ImagesMagUK_February_2022

Embroidery at a stretch Embroidering performancewear may stretch your patience, but Erich Campbell’s advice on how to handle it will have you winning the admiration of clients in no time P erformancewear is thin, stretchy, unstable, somewhat fragile, and yet undeniably a staple for garment decorators. Often viewed as a challenge to embroider, through the strategic application of digitising and support materials and with subtle changes to your execution, you can mitigate these difficulties and create ripple-free decorations. Guiding principles for performancewear Success depends on stability Enhancing the stability of the garment lets you counteract the stresses inherent to the embroidery process. It takes a holistic approach Every stage of the process matters. If the stabiliser, hooping or execution isn’t done well, digitising alone can’t carry the process. Adopt a light hand With light, flexible materials, the less stress you place on them, the better your results. Performancewear is not naturally dimensionally stable, meaning it readily stretches in multiple directions and changes dimension; less stitching means less distortion. Staying stable Enhancing dimensional stability is key to preventing both puckering and design distortion. With proper support materials and hooping technique you can greatly reduce shifting and rippling. Selecting stabiliser Use light, dimensionally stable materials meant for performancewear. Use one or two layers only; large stacks or overly thick stabilisers can cause the logo to ‘tip’ or ‘hang’. This can ruin the drape of the shirt and create visible edges around the design, particularly with white or light- coloured garments. Many embroiderers use a ‘no-show polymesh’ stabiliser for the lightest hand and to avoid seeing ‘stabiliser shadows’ around designs on thin garments – this, however, does not stop stretch entirely and works best with designs created with performancewear in mind. Working with wovens Some stabilisers created for ‘action’ or performance materials are actually woven fabrics. Standard non-woven stabilisers composed of fibres laid in all directions benefit from having no structural weakness or stretch in any one dimension, but woven stabilisers are stronger than non-wovens against stretching vertically and horizontally. Even so, woven stabilisers are noticeably weaker when stretched at 45° and 135° angles from their warp. Using them, you may see distortion in designs that have numerous stitched elements with stitch angles at 45° or 135° or with heavy stitching in general. To combat this, many embroiderers use two layers of woven stabiliser, offsetting the second layer 45° from the first to provide support on those angles. Calling in back-up Some embroiderers further bolster performancewear decorations by adding a heat- applied covering material behind the embroidery. This has the benefit of reducing the uncomfortable scratching of embroidery against skin while also A window of stabiliser above the garment can increase grip and decrease abrasion and the crushing of garment fibres www.images-magazine.com FEBRUARY 2022 images 67 KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT