InkStitch - manual stitches
Introduction
Most professional embroidery does at some point require some manual stitches, i.e. either embroidery objects ("stitch packs") that are not generated from parametrized design objects, or manual changes to generated "stitch packs".
Creating manual stitches
Creating manual stitches is easy, but requires adding lock stitches.
As explained in the official Manual Stitch page, the initial procedure is simple:
- Create a path. Line style or width are irrelevant.
- Open Extensions > Ink/Stitch > Params.
- Enable Manual stitch placement. The other settings will not have any effect in manual stitch mode.
It is important to understand that stitches are taken from the nodes that define a line. If your nodes are too far or too close, you will get stitches that are either too far or too close.
A good way to visualize distances is to use the Grid
Edit -> Preferences -> Grids
. Grid units = mm, set distances to 1 x 1 mm for example- turning the grid on (Menu
View-> Page Grid
Tip: To turn a smooth form, e.g. the spiral in Inkscape into a series of small connected lines, do the following
- convert the shape to a path if necessary (Path -> Object to Path)
Extensions -> Modify Path -> Flatten Beziers
. E.g. select a distance of 2. We used that setting to convert the spiral in the figure below.
You may have to remove, add or move some points using the node editor (F2)
Modifying generated stitches
A more often used strategy is to generate so-called stitch packs, and then edit these. So far, we think that the best method of doing this is the following:
- Create a design, e.g. create an InkScape Spiral, make it dotted ("Dotted spiral" in the figure below)
- With Ink/Stitch, parametrize as line
- Select just this object, then generate a stitch plan using
Extensions -> Ink/Stitch -> Embroider....
The result will be placed in the Stitch Plan Layer.
Edit this object
- The generated object in the Stitch plan layer, e.g. path1523 is a defined as manual path (like above), except that it also contains lock stitches in the beginning and at the end.
- Move this object into your embroidery layer ("Generated spiral" in the fig. below).
- Now edit the object, i.e. hit F2 and move, delete, add nodes. In the case shown in the figure below, we just moved nodes at the end and in the beginning. Make sure that when you move lock stitches (several stitches that go back and forth) together, this is a little bit tricky ....