Embroidery involves decorating a garment by adding patterns and designs after its sewed. That is why you come across many products with thread designs, for instance, caps, pillows, t-shirts, and more. Sewing and embroidery can be performed using a different stand-alone machine. However, at a far glance, it is hard to differentiate between the two since they work with fabric and thread. However, some sewing machines have embroidery capabilities. With the completion of sewing the garment, you can add designs and patterns without straining. Below we check on the features needed for embroidery and what kind of sewing machine does embroidery.
What Kinds of Sewing Machine Does Embroidery?
Important Features Needed in the Embroidery Machine
To embellish a certain fabric into the desired designs and patterns, there are specific features in the machine that enables the task to be doable. We will discuss what features are used in the embroidery machine to complete the task.
Bobbin.
The spool which holds the thread is called a bobbin. Some machines have a different number of bobbins they can hold at the same time. When you sew or embroider a garment with different colors, they complete the task due to loading desired colors.
Needles.
When sewing and embroidering, you require different types of needles. Needles used for embroidering are larger than those needed for sewing because they protect the thread. The machines come with needles in the package, however, you can buy extra needles according to your needs. When embroidering, needles move way quicker than sewing needles.
Hoop.
This is a feature that looks and operates like a frame. It is a key feature in sewing and embroidery because it builds the fabric in place when the machine is operating. Due to holding the garment or fabric together, it enhances perfection in the creation of designs and patterns, unlike its lack which would lead to making errors in the pattern.
Stabilizer.
Sometimes the types of fabric may be different, which is heavy and strong in comparison to a thin and weak fabric. By using a stabilizer, it works hand in hand with the hoop to ensure that fabric does not shift around when the machine is operating the designs. It holds the fabric taut.
Display screen.
To set up a digital pattern in an embroidery machine, you need a display screen. The display screen looks like a computer in the embroider machine which enables you to choose the patterns and add the designs you want from external files. The embroidery machine can store several desired designs while you are not limited to what type of image the machine can set.
What Kind of Sewing Machine Does Embroidery?
Despite sewing and embroidery machines performing their assigned task individually, there are some kinds of sewing machines that do embroidery. The user can utilize the extra special features in the machine and perform embroidery using them. Below are the types of sewing machines that do embroidery.
· Free-motion embroidery machine
This is a kind of sewing machine that is of free motion thus easier to produce zigzag stitches. When using this machine, you can decide where the needle stitches in the fabric but not the machine. Therefore, the tightly banded fabric has to be moved on the hoop to enable the needle to stitch the desired design in this type of embroidery machine. Hence it means that as a user, you have to develop the embroidery manually with certain machine settings for a design and an image of your liking with tight stitches.
As they are mostly used as sewing machines, they only possess one needle. For the creation of a uniquely desired image or design, the operator has to stop when a single color is done and manually rethread every single color into a multicolor design. The designs created from this machine are often very unique and hard to reproduce in the computerized embroidery machine.
Although it requires the manual process, acquiring this type of machine gives you a set of other sewing skills, from sewing, embroidery to quilting. Learning techniques like thread-painting and quilting might be hard at first but ultimately it equips you with overall skills in sewing.
· Computerized embroidery machine
A computer embroidery machine is what you are in search of when looking for a modern embroidery sewing machine. The machine has a frame in which the fabric is placed and held with tension to enable the sewing needle to automatically move to make the design that was programmed earlier and saved in the machine.
The computerized embroidery machine grants you a lot of utility where based on its capabilities, it requires numerous kinds of input in a particular arranged formatting so that it sews the embroidery designs. In the case where it uses one needle, you will needle rethreading but if it uses numerous needles there is no need for rethreading until it completes the design.
Steps for Sewing an Embroidery Design Using Computerized Machine Embroidery
Step 1:
Create a digital design or purchase the design file from the embroidery software. When creating the design on your own, you can include any image or pattern in the computer or purchase the design seeming most suitable for the product you want to be embroidered.
Step 2:
Editing the design that has been digitized. It takes place by refining it into the desired image or pattern that fits your needs or by combining it with other designs that are carried out in embroidery software. The software allows the user to supplement the text fast enough without inputting much effort.
Step 3:
Loading the design.
With a personalized or customized design, the final design needs loading in the machine in the form of a CD, flash disk, or USB cable interface depending on the brand of the machine.
Step 4:
Stabilizing the fabric.
Due to how complex the design is, type of embroidery machine, fabric characteristics it is important to stabilize the fabric. Wrinkling and other related issues during embroidery can be avoided entirely by stabilizing the garment. The interfacing assists in stabilization where its place on top or bottom of fabric or both.
Step 5:
Design embroidering.
After placing the fabric on the hoop and stabilizing it, switch on the machine and observe closely and continuously the embroidery process until it’s complete.
Conclusion.
As a fashion designer who enjoys sewing and embroidery, owning the above two types of sewing machines gives you the advantage of performing embroidery. What is important is to gather knowledge on how to do it rather than buying an extra embroidery machine which costs more. Although different machines vary in strengths and ability to help you in embroidery, ultimately you get quality designs and patterns.