ImagesMagUK_October_2021

www.images-magazine.com 81 images OCTOBER 2021 TIPS & TECHNIQUES Baseball caps are always popular with customers. Dominic Bunce of digitiser David Sharp explains how 3D embroidery techniques – with and without foam – can help you stand out from the crowd A dding a 3D effect to a baseball cap not only creates a unique finished product, it has a high- perceived value and so can be sold at a premium price. There are two techniques to achieve this: the raised satin effect (no foam required), or using 3D embroidery foam. The raised satin effect will never be as high and pronounced as the embroideries that use 3D raised foam, but it’s a great technique to have up your sleeve. To achieve this using Wilcom EmbroideryStudio e4.5, firstly select all parts of the file that you would like in the ‘Raised Satin’ effect (in this example, the whole design was selected). Hit the ‘Satin Raised’ icon and watch the stitch count rise – in this case, it tripled (to 4,249). But those extra stitches are doing a job: they are forming a build Raising your game up of zigzag stitches to create a natural dome effect. Next, right click on the ‘Raised Satin’ icon to adjust the ‘raise’ to your liking. One is the lowest and five is the highest when stitched. Three is the standard, but for this design it was left at one due to the thin lines. Tips for using foam When digitising for 3D embroidery when using foam, it is important that any open ends are closed off with a cap – this ensures that the foam is cut underneath it, allowing it to tear away easily without unravelling any threads. Typically, you will work with a density of 0.15 to 0.17, but this will vary depending on the design and product. No underlay is used, and there as few travelling run stitches as possible between sections. The wider the column width of the satin, the better the finish – ideally use a 7-8mm column width. Don’t be in a hurry! Slowing your machine down a little will help with the final quality of the finished product. A useful tip is to use an elastic band to help hold the foam in place while keeping your fingers out of harm’s way. Once finished, we recommend a quick blast of a heat gun – this helps to contract the foam (we used Madeira Hard Bodybuilder), pulling in any that is showing outside of the satin stitches. This 60mm x 42mm design on a Yupoong Classic Snapback Baseball Cap comprised 5,786 stitches, and took eight minutes to run on a Melco EMT16X embroidery machine, compared to seven minutes for the raised satin stitch version. www.davidsharp.co.uk A build-up of satin stitches was used to create this 3D embroidery The 3D foam version used more stitches and took longer to run