InkStitch - embroidery patch
Introduction
This little tutorial explains how to design embroidery patches with the free and open source Ink/Stitch software Creating a patch with only an embroidery machine requires a little bit of precision work.
Creating patches is explained in general terms in the Embroidery patch article. Here, we just summarize the method we like best.
Prepare the fabric
Cut out some appropriate stable fabric of the size of the badge. You can print out a paper version of the design and use it as model.
Ideally, you could cut the patches with a laser cutter. We use our Trotec Speedy 100R 50Mw with settings: power=23, speed=1.9 and Hz=1000. Since the fabric may warp consider weighting down the borders, e.g. with pieces of lead. Scissors will also do, but try to be as precise as possible.
Hooping
- Hoop a self-adhesive tear-away stabilizer, sticky side up.
- Consider using two layers to add some extra stability
Yes. Do not attach the stabilizer to the fabric (your pre-cut patch), wait !
Alternatively, for better results, you could use a heavy water-soluble or heat-soluble stabilizer. But then you'd have to rehoop after each patch...
Place the fabric
- Stitch a placement stitch (cut line) that has the size of the patch.
- Remove the hoop
- Stick the pre-cut fabric inside/on top of the cut line. (If you don't have a sticky stabilizer, glue the fabric)
- Put the hoop back
Tack down and stitch the border
- Stitch an optional tack down stitch followed by a zig-zag border first. The zig-zag's underlay will do as tack down.
Stitch the rest
Then stitch the rest of the embroidery.
Reuse the stabilizer in the hoop
Carefully remove the patch. It should "come off" very easily since the sating border will have perforated the stabilizer.
You now can just stick a piece of stabilizer on top of the round hole (sticky side up!) and start again without re-hooping.
If this is well done this will last for at least 10 patches.
It is probably best not to stitch a background color. Otherwise you will have to manage a pull/push effect and also make sure that the overlap between border and background looks good. The zigzag stitch should come first in order to make sure that it is correctly placed along the borders. Instead, use specialized fabrics for batches that look good, e.g. Twilly or Step from Gunold.
Glue the patch onto some cloth
In our very limited experience, the easiest way of gluing a patch to some cloth is to us some thermo film made of glue. Again, Gunold does have several products. We have HeatnBond Lite.
(1) Cut a piece of thermofilm, a bit bigger than the size of the patch
(2) Infuse the patch with glue
- Put the patch upside down in a heat press or on a table
- Put thermofilm on top, cooking paper on top. If it doesn't have its own cooking paper add your own.
- Heat with a heat press or an iron for about 3 seconds
- Remove the cooking paper
The patch now has glue on the down side. Alternatively, you can cut a larger piece of thermo film glue. Apply it is as shortly as possible (about 2 seconds) to the backside of the patch, then cut it.
(3) Apply the patch to the cloth
- Put the patch on top of the fabric.
- Again, put some cooking paper on top
- Heat for 5-10 seconds
(4) Sew the borders. Otherwise the patch might come off during washing.
Templates
Below is our standard 6.2mm template that we designed for outreach activities. Positioning, tackdown line, a heavy zig-zag and a line inside the zig-zag.
. The green lines allow positioning digitized text (or a group of other objects) using the path -> Path effects -> Bend method described below.
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(f***ing awsome). The hand was taken from the noun project (we do have a license).
Below are two older 6.1cm templates with rather narrow zigzag borders and a 8cm one. You will have to put something inside and maybe calibrate InkStitch exampleThe following design is available from the Ink/Stitch web site. It nearly fits into the rather large 80mm patch. We just reduced it a little bit. We had to modify the design for the smaller 6.15 version, i.e. replace satin stitches in the needles by straight lines and remove some density. 6.15cm Version 1This design has quite a lot of pull. One probably could make the blue frame a bit smaller and use less density. The border may have to be improved (less underlay) and the placement stitch made a bit bigger. The hooping probably wasn't perfect. We should have used two layers of stabilizer. 6.15cm Version 28cm Version 1Of course, you are not really obliged to use the official colors.
Creating rounded text pathsInkscape allows to position a text along a patch as explained in several tutorials you can find. E.g. the semi-official Text on Path tutorial or the more detailed NASA mission styled badges with Inkscape tutorial by Nicu. So far (version 1.16, Aug 2018), Inkstitch doesn't have a lettering module. You either can create your own font, or copy/paste letter objects from some font file. See InkStitch - lettering and copy e.g. from InkStitch - Geneva-simple typefaces or Small embroidery font. Rounded text with a simple fill patternBelow we shortly explain how to create an embroidery patch using Inkscape fonts. However, since we only provide minimal instructions, please do read NASA mission styled badges with Inkscape first or concurrently ! Use the following as a checklist. Step 1 Add a circle to guide the text direction for the text on the upper half
Step 2 Enter the text To use a font with a simple tatami fill pattern:
Step 3 Align the text.
Step 4 Translate text to path
Step 5: Add a second circle for the bottom text
Step 6:
Result: The font will not look very good and should be replaced a satin stitched font. But this is more complicated. Template for downloadThe following template for a 8cm patch includes the two circles plus some dummy SVG text that you can replace by yours. Before you engage in this, recall that digitized letters as areas look rather ugly...
Rounded text with embroidery font objectsThis works for fonts where each letter is a single path. If not, see the next section. There are InkScape extensions that allow spreading an object(s) along paths. To use a digitized embroidery font, follow the following procedure. Read Generate from path (semi-official manual) As of Aug 2018, InkScape will crash with Inkscape 0.92.3 under Ubuntu 18. It works fine under Windows 10. Step 1: Create the texts
Step 2: Pattern along Path (text on top) The extension requires the user to select two objects: Firstly either a simple object or a group. Second, a path.
Step 3: Text at the bottom
For the second object to be placed at the bottom, it is crucial to change the direction of the circle-
To see path directions, set
At the end, remove the two circles. Example: Inkstitch letteringTo bend inkstitch lettering into a position, use a similar strategy as above. Take the same template as above with the two circles. You won't need these circles but they help positioning. Step 1: Create the text
Step 2: Bend
Step 3: Verify
Copyright modificationContents of this page including pictures and SVG files are also available under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. The Inkstitch project can use any element (text fragments, SVG files, pictures) for the project's official docs without giving attribution (just copy and paste). |