Monday, January 31, 2011

Puff Embroidery

Sewing 3d puff embroidery is a simple process that generates incredible results. In most cases a design must be specially digitized for 3d puff embroidery. These instructions do not cover the steps for digitizing a 3d puff design, only the application of the embroidery. 

To sew a 3d puff embroidery you will need only two additional items over regular embroidery. First you will need a sew file that has been created for 3d puff embroidery. Whether this is a stock design or a custom-digitized design it must be specially created for 3d applications. Second, you will need 3d embroidery foam. This foam comes in two degrees of thickness, 2mm and 3mm.


Step one is to hoop the garment as you would for regular embroidery. This includes using the correct backing for the type of garment you are sewing.


In Amaya OS load your design.  When you go into Color Sequence to select your thread colors add Applique or Pause after just before the color that will be sewing the puff portion of the design.

 Load the hooped item into the embroidery machine and sew the first color.

Next cut a piece of embroidery foam large enough to cover the design you are sewing. The foam color you use should be as close to the color of the thread you will be stitching over it as possible. Foam comes only in basic colors. Therefore it is impossible to match all possible thread colors. Some people use only two basic colors: white foam on all light colors and black foam on all dark colors.

When your machine pauses, change the Acti-Feed to standard and increase the Acti-Feed to 25 points (you can play with this number - if you are using thicker foam, you can go up to 35).  At the machine place the foam over the spot that will be embroidered - you can use tape to hold the foam in place.  Before starting your machine - adjust the presser-foot up to keep it from pushing down on the foam.


The thread and needle will cut the foam and you will be able to pull away the excess foam when the design is complete.

Once the excess foam has been removed, the job is nearly complete. The last thing to do is to remove any small pieces of foam that still remain. Loose pieces of foam can be brushed away using a soft brush, cloth or tweezers. There may still be small pieces of foam poking through the foam. You can use a sharp object, like a pin, to poke those piece back up into the stitches. Once you poke them back into the stitches, the stitches will move over the pieces to cover them. Another way to remove small pieces of foam is to use a heat source, like a hair dryer, to heat the embroidery. The heat will shrink the small fragments of foam making them disappear under the embroidery. ALWAYS test the heat source on a sample before trying it on a garment.  

Voila 


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