16. Wildcard Week¶
Individual Assignment¶
- Design and produce something with a digital process not covered in another assignment, documenting the requirements that your assignment meets, and including everything necessary to reproduce it. Possibilities include but are not limited to wildcard week examples.
Setting up my Embroidery File¶
For this week’s assignment, I chose to learn how to use an embroidery machine in order to embroider the design of Pusheen shown below.
In the beginning of this week, I had to choose between using one of two software appliations: Ink/Stitch or SewArt. I ended up choosing to use SewArt (the free demo version) because it is easier to use and allows me to import/edit jpeg files to make them into files appropriate for embroidery.
What is SewArt/digital embroidery?¶
SewArt is, according to their website, an application designed to convert raster/vector image files into embroidery file formats. Applications like SewArt are necessar yfor digital embroidery because, without these applications, you cannot get the digital image you want into an embroidery file format, and therefore you cannot use an embroidery machine to embroider your design. This functionality is a big difference between digital and traditional embroidery, as applications like SewArt are not necessary (and neither are the file formats SewArt converts images to) when performing traditional embroidery. Unlike traditional embroidery, digital embroidery is performed with automated machines, resulting in final products that are very uniform. If you embroider the same image using two different digital embroidery machines, chances are they will look almost identital, provided that you are using the same threads/bobbins for both.
Creating a file¶
The first I did after installing and opening SewArt was import the jpeg image of Pusheen shown above. The software was relatively easy to use, and there were only a few steps I had to take before exporting the file. First, I resized it so that it was only 84 mm wide. This was done because the initial file was more than 100 mm wide, which would be too wide for the Brother embroidery machine we had in the lab. After resizing the file, I used the color merge feature to remove some colors which weren’t necessary. I initially started with 6 colors, but after using the color merge feature, I ended up with 4. Now that the amount of colors had been reduced, I used the selection tool to choose what order I wanted to embroider each of the patches on the image in. I eventually decided to embroider the inner details first before moving onto the overall outline of the image. After choosing the order the patches would be embroidered, I exported the file as a .pes (used for brother embroidery machines) and sent it to a usb stick plugged into my computer. I then plugged this usb stick into the embroidery machine and began the physical embroidery process.
Image of the edited file in SewArt before exporting
Elaborating on the color selection process¶
When selecting the number of colors, their order, and what part of the image should be embroidered in what color, there are a few easy steps to get the image to look the way that you want. One important thing to note however, is that the colors you choose in the file are just for reference; for example, if you say that one part of the image should be blue but you put in a red bobbin and red thread when you embroider that part, the machine won’t care. The different colors are just to tell the machine when to stop continuously embroidering. Anyways, the first thing you want to do is select the “color merge” feature. Here, SewArt will allow you to move a slider from 0% to 100% to determine the threshold for color similarity where you want “similar” colors to merge (e.g. dark blue merging with light blue to reduce the amount of colors). A low setting for this means that more colors will merge, as the similarity threshold for merging colors is lower. The opposite is true for a higher setting. Then, once the amount of colors have been reduced, all you have to do is click on the colors and the respective portions of the image in order to choose the order that the colors will be embroidered in. Keep in mind that SewArt automatically detects and separates parts of an image that should be different colors, so you don’t have to do that yourself. Finally, in order to produce the stitch file after this, all you have to do is close the color merge feature and choose the “export” button on the toolbar in order to save your new stitch file to your computer.
How to Set Up the Embroidery Machine¶
The first thing I did before trying to use the embroidery machine was watch two video tutorials, one about winding a bobbin and one about actually embroidering using the machine. These two videos were very helpful for helping me to understand how the machine worked.
The first thing I did after watching the videos was take out all of the different colored bobbins and threading that I needed (displayed in the image below).
The colors I used (from left to right) were black, white, grey, and brown. Black was used for the final outline, white was used for highlights on the tail, grey was used for the main body, and brown was used for the eyes and whiskers. After taking out these materials, I clicked on the usb tab in the embroidery machine, loaded my file, and rotated it 90 degrees so that it would fit on the embroidery machine. Then, I took out two pieces of the paper I would be embroidering on and fitted them into the embroidery frame to hold them still while embroidering. Now, I used what I learned in the videos to fit the bobbin and correctly thread the thread into the needle correctly. The steps I followed are shown below.
How did I figure out what colors to use?¶
To choose the colors above, I basically just compared them to the digital colors by eye without any sort of advanced color analysis. Since this is the first time I am embroidering, I just decided to use the thread/bobbin colors that we had easily available at the lab instead of obsessing over getting the exact right colors.
Threading the Bobbin¶
- Take the bobbing out of its case
- Take the plastic cover off the bottom of the machine bed
- Put the bobbin in (make sure the thread rotates counterclockwise!)
- Guide the thread along the path to the left
- Cut off excess thread using the razor at the end
After following these steps, you should be done with the bobbin! Remember that you have to repeat these steps every time you change the color of thread you’re using
Inserting the Thread¶
- Slide the spool onto the spool at the top of the machine
- Pass the thread under the thread guide plate (marked with a 1)
- Slide it into the passage to the left and guide it around the circular spool (marked with 3)
- Drag the thread all the way down and guide it back up the passage to the left (marked with a 4)
- Now, bring the thread back down (make sure it goes over and catches onto the metal indent marked with a 5)
- Slide the thread into a small indent (marked with a 6) and slide it up into another metal indent (marked with a 7)
- Bring the the thread around a cylindrical path, cut off excess thread with the razor on the left side of the machine (marked with 8), and push down the slider (marked with a 9) at the same time
- Now that the thread should be going through the needle, drag the part of the thread which is sticking out of the needle away from where you are embroidering so nothing goes wrong
Now, you are ready for actually embroidering! But you have to redo all of those steps every time you switch out the thread/bobbin…
Actually Embroidering my Design¶
After going through all of those steps (with the brown thread and bobbing), I lowered the presser foot lever and clicked on the down arrow to begin embroidering. This first job only took a few minutes because I chose to embroider the eyes and whiskers first. After this finished, I swapped the thread and bobbin for grey ones and began to embroider the body. This job ended up taking around 15 minutes because it used much more thread than the face details. The video below shows what the embroidery machine looks like while embroidering.
I repeated the same steps for replacing the thread/bobbin another two times (for the white and black threads) before finishing the embroidery design. The finished product is shown below.
Elaborating on the color changing process¶
The process of changing thread/bobbing colors is very simple when using the embroidery machine, as I did not have to do anything special other than take out the thread when the machine stopped on its own. Adding onto this, the machine informs you to change the color by stopping and pausing the embroidery job when it finishes embroidering the last color, and it knows when to stop because of the colors chosen while creating the stitch file in SewArt. Finally, as stated previously, you don’t have to get the perfect colors or the exact same colors as the digital image, I simply knew which colors to use by comparing the thread colors we had at the lab to the actual colors on the image I was trying to embroider.
Problems Encountered¶
Although how I described my process above makes it sound like everything went smoothly, in reality, I struggled a lot at the beginning of this when trying to figure out how to use the embroidery machine (but using SewArt wasn’t that hard). Firstly, it took me a long time to learn how to guide the thread correctly because I kept second-guessing myself. To anyone else who is struggling with this same problem, my advice would be to go with your gut; your first instict when thread is most likely correct. Secondly, when I was using the grey thead (which was the part of the design which took the longest to embroider), I kept getting a message saying that the bobbin thread was almost empty. When I took out the bobbin to check, it did indeed run out of thread. Because I couldn’t find any other bobbins with grey thread (and I didn’t have time to or know how to thread it myself), I ended up just taking a similarly colored bobbin and substituted it in for the grey one. This works fine as long as you don’t need to display the bottom of the design.
Reflection¶
Overall, I felt good about what I did and learned in this week. I came into this week with absolutely no experience using embroidery machines or their software, but I now feel confident that I can embroider basically any design using what I learned this week. My embroidery files for this week can be found here. I used the .pes file to embroider, as that is the file type which my embroidery machine takes.