Don’t be afraid of digitizing large and detailed embroidery designs!

My August article for Printwear Magazine offers a step-by-step analysis of my process for dealing with even the most difficult pieces one step at a time. By breaking down the process to simple, easily defined steps, we can take what my at first seem like a monolithic and impossible ordeal and reveal the smaller tasks from which the thing is built so that we can make incremental progress toward our goal and use a strategy of study, work, and refinement to arrive at a truly well-crafted final product.

The steps in my process as outlined in the article include:

Analysis: Careful examination of the design and the customer’s intended final product with an eye toward finding “Obstacles and Opportunities”, meaning areas of the design that are difficult or will require changes to be made as well as places where labor can be saved through production or digitizing shortcuts.

Parsing: Breaking the design into workable pieces in sequence, so that you only have to work on one element at a time. This helps you conquer your resistance and make sense of design production.

Execution: With everything anaylzed and the design broken into manageable pieces, your decisions are largely made and you can get to the actual ‘work’ of digitizing. Allowing yourself the freedom to work, experiment, and rework in this stage is crucial.

Replay and Revision: Watching a simulated stitch-out onscreen is critical before you stitch- this is the place where you can catch glaring errors and save yourself a lot of time in sampling. Watch that replay and revise wherever necessary.

Stitching and Evaluation: Just like it sounds, get that design to the machine. Watch a real stitchout and take notes if you have to. The preparation pays off here, but you never know when you’ll need to edit for quality or you’ll be inspired to make an improvement.

Repetition: Do it again! This is both for the design you are working on and for your future career; first, if you need to work back into a design, do it. At almost any level of production, you’ll be glad you did. As an overall strategy, repetition means that you should keep digitizing those audacious designs. The more history you have under your belt, the less fear and delay you’ll engage with on your next big project.

If you’d like to read the entire article and see more samples of my own jacket-back work, check out the full article in PrintWear’s digital edition.

This Gilly Loco jacket back on the inside cover for Embroidery Business presented a unique opportunity to use textured applique.