Design Pathing

One aspect of digitizing that is often ignored, especially by beginning digitizers is pathing. Pathing is the mapping out of the stitching order of the various different objects that make up your final digitized design. There are many different reasons for planning out the sewing order in advance, which include the amount of jumps and trims, the overall sewing time, and potential machine risks which can result from a poorly planned design.
Minimising color changes
Every color change that you place in your designs adds time to the overall sewing time of the design. To change from one color to another the machine must first stop and trim and then the head has to slide to the next desired color and then when the machine begins sewing again it first starts slowly to avoid the thread from pulling out of the needle and then it resumes sewing at full speed. So for every extra color change you place in your design you are adding approximately 7 seconds to the overall sewing time, or if you place 10 extra color changes you are adding 70 seconds, and if you run that design 10 times on a six head machine you are adding 60 X 70 seconds or 70 minutes. So you may not think an extra color change here or the matters too much but at the end of a day of production it can have a huge effect.
Trims and jumps
Both trims and jumps also cause the machine to stop and slow down, often times especially if you are relying on auto digitizing to create your designs the frequency these two commands id overlooked, but if you take the time to look at the sewing sequence of your design either before on your computer or while it is sewing out you can easily devise a plan for either reducing their occurrence or eliminating them all together.
Sewing time
Keeping an eye on all of these factors can greatly increase the efficiency of all of your designs.
Production Issues
The last issue that I would like to address is that of wear and tear on your embroidery machine. Trimmers, color change mechanics and jump stitch solenoids are all mechanical parts which with repeated and frequent use can become overheated and as a result fail well before their expected lifespan. If you trim twice with less than 40 stitches between the trims you are not giving the machine a chance to cool down between operations, if you do this constantly you will most definitely damage the machine. so it is important to plan out your design before you begin to digitize. A good example of this is a Field of polka dots with a fill background. If you digitize the fill first and jump and trim from polka dot to polka dote you stand the risk of damaging you trimmers, but if you digitize the polka dots first and place a fill with voids on top of it you can omit the trims entirely.
If you plan out you designs before you digitize them you can save both running time and excess wear and tear on your equipment. Your run time will be quicker and your machine will last longer.

Building your customer Base

A major concern for all business owners is getting and keeping new customers, in our current economic climate it has become pretty much essential.
Website
Just about every business has a website, if you don't you should, but creating and hosting a website are just the first step. You then need to drive traffic to it. Make sure that your website is mentioned in everything that you do. Invoices, business cards, stationary, advertising, press releases and listings all need to include your web address.
Blog
Hosting a blog gives your current and prospective customers a place to go to see what your company is doing and any specials you are offering. Make sure that you include helpful and informative information that is going to be beneficial to your customers, so that they have a reason for returning on a regular basis. if you don't add new material on a daily basis then make sure it is added at the same time every week or month so they get into the habit of checking it at those intervals.
Newsletter
A great way to remind you customers to visit both your website and blog is a weekly newsletter, this will assure that your customers get weekly reminders to either visit your shop, website or to even call you to follow up on specials or new products.
Cold Calling
The most time intensive forms of customer connection is cold calling, but it offers the biggest return for the time invested and it opens up a two way dialog with your customers, which is a great way to make sure you have a good feel for your customers needs.
Specials, new Products and Incentives
While we have all cut our costs and our prices to the bare bones, making sales and discounts close to impossible in many cases, there is always some inventory that we need to move regardless of the price, even if we just break even. Use that product to get customers to contact you, and while you have their attention bring up your new products and embellishment techniques.
Networking
Don't forget to bring your business cards wherever you go, remember everyone needs embroidery or some kind of embellishment at one time or another, use your card to remind them to contact you when they do.
Getting Involved
Get involved with your community schools, businesses, fund raisers, library, fairs and any other social events, these are the places, events, and organizations that use and need personalization.

File Formats

KPD Compositions allows to to output your designs in over 32 different file formats, which include both home embroidery and commercial embroidery file types. With all of these formats to choose from there is virtually no customer for which you are unable to produce designs. When shopping for software make sure that you start by listing all of your needs and as you view the many choices out there check off all of the feature on your list one by one.

Fabric Facts

To understand the impact embroidery is going to have on the products upon which you are placing it, you first need to understand how the various different fabrics affect the designs you are embroidering on them.
Woven Versus Knit
Knits stretch and because of that they require a stable backing and enough underlay to connect the fabric to that backing so that the knit can't move during the embroidery process and in doing so, cause the design to become distorted. Woven fabrics are a lot more forgiving, they only stretch on the bias, so if they are firmly hooped and have a minimum of underlay and a sufficent backing, you should not have to worry about design distortion.
Needles
The size of your needle should relate to the weight of your fabric, a heavy weight fabric such as canvas or denim requires a larger needle. for fine fabrics you want to use a small needle for example, a 65/9 or a 70/10 as a smaller needle will make a smaller hole and do less damage to the fabric.
The point of the needle is chosen by the fabric, ballpoint for knits and sharp for woven fabrics. Ballpoint needles will push the fibers of the knit aside so that they aren't broken in the embroidery process which would cause the knit to run. Sharp needles are best for woven fabrics because they cause the least amount of friction as they pierce the fabric and make the cleanest perferation, helping to keep your lines crisp.
If you are embroidering on a fabric with a texture, whether it is knit or woven underlay is essential for flattening out the fabric so that the embroidery is not lost in the indentations or overemphasized in the raised areas. Fabric with a definite pattern such as twill or pique require a running stich underlay along the edge of the columns to keep them from following the grain of the fabric.
Each fabric has different needs once you understand how to inherent differences of
the array of goods you embroidery you will understand how to overcome them.

Applique Basics

The introduction of appliques to your digitizing projects can reap both creative and practical rewards. The use of appliques can allow you to reduce the stitch count of your designs by as much as 80%. This will, of course, reduce the sewing time by almost as much, once you factor in the extra time necessary to place and tack down the applique or appliques.
Another benefit of using appliques, especially in large designs, is that it can be used to replace large areas of fill stitches, which can tend to make the design area stiff and uncomfortable to wear.
Digitizing
If your software has an automatic applique function (as in KPD Compositions Pro), the following steps will be added for you. First a placement line (running stitch)is digitized and followed by a stop code or color change. This will stop the design so that you can lay down the applique. Next a tack down stitch (either a zig zag or running stitch) is digitized so that the applique will be secured to the base fabric and then the applique is finished off with either a zig zag or satin stitch.
Techniques
There are a few different ways to cut out the appliques, and the choice of technique is based upon the amount of designs in the job order and the frequency that you use appliques in your designs.
Hand-cut
Hand cutting your designs is the most labor intensive and is a practical alternative only for very small jobs or samples or in an emergency when there is no time to send out the fabric to be cut. There are two methods commonly used, template and cutting on the machine. To create a template for your applique, hoop a light cardboard on you machine and sew out the applique placement line on the cardboard. You can then cut along the perforations and use this template to trace out and cut your appliques. You may also choose to cut the appliques in the hoop. To do this, digitize your tack down stitch inside the middle of the finishing satin stitch. Place a square of appliques fabric large enough to cover the entire appliqued area, and stitch it down. The remove the hoop from the machine and use a pair of applique scissors, cut along the outside edge of the applique, then place the hoop back on the machine and resume sewing.
CAD Cut
If you do a lot of applique work you might want to invest in a CAD cutter to use to cut them in-house. You can export a cut file from your software to run the machine and to assure that the applique is going to fit in your design perfectly.
Laser or water-jet cut
If you use appliques infrequently it would probably be best to send your digitized file to an applique cutting facility, the turn around time for this service can be as quick as 24-48 hours.
If your applique are large enough you might want to invest in a laser cutter or a beam laser. The advantage of a beam laser is that it allows you to cut either single or multiple appliques on the embroidery machine, which expedites the entire process.

Why Does Thread Break?

Thread breaks for a number of very different reasons. Some are logical and obvious, such as threading route, thread quality, and tension, but there are other contibuting factors that can also cause embroidery thread to break.
Thread
While there are many different thread weights and types that can be used to create embroidery, most embroiderers choose either 40 weight rayon or polyester. Because polyester is a synthetic product it has a much longer shelf life than rayon, which is produced from natural celulose fibers. If you are using rayon threads try to store it in climate controlled environment, and try to use the thread that has been in your inventory the longest first.
Tension
Proper thread tension is achieved by creating a balance between the top thread and the bobbin thread. If you place too much tension on the top thread even if it in proportion to the bobbin thread it will break.
Threading
The first thing you might want to check when you are experiencing any type of stitching quality problem is the threading route, this is simple to fix and often the simplest solution is the last to be checked.
Presser Foot
A bent presser foot can hit the needle and damage the needle and break the thread.
Needle Plate
A gouge or burr in the area of the hole in your needle plate can also cause the thread to fray and break.
Needle
Needles do not last forever and if you expeience any type of needle depth, presser foot or needle plate problem change the needle also at the same time to assure that it isn't contributing to the problem.
Of course there are many other possible causes for threaad breaks but these are the most common ones that I have found and are a good point of departure when trying to sove the often fustrating problem of consistant thread breaks.

embroidering on knits

Every type of fabric has its own unique charactoristics, and its own challenges. Knits are no exception, needle type, backing, hooping, thread tension and proper digitizing all need to work together to produce the perfect end result.
Needle
To avoid cutting the fibers of the knit use a ball-point needle, a 75/11 should work well for any weight knit.
Backing
Tear-away backing is always the prefered choice as it is the least labor intensive to remove. however some knits are too delicate and can tear during the embroidery process so you need to turn to a no-show or organza backing which will afford more support without adding more bulk to the garment.
ToppingIf you are embroidering on a knit with a patterned texture such as pique, herringbone, birds-eye or cableknit you probably want to use a topping to flatten out the surface before you embroidery upon it.
Hooping
you do not want to stretch to knit in the hoop (with the exception of Spandex, which should be slightly stretched) you want to maake sure that your backing is tight in the hoop and the knit lies flat on top of it.
Tension
Because knits are less stable than woven fabrics they will cause satin stitches to pull in more and become thinner, especially if your thread tension is too tight. It is important to set your top tension looser than you would for a woven fabric and make sure that you bobbin tension is also loosened to make sure they are working together.
Digitizing
When digitizing for knits underlay and increased pull compensation are very important concerns. Use a lattice underlay under fills to minimise distortion and perpendicular underlay under satins to create a good base for the top stitching.
Embroidering on knits is no more difficult than anything else. If you understand why problems may occur they are much more easily remedied.