Choosing and matching the right embroidery design

Choosing and matching the right embroidery design

For successful embroidery on different fabrics

Finding the perfect embroidery design is not only about finding the design you like best. In this article, you'll get tips on which criteria to consider when choosing a design for different materials, and how the BERNINA Embroidery Software can help you adapt it to your fabric.

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1. Fabric

1. Fabric

The most important criteria for choosing an embroidery design is, of course, the fabric you want to embroider. Most embroidery designs have been digitized for medium to heavy woven fabrics, and these fabrics can almost always be embroidered without any problems.
 

For thin or stretchy fabrics, choose "light" designs that are not embroidered all over or too densely. This prevents the fabric from being pulled together or losing its elasticity.  
 
If you still want to embroider a denser design on these fabrics, individual objects can also be made as appliqués.

For materials such as leather, vinyl etc. it is also advisable to select rather light designs with fewer stitches, as these materials could be perforated by the needle stitches.

The texture of the fabric also plays a role. For example, embroidery designs for fabrics with texture such as terry should not contain elements that are too small, as these will sink into the fabric and not be visible.

2. Design selection

2. Design selection

If you digitize the embroidery design yourself, it can of course be perfectly adapted to your project and you can choose the necessary settings. For those who do not digitize themselves, there is a large selection of designs online from various suppliers. A good source with a huge range of different embroidery designs is, for example, OESD, a subsidiary of BERNINA (www.embroideryonline.com).

Note

There are different digitizing styles among the countless providers. Often you only notice after embroidering whether it is a well-digitized embroidery design,
i.e. are there underlay stitches, is the embroidery sequence logical and are there no unnecessary connecting stitches.
 

3. Size adjustments

3. Size adjustments

Once you have selected the desired embroidery design, you should check whether the design is available in different sizes or whether the design can be scaled to the desired size. Always choose the ART format if you have the option, as this format can be scaled almost without limit in the BERNINA Embroidery Software ArtLink (free to download), Creator or DesignerPlus. The software recalculates the parameters such as stitch density, etc., so there is no loss of quality when resizing your design.

All other formats such as EXP are not recalculated and should only be scaled +/- 20% in the software as well as on the machine.

Note

With some suppliers you can download different sizes.
In this case, choose the size that comes closest to the desired size of the embroidery design and therefore hardly needs to be scaled.
 

4. Further adjustments with the BERNINA Embroidery Software (DesignerPlus and Creator)

4. Further adjustments with the BERNINA Embroidery Software (DesignerPlus and Creator)

Very helpful and easy to use is the function "Fabric" and select the desired fabric. This automatically adjusts the stitch density, length as well as the underlay stitches and shrinkage compensation for the selected fabric. The advantage of this function is that you don't have to worry about which settings need to be changed. In addition, the fabric selection can be changed again if you want to embroider the design on a different fabric later.

Here is an example of how the amount of stitches changes by adapting the pattern for heavy or light woven fabric.

If you wish to know the difference of these two fabric settings in detail, view the comparison chart.

Fabric settings comparison chart

Another setting is "Adjust stitch distance", which can be found in the menu "Edit". This allows you to reduce or increase the stitch density by a percentage for the whole design or for selected parts. This function is useful, for example, if you want to embroider the design a little less densely or if you use a different thread.

The next example shows how to adjust the embroidery design.

The original embroidery design has a stitch density of 0.45 and 11'054 stitches.

If the stitch spacing is increased to 120%, the stitch density is reduced to 0.54 and the number of stitches to 9880. However, the difference in the embroidery design is not visible at first glance.

Unlike the "Fabric" function, no other changes such as underlay stitches or shrinkage compensation are made.
 

Create and edit embroidery designs

Get creative with the BERNINA Embroidery Software 9, which lets you edit existing designs or create your own, apply special effects, add freehand drawing elements and turn images into embroidery designs in just one click.

Test the software for 30 days and start designing your own home decoration.

Download your free trial now

5. Testing

5. Testing

Even if you follow all these rules, it is always advisable to test embroider the design on the same or similar fabric. And of course you need to choose the right stabilizer, needle etc. for your project. You can find many tips on this in the article by BERNINA educator Mirjam.

Choosing the right stabilizer

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