Multi-Hooping, creating large embroideries

Friends, for the past two weeks I have been glued to my various embroidery machines putting the final touches on my next creation. The design itself was drawn well over a year ago and portions were completed whenever I felt like it but the actual putting together of all the pieces has been in the past two weeks…(I sort of cringed at the JD seminar when John was telling all that it takes hime 20 minutes to create a design…well, JD it takes me months)

The whole idea started about a year ago while browsing on the internet. Always a fan of mythology I was interested in finding that as the lion is the “King of the Jungle” the dragon is the “King of Myths”. The idea of dragons was always sort of slimy but the more I would think about it, the more I wanted to digitize a dragon hence started the series of ME designs “Myths and Dragons”. More push came about when I went to test drive my commercial SWF and the Korean embroidery of a dragon hanging on the wall at the dealer took my breath away. I must have stared at the embroideries for at least half an hour, so much detail and texture!

My only problem was that I had a semi-commercial machine (PR600) which could accomodate a large dragon but would not do justice to it. I wanted dragons to be quite large so the idea came to create the design in such a manner that it would be suitable for home embroidery machines but the design itself would be created in several hoopings. The preferred hoop was to be 5×7 as it is of a preferable size and dependable than the 6×10 hoop.

Before I start off the method of multi-hooping or how it is done, lately I came across a comment regarding “Manual Punch”. Some while back there was a discussion on the MP boards about this very topic with a comment posted that the best digitizers are those that manually punch the designs. Well…therein comes a question…what is meant by Manual Punch? The term as used today is quite different than its original meaning. A visit to many ME websites, one would see the wording “our designs are manually punched”. I had been quite surprised at this and very much in awe of those who could produce designs so fast while manually punching until I realised it is a term used from the software rather than the actual meaning. So, what exactly is manual punching? Well, for starters, it does not mean using the Manual punch tool from the software (PE/Palette to be exact) rather it refers to manually placing each and every stitch (hence manual punching). Punching used to be the term used for digitizing. It is a rather tedious method and softwares today developed it into various tools which ease the process. The basis of all stitches is the outline or the single stitch. Depending upon the lenght creates the various effects that we see as satin, fills etc etc. Not many digitizers today use the technique but there are few whose work is exceptional and beyond the capabilities of any software. It came as no surprise to me that two of the digitizers using the method are Elsa Goussard of http://www.elsasdesigns.com/ and Santi Nuss of http://www.hatchedinafrica.com No wonder I admire and look forward to their new works.

So, returning to the method of multi-hooping…well, after many many attempts at maintaining my dragon within 2 hoops, I realised it just was not going to happen. I needed more than just two hoopings…actually by the time I finished it was more like five hoopings for the 5×7 hoop size. By this time, I had convinced Dh that I definitely needed a commercial machine. Talking with various commercial reps we decided on the SWF (partly because support was nearby and also the payment plan and price was wonderful). Aha, I busied myself completely in creating this monster to be as large as possible to fit the largest hoop that my new SWF would handle…20″x13″(YEAH, LOL).

Multi-hooping is really not very difficult. Embird (if you do not own this software, you are missing out on one of the best) gave me the perfect method of allocating aligning stitches that would match up to the previous and next hoopings. I know it didn’t sound right, LOL, I’ll try. I can do better when I am showing pictures. What the method involves is that once the first hooping design is stitched out, the machine will stitch down a horizontal and vertical line. The next hooping will also contain the same lines which must match up to the already stitched down lines. See the small horizontal and vertical line in the left side of the dragon in picture.

 

 

 

 

Another great tool to have is templates which Embird prints perfectly making matching up very easy to do really. Coupled with the plastic template that came with your machine, any multi-hoop design can be very easily matched.

 

The plastic template has a centering point which matches the horizontal and vertical lines. Matching that to the printed template which I have pinned above to the fabric will create perfect lining up.

Btw, if I didn’t mention the url for Embird: http://www.embird.com

The horizontal and vertical line (as it stitches first) must match up otherwise your design could be off a bit. As seen from the image on the left, if I had allowed the design to be stitched, it would have been off just a bit and something would not look right. Another thing I learned was not to use the same color thread when stitching the next hoop’s lines (I could not tell which was which??)

Ofcourse, after about test driving the first dragon about eight times, I was able to have perfection….

 

 

The dragon itself is about 15 1/2″ tall and about 11 1/4″ at its widest. Five hoopings and a masterpiece…I’m pleased. Ofcourse see below(on black) a picture of one of my test drives that didn’t make it… see the spaces between the clouds and the body…