Design Issues

How a design has been digitized can greatly affect how it sews. Testing against a standard test design is a good way to tell if the design you've been trying to sew is actually the cause of your thread breaks.

Sew the test design on a swatch of broadcloth and a couple pieces of cut-away backing. If the test design sews well, but the problem design does not, there is a good chance that the design is the issue.

When diagnosing design issues, it is helpful to pay attention to where the thread breaks are occurring.

• Thread Breaks Occur at the Beginning or End of Elements
• Thread Breaks in the Corners of Elements
• Thread Breaks on the Lettering
• Thread Breaks All Over the Design

Thread Breaks Occur at the Beginning or End of Elements

How the design ties in and ties off the elements will affect how the stitches start and trim. If these ties are not appropriate, thread breaks and mistrims can occur.

Check your tie ins and tie offs.

Thread Breaks in the Corners of Elements

As stitches navigate around corners, it can be common for them to bunch up and cause puckering, thread breaks, and even holes in the garment. Changing how the stitches handle corners can smooth these problems out.

Cap or miter the corners of elements.

Thread Breaks on the Lettering

Lettering that is added to a design can have different settings that will change how the lettering sews. Stitches may be smaller than your needle, densities may be too tight, and with some keyboard alphabets, tie stitches may have been doubled up. All of this problems can cause thread breaks.

Thread Breaks All Over the Design

If thread is breaking everywhere in the design, and the test design sews well, it could be that the design is too dense, there are too many needle penetrations in concentrated areas, or perhaps the design was scaled down too far.