Machine Embroidery: Do I Need Software? Part 1

This is a reprint of the 12/14/2010 Shibui Originals From Thought To Thread blog entry of the same name.


So you've purchased an embroidery machine and now you're thinking about digitizing software.
Ask yourself this question: will I be buying my designs or creating my designs?

There are lots of designs out there on the web and in your local sewing shop. Your embroidery machine probably even came with several. And if you're just embroidering purchased designs for friends and family, you won't need a lot of software. Why do you need software at all, you wonder, if you've purchased the design and you're not going to create your own?

First and foremost, all embroidery designs are not created equally. There are some excellently digitized designs out there, but not all designs are well digitized. Furthermore, all designs will not stitch out equally well on all fabric types. As a general rule of thumb, the more stable the fabric, the better your stitching results. So heavy canvas should always produce better results than a light-weight knit tee shirt. That's fine if you're only going to stitch out on stable wovens, but that's rarely the case. You want to stitch your purchased designs on knit tee shirts and pola tec vests and terry cloth towels.

Most embroidery machines will allow you to resize a design using the built-in machine software, but you cannot affect the design in other important ways like changing density, underlay, or push and pull compensation settings so that your design is appropriate for the fabric on which you want to embroider.

This is where the need for software comes in: you need software that will either allow you to make changes manually or that will alter a design for your depending on the fabric you want to use. Floriani's Stitch 2 Perfection allows you to apply changes to a design based on a selected fabric type. You don't have to understand density, push and pull compensation, or underlay types to do this. You tell the software what kind of fabric you're using and it understands what has to happen to a design to make it work better on that fabric.

Things to remember when you're working with a purchased design:

• If you want to sell items (on etsy or eBay for instance) that  you've embroidered with a purchased design, check first to see if the seller allows for that. Many purchased designs are for personal use only. Check the fine print of your purchased design and see if you can legally sell items on which you've embroidered it. Some sellers want you to write them and ask permission. Others say outright that you can sell for profit or not.
  
• When you purchase designs of a licensed character (i.e. Winne the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Bart Simpson, super heroes and company logos), they arealways for personal use only. Companies that sell these embroidery designs also sell merchandise with those characters on them. If you want to resell items on which you've embroidered the purchased licensed character design, you'll need to negotiate a contract with the license owner and it will be astronomically expensive. Thus, these designs are for personal use only.
• No matter what design you've purchased, you're the only one who's licensed to use it. You cannot send copies of the file to others or share it with friends or resell the design file to another party.
• If you don't like the size of the design, you can resize it larger or smaller by about 20% without compromising the design. More or less than that and it may no longer stitch out properly. Some designs come in multiple sizes for just this reason. Buy the design size or sizes that you need, not just one size and assume that you can easily resize the design to other sizes. The only time this rule doesn't apply is when the design is made up entirely of run stitches. You can resize a run stitch design as much as you want without changing the quality of the design. As soon as satin and complex fill stitches go into a design, the rule applies.
• If you color sort a design, it may not stitch out properly.

There is another software package that you may want. If you want to take pictures of things (grandchildren, pets, holiday photos) and applique them onto shirts or quilt squares, John Deer's Adorable You! software may be useful for you. Whether using the regular or pro version of this software, you don't have to understand a lot about stitch types, density, or underlay because all of that is built into the software. There are pre-set templates that you can use as applique shapes and resizing is a breeze. You will need an ink jet printer, digital camera, and possibly a scanner to maximize your results with this software, but you can make memory quilt squares and customized tee shirts with pictures on them with minimal digitizing expertise.

Keep in mind that, even if you're doing it as a hobby, machine embroidery isn't cheap. Even if you ignore the initial cost of an embroidery machine and possible software, there are still designs, thread, stabilizer, and apparel or accessories to purchase. You'll need some kind of computer, laptop or desktop. This doesn't even include the possibility of needing a digital camera, scanner, and thumb drives.

Tomorrow we'll talk about what software you need if you want to do machine embroidery as a home-based business.