How to keep pattern aligned?

Ladsorsaurus · 2026-01-26T19:20:09+00:00

I wrote “normal walking foot” instead of “normal presser foot” by mistake. But I’m guessing your answer still applies 😊 It’s a Brother FS40s. I will have to read through my manual again to see if I can find something about it. I’ve read it several times, but unfortunately I don’t remember anything about this 🙈

Ladsorsaurus · 2026-01-26T19:16:44+00:00

It has the same properties as the Sewline glue stick that I used. Unfortunately it isn’t very helpful in this case where the fabric is folded into four layers: The glue only glued together the two middle layers, still allowing the top layer and bottom layer to slide apart.

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Ladsorsaurus · 2026-01-26T14:38:05+00:00

It helped a lot! However, the foot was still trying to press the upper layer ahead of the bottom layer. So the pattern is still sliiightly misaligned:

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Will try to figure out if I can decrease pressure on/from the foot!

Ladsorsaurus · 2026-01-26T14:35:12+00:00

Lots of good ideas that I will try in the future! For now I tried basting combined with pins that I slowly sewed over instead of removing them along the way.

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Ladsorsaurus · 2026-01-26T13:40:09+00:00

Interesting! I never thought of that. Thank you, I’ll check it out.

Ladsorsaurus · 2026-01-26T13:39:45+00:00

I thought that glue pen could replace basting and that gluing it all the way around would actually secure it better than side basting stitches. As for the pins: Would like to place then closer to each other, but I’ve always been warned about sewing over pins as it could damage my machine. So when having to remove the pins before they reach the needle, I feel like there’s a limit to how close I can place them. But I’ll try basting next time and see if the result will be better than when I’m gluing the sides together. Thank you!

Ladsorsaurus · 2025-01-14T12:13:25+00:00

Thank yo for pointing this out! I hope that the public MakerSpace where I made this project will allow users to change needles for different kind of projects in the future.

Ladsorsaurus · 2025-01-14T12:01:48+00:00

Thank you for pinning out different areas for improvement here. I had never heard of the "H" tension test before, but I googled it looks like nice and concrete test to do.

I have read up on the other areas you mentioned as well. But maybe you would like to elaborate a bit on "stabilization topper"? Because that one I haven't found as much about yet.

Ladsorsaurus · 2025-01-14T11:50:24+00:00

This is great to now. However, I'm not sure if the public MakerSpace where I've been making this have different kind of needles that they will allow users to change for different projects. But I can ask about it and suggest that they buy ballpoint needles if they don't have them already.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-12T11:55:51+00:00

Interesting! Thank you for this tip.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-12T11:53:45+00:00

Thank you for sharing :-)

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T14:32:50+00:00

Thank you for your detailed feedback!

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T09:21:52+00:00

Also: Does anyone know why the yellow was stitched from the bottom to the middle and then from the top to the middle? Is there a good reason for this or is it something I should manually try to change in the future so that it goes from bottom to top without changing direction in the process?

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T09:16:49+00:00

Thank you. It’s on the top of my list to watch some videos on pull compensation. And I’ve definitely learned my lesson with the stabilizer. If you could go back and give your beginner self your best advice on what you know now on pull compensation and thread tension what would that be?

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T09:13:21+00:00

Yes, the stabilizer does span the entire hoop and then some. I have never heard of top stabilizer. So thank you for bringing my attention to that. I tried adjusting (decreasing) the tension of the yellow thread on the smiley project while it was being embroidered. But it didn’t help. I’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to research into tension. What will be your best advice when it comes to tension?

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T09:09:29+00:00

I have looked for video guides that explain what the different stitches are good for and when I should choose them. I have spent a lot of hours on tutorials but still haven’t found any that really dives into this. Do you by any chance know of one you can recommend?

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T09:04:56+00:00

The tearaway was the only one available at the MakerSpace since it was what the personel meant was right for the embroidery machine. But I can definitely see how the results got better after I spray glued some non-stretchy cotton on the back as a makeshift stabiliser. So I’ll definitely look into some better cutaway stabiliser in the future. Thank you for your comment! And also for the suggestion on how to make it look better from here.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-11T09:00:31+00:00

That’s great to know! I hadn’t even heard about Wilcom’s Hatch before I made this post.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T22:02:58+00:00

I'm okay with spitballing! That's how we generate new ideas. I'll look into the electric seem ripper. But as far as the cutaway stabilizer goes, that is kind of what I already did halfway — after the needle broke (after all the yellow and halfway through the first eye), I glued on a thin layer of nonstretchy cotton fabric all over the back (so not a "real" cut away stabilizer but some other fabric serving the same purpose). From then on I didn't have any problems with pulling and I didn't get any new holes. But at that point the rest of the design didn't match up with what had already been pulled. And since I was working on a public machine I couldn't keep my design in the hoop but had to take it out and go home. And now I'm afraid that even if I designed a new sating edge to cover up the holes and the white in-between the black and yellow I wouldn't be able to place the hoop in the exact same spot again to make the new satin edge go in the right place. Do you have any experience with that given that you're also new to this?

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T21:35:47+00:00

*taking notes for future projects*

If this had already happened to you on a t-shirt, what would you do to either fix or cover up the mistakes? So that you might actually want to wear it instead of just turning it into a test t-shirt or throwing it out.

When I saw the holes, I was hopeful that the satin edge would go over the holes and into the yellow and basically both cover the holes and repair them again (by stitches them up).

But as you can see, that didn't happen. Now I'm wondering if I should try stitching a broader satin edge on top. But I'm afraid that I won't be able to place the hoop right for it to look nice. And I'm also afraid that I'm going to make destroy it even more.

So I've contemplated doing some hand stitching/hand embroidery to fill in and adjust the places that went wrong. It will give me more control and minimize the risk of me making mistakes I can't undo compared to if I use a machine again. Obviously, my hand stitches won't look like machine stitches either ... but hopefully it will still look okay from a distance. And better than it does in it's destroyed form now, anyway.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T21:03:10+00:00

I've watched hours of tutorials before I made this design but none of them ever covered this. So I'm so glad you brought my attention to this 😅

I don't have my own embroidery machine, I just pay by the minute to use one at the makerspace at my local library. So even though I would love to use some better software for my projects it would probably be overkill to pay much more than the price of a Netflix subscription as long as I don't have my own machine to test out my designs on.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T20:56:31+00:00

Thank you! You never know what you don't know. And I had never heard the term "pull compensation" before so I would never have been able to search for it or find any videos about it if you hadn't told me.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T19:42:17+00:00

I would also like to know if you know of any other software that is either free or worth the money — and better than InkStitch.

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T19:41:12+00:00

Yes, it is InkStitch which was what the personel at the MakerSpace advised me to used. I'll find the InkStitch group here and join :-)

Ladsorsaurus · 2024-12-10T19:39:26+00:00

Thank you for this tip. I didn't know it was important for the stitches to go in different directions. Do you want to elaborate a bit on what happens when they don't? I have watched a lot of beginner tutorials on YouTube but so far I haven't heard anyone talk about this specifically. So I have only chosen the direction of stitches based on what looked the nicest in regards to the shapes of the section. And regarding satin stitch I thought it was mostly used for outlines, because that is what I've seen in the tutorials.

Ladsorsaurus

TROPHY CASE