Jump Stitches

Digitizing to Reduce Jump Stitches Written by Hilary and Graham Killerby from African Sewfari   Don’t you just hate loads of jump stitches in a design? I know that there are times they just cannot be avoided, but there are ways around these annoying jump stitches. When using an Automatic program you are at the mercy of the program as far as the elimination of jump stitches is concerned. It all depends on the program you are using as to how successful the result is.  However, it is possible to edit out certain jump stitches using an edit program to perfect your design.  It is preferable to "manual punch" your design if you wish to minimize the number of jump stitches. There are two methods we use to achieve the best results.  Hiding your traveling stitch lines. Using the removal of overlay stitching which is referred to as "hole sewing" in certain programs. Hiding Your Traveling Stitch Lines In the first method, you do exactly what the name suggests - hide your traveling stitch lines between digitized objects of the same color in your design.   All traveling stitch lines should be single using the default stitch length (or spacing).   Prior to commencing the digitizing of a design the planning stage is very important. It is invaluable to make a print of the design you want to use in order to plan the route and record the following information:- Initially grade the design objects and number them in order from background objects (i.e. those at the rear of the design in 3D terms), through the intermediate objects to the foreground objects. The objects furthest away must always be digitized first. The colors to be used must be decided on next and if two objects are considered to be equal in 3D value then the lightest colored object must be inserted first. It is always desirable to try and hide lighter colored stitch lines under darker colored objects. Dark thread tends to show through lighter thread colors. It is therefore better to hide the lighter travel stitch lines and leave the darker colored connecting stitches as jump stitches if they cannot all be hidden. Always record the sewing order of the traveling stitch lines on your design print out. Use A,B,C etc. so as not to confuse them with the object numbers. This is necessary as should you wish to change the color or sewing order of an object at a later stage, it will be necessary to edit the relevant traveling stitches as well. When digitizing flowers, digitize the stems last. These can be a tad thicker to cover all the different colored rows of traveling stitches. If you cannot avoid jump stitches, try and make them as LONG as possible so cutting is easy. The face is normally sewn out last and these jump stitches tend to be very tiny and difficult to cut. Try planning the order of digitizing them (eg. right eyebrow, left eye, mouth, left eyebrow, right eye). HINT: Use a small piece of Solvy to cover the face before stitching. It makes snipping jump stitches far easier. Removal of Overlay The removal of overlay method works exceptionally well where one or more object/s are surrounded by another.  Some programmers require one entire object to be completely surrounded by another in order to utilize this option while others will work with overlapping objects no matter how little the objects overlap each other. Planning is once again the essence of success and a print out of the design is essential. In this method the smaller objects are digitized first with the color order once again being done from lightest to darkest with the color of the largest object (cover object) being as dark as possible. This allows the traveling stitches to be hidden successfully. Objects of the same color are linked with traveling stitch lines. The first lines can be placed in the most direct route between objects even if they traverse another color object to be digitized later as they will be hidden. Be careful not to place the darker colored traveling lines too close to already digitized objects as they can end up showing through where the objects and the "cover object" meet. When using this method it is important to increase the "Pull Compensation" factor to +50% of the normal default setting for both the objects and cover object. Depending of the programmed and the ease of changing the sewing order, use one of the following:- Once all the objects and the cover object have been digitized the cover object must be changed to sew first in order to allow the objects to be accessible for selection when effecting the removal of the overlay.  The alternative method is to save the objects and travel stitch lines after they are digitized. Delete them and digitize the cover object, inserting the saved objects on top of the cover object before the removal of overlay is implemented. Whichever method is used do not forget to change the cover object to sew last in order to hide the travel stitches before saving the finished design.