Shifting and Gapping in Stitchouts
Sometimes embroiderers will notice shifting and gapping in sections of designs. This is known as "poor registration." The leading cause of poor registration issues is using tear-away or water-soluble stabilizer to back the fabric. Take a look at the example to the right. This is a rocket design that was stitched on light cotton and backed with tear-away stabilizer. Note how there is a large gap in the tail and on the right side. Also, note how the main body of the rocket looks great -- but there's a gap in the right side.
This design was stitched with tear-away stabilizer. Note how there is shifting, gapping, and misalignment of stitches.
This is the same design stitched with cutaway stabilizer. Note how all the sections of the design line up perfectly. The stitches are crisp, clean, and clear. Tear-away or water-soluble stabilizers can give inconsistent results. You might have used the same fabric and tear-away stabilizer combination for years with good results, but suddenly begin to experience shifting and gapping. To understand why this happens, we'll need to take a brief look at the "science" of embroidery.
This is the same rocket design stitched with cutaway stabilizer. Note how there is no shifting, gapping, or misalignment.
The "science" of embroidery is how different fabrics react to stitches. When manufacturers produce fabric, they don't anticipate that any embroidery will be added to it. When we embroider on fabric, the stitches add weight and stress to the fabric. Even the lightest, simplest design adds stress to fabric. To support the fabric for embroidery, we use stabilizer (sometimes called backing). Stabilizer comes in oodles of types. The main three kinds are cutaway, tear-away, and water-soluble. At first glance, tear-away is a very attractive option to embroiderers. It "tears away" from the backside of the embroidery quickly, whereas cutaway stabilizer needs to be trimmed away. Some embroiderers think that using tear-away leaves a neater-looking back side too, or is less abrasive against the skin when embroidering on garments. However, even though the above sounds appealing, tear-away is usually not the best choice of stabilizer. Consider the very nature of tear-away stabilizer: it's designed to tear away easily. When embroidering on fabric backed with tear-away stabilizer, the needle perforations tear the stabilizer away during the embroidery. And, if one is using a larger or dull needle, the stabilizer can rip or tear. This means that the stabilizer is weakened and degraded -- and that allows the fabric fibers to scoot around while embroidering. If the fabric is moving, then you'll experience "poor registration" like you see in the above rocket example. Choosing the correct stabilizer for the fabric is one of the most important steps in getting excellent results when embroidering. Over the years we've written dozens of Fabrics 101 articles that give stabilizer, needle, and design recommendations when stitching on a certain type of fabric. You can find that collection of articles here. Generally speaking, any fabric that is lightweight, weak, stretchy, or has a loose weave, should be backed with cutaway stabilizer. This includes quilter's cotton, terrycloth (yep, those thick bath towels need cutaway stabilizer), t-shirts, sweatshirts, even most types of denim (because they're stretchy). Heavier fabrics with a tight weave -- canvas, duck cloth -- can usually be embroidered when backed with tear-away stabilizer. I mentioned earlier that the "leading cause" of shifting and gapping is using tear-away or water-soluble stabilizer. Other causes of shifting and gapping include: **Loose (or no) hooping. Many embroiderers hoop stabilizer and baste or pin the fabric to the stabilizer. If you're using this method and seeing shifting and gapping, then hoop the fabric with the stabilizer (spray adhesive between the two is helpful, too) to get better results. **Hoop obstruction. Embroiderers have found scissors, screw heads, tissue boxes, pin cushions, electrical cords, and other items that obstruct the hoop's ability to move freely. Check the area around your embroidery machine, and the embroidery arm's bed, too, to make sure that the hoop can move freely. **Software and editing. Changing the size of a design with an embroidery software program, or using a resizing feature on your machine, will degrade the design. This can result in shifting and gapping. And, if you're using a software program that converts stitches to blocks (the Artista software has this feature), then converting stitches to blocks will cause gapping, too. Stitching a design as we sell it, with minimal or no changes or editing, will give the best results. **Bobbin tension. This is pretty rare, but gaps can happen between fills and satin stitches if the machine's bobbin tension is too tight. To gauge proper tension, stitch a satin stitch column and review the back side of the embroidery. You should see about 1/2 to 2/3 of bobbin thread. If you're experiencing shifting and gapping in your sewouts, review this list of questions: 1. Are you using cutaway stabilizer? 2. Are you hooping the fabric and stabilizer tightly? 3. Are you stitching the design without any resizing or editing? If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, then try stitching the design again with the above recommendations and considerations. If you answered "yes" to all of the above questions and are still experiencing shifting and gapping, then please contact us for assistance. Send an email with the following information to stitch@emblibrary.com: 1. Your order number 2. The name of the design 3. The type of fabric you are stitching onto 4. The type of stabilizer you are using 5. The areas where you're seeing shifting and gapping. If you can send a photo, that would be great. A picture really is worth a thousand words. Include all of the above-requested information. We'll check the design, and stitch it with the fabric and stabilizer combination that you're using, to try to replicate the problem.