty similar results though :/
QUESTIONS:
Is it typical to need to adjust top thread tension dependent on the fabric and/or stabilizer?
Is it typical to adjust the lettering properties/characteristics dependent on fabric?
Should I be using something on top, like a Solvy for any of this?
Sorry for the very long post, but any other tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated! I'd be happy to snap a few pics of my various testing and post them up later if it will help
Sincerely,
Terri
