Small text embroidery can be daunting, but if we follow simple steps and take the necessary precautions it can be a breeze. These are the few hurdles that embroiders face, when dealing with small texts:

Complications With Small Embroidery Fonts:

• Bird Nesting: Bird nesting occurs because there are so many stitches in one place.

• Hard To Read: Too many stitches make the font look smaller and unreadable. This depends a lot on type of fabric being used. For example, cotton or fabric that have tendency to shrink makes the problem worse.

• Holes: Needle penetrating many times near the same place increases the risk of cutting a hole in the fabric.

Here Are A Few Things That Can Help With Small Text Embroidery:

Needle Thread:

• Use small needle 65/9 with 60 wt thread for 2 – 4 mm size text.

• Always use ball point needle for knits and sharp point for woven fabrics.

Machine Speed:

• Slow down your machine around 600 spm for nice and crisp results.

• Bringing the speed down of your machine will result in less rebound pulling, and the stitching will be more even.

Fabric Type & Stabilizer:

Be sure to stabilize your fabric. The better the surface, the better the stitching!

• Structured Caps: This can be achieved without stabilizer, but a layer of tearaway is recommended.

• Pique, Knits Or Stretchy Fabrics: 2 – 3 layers of any cutaway stabilizer with water soluble topping.

  Tip: When using a “no show” stabilizer, turn one of the stabilizer layers at an angle.

• Woven Materials: Requires a layer of cutaway with a layer of tearaway backing OR only 1 sheet of tearaway.

• Avoid Soft And silky fabrics They don’t have a lot of stability, and textured fabrics distort the letters. It is also best to avoid sheer fabrics, such as anything netting.

• Lettering 2-4 mm: Water soluble topping is a must.

Digitizing:

• It is best to choose the very basic fonts.

• Fonts must have underlay. Using an underlay and less density will improve the results.

• A center-run underlay is best for tiny fonts and aids them in sitting on top of the fabric.

• Use a zigzag or edge run with larger and thicker fonts.

• Knockdown stitches are a type of added underlay (this does not replace your fabric stabilizer) which looks like a tatami stitch and will knock down nap and fluff of textured fabrics and towels.

• Never use edge run on small letters. There is not enough room for more.

• Also for appropriate results, with 40 wt thread, no center-run underlay for 4mm size fonts; for 60 wt thread, we can add center-run underlay for 4mm size fonts.