This is typically due to the pulling action of the sewing process, which forces curve-shaped elements to pull inward when sewing. In addition, long stitches can affect how your machine sews, forcing it into jump stitch mode or slowing down the machine.Īnother factor at play is that when you try to sew certain letters at the smaller end of the font size range, closed letters such as O, Q, P, D, B, have a tendency to “close up” during sewing, especially when dealing with smaller formats. As you go beyond 12 mm, stitches become loose, possibly resulting in gaps. As a stitch becomes longer, it becomes less stable, since the distance between needle penetrations, which are the anchor points, is increasing. On the other end of the spectrum, long stitches have their own set of issues. In this situation, if the stitch length were 0.8 mm instead of 1.0mm, you would probably be sewing holes in the garment, rather than laying down stitches.

Of course, the hole will usually close back up around the thread after the needle is withdrawn, but the fabric still has been affected and potentially weakened. In the case of a stitch that’s 1 mm long, the sewing process will create two holes with a radius of 0.4 mm each, which leaves only 0.2 mm of fabric untouched between the outer boundaries of the holes. If you’re sewing with an 80/12 needle, then each needle penetration creates a hole with a diameter of 0.8 mm or a radius (outward from center) of 0.4 mm. There’s a logical reason for this: the size of the needle. I tend to be conservative, however, and won’t go shorter than 2 mm unless I’m digitizing the stitches myself. Though it’s possible to create something slightly shorter, stitches should never be less than 1 mm long. Normal embroidery stitch length range is 2 mm to 12 mm. As a result, the user has no clue as to what the actual stitch lengths are.Ī stitch requires two penetrations of the needle, thus the length of the stitch can only be so short. With fonts, the width setting is referred to as column width, which is typically increased or decreased using percentage values, not stitch length values. The width of a column is defined by the length of stitches used to sew it. To become proficient at applying embroidery fonts, you have to go back to the basics.Ī key fundamental of sewing fonts properly is stitch length.

Embroidery fonts are nothing more than software programs, but don’t let that fool you into thinking the computer will do all the work for you.

Old english font letters for embroidery