Tips & Information Pages

Welcome to my tips & information pages, if you are just starting out in the “embroidery world” you will find there are a lot of strange terms & a multitude of threads, needles, backings etc. to choose from. It is sometimes confusing in the beginning, so I thought I would create a little help page with some of the basics to help a novice so they could learn from others experience instead of learning through trial & error like most people are forced to do. Go to the list of subjects under the various headings & click to access the information. I hope these pages are of some help to the up & coming embroiderer.

Recommendations

Backing
Backing recommendations for different materials.
Design placement
Information on how to find the right place to put a design on the garment.
Needle information
Information on what the needle type abbreviations mean & a chart giving their sizes & suggesting the correct needle type & size to use with different fabrics & thread types.
Thread sizes
A comparison between different thread sizing systems: Deniers, Europlan, U.S. System, Metallic.

Terminology

Design terms
these are terms that are commonly used in the industry by the artist (or digitizer) that translates artwork into an embroidery file. Being a digitizer I have tried to give a little insight into that process along with the terms.
Machine terms
this goes hand in hand with the design terms, it is the language Industry uses for the wide variety of stitches that can be used to create a design in embroidery.
Backing terms
this explains what backings are used for, the different types & what types to use in various situations.
Stitch terms
this goes hand in hand with the design terms, it is the language Industry uses for the wide variety of stitches that can be used to create a design in embroidery.
Thread terms
thread is made out of various materials & comes in different weights. I have listed the different types, their properties, their strengths & weaknesses & some of the associated thread terms. I have also created a size chart that compares the four different sizing systems with each other.

Tips

Handy Tips
this is pretty much self explanatory, at the end there is some helpful information on hooping garments & some standard sizing information used when doing monograms. There is also a page on design placement, using these standard measurements for placement you can avoid making the mistake of putting a design in the wrong place & ruining the garment.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting guide
if your embroidery doesn‘t look like the stuff in the store here are some of the most common reasons.