embroidery.com.sg

common layman terms

In the following you will find a list of the terms and words commonly used between embroiderers and clients, it is always good practice to use the correct termilogy for whatever trade or job we encounter. This is meant for easy understanding between parties so as miscommunications will be at its minimal.

Applique	A separate pre-cut piece of fabric that is decorated or plain , and applied on top of another piece of fabric. Appliques are frequently used to reduce overall embroidery stitch counts, difficult tone work and, substrates difficult to embroider directly.
Backing	Typically non-woven material, applied beneath material to be sewn to increase stability and support stitches. Available in few forms:- tear-aways, cut-aways, dissolve-away. These come in various weights and thickness. Backings are generally hooped or framed together with fabric or otherwise positioned between fabric and embroidery machine throat plate prior to stitching
Bean Stitch	see triple run
Birdnesting	Describes an accumulation of thread at the back or top of the embroidery resembling a bird’s nest. Typically caused by inadequate top thread tension, cause could be thread is not following the intended thread path.
Buckram or Buckram Backing	Heavy woven interlining material, usually stiffened. Commonly found at the inside crown of the baseball caps to give body and form.
Bullion	Also called bullion wire badges, these are hand sewn with either silver or gold wires (made like springs). Generally from India or Pakistan.
Cap Frames	Devices found on specialized machines to do embroidery on a finished cap. Some are wide angel or 270 degree. The later will embroider an area much further around a cap all the way to the sides
Column	Typically used to form borders around fill areas and for rendering text, the column stitch consists of closely spaced satin stitches.
Complex Fill	Similar to standard fill except that the fill arears have ‘knock out portions creating openings or negative areas to form background design.
Density	Amount of stitches per given area. Designer - Creator of embroidered designs who originates the ideas.
Digitizing	This allows one to input a design via a scanner or a digitizing tablet and create stitches. The digitizing process is the most critical part of the whole process and using this propriety softwares skill and experience is of utmost importance
Disk	Floppy diskette to store designs and transfer data to machine. Available in Double Density (720K) or High Density (1.44Mb) . Older machines require double density disk to be formatted into their respective formats , even though your computer has a High Density floppy disk drive
E-mailing Designs	Embroidery designs can be e-mailed as attachments and should be send as Tajima .DST tape format, as majority of design centers and production factories can easily convert or directly use them.
Editing	Function that helps embroiderers tweek designs for a better finishing, eg. moving of individual stitches or in blocks.Able to scale add text re-position or re-sequence elements. Modifying commands, add and deleting parts of the designs, etc.
Emblem	Also known as insignia, crest, patch and badge. Usually characterised by a stitched or merrowed border, could be finished with back adhesive.
Embroidery	Decorative sewing onto fabric or other substrates that incorporates design elements, text and motifs. Originally done by hand, embrodiery has evolved through the years to its current state of the art technology using computer aided designing and manufacturing,producing at high speeds using multi-heads machine.
Fill	Also called tatami (looks like the Japanese tatami straw mats) stitching, large areas that need to be covered will have a series of running stitches spaced closely together. Pattern can be varied in terms of stitch length, angle and density.
Finishing	Any of a number of procedures of thread trimming, removal of excess backing, topping, oil spots, soil removal, steaming to remove hoop marks, labelling,bagging and packing.
Formats	Different embroidery machines and software speak different languages. They have their own codes, commands and outputs. A new, updated and high end software will be able to convert, translate and transform most of the formats in the common commercial formats are:- Barudan, Tajima, ZSK, Melco and Toyota.
Hooping Aids or Hooping Station	Device used to help in the hooping process , generally to quicken and assist in accuracy and consistency of hooping
Insignia	term for military patch, badges and emblems.
Lettering Styles	commonly called fonts or typefaces, comes in many styles and sizes e.g. Helvetica, Curtis Script, Century, Arial, Old English and sometimes in foreign language
Lock Stitch	Sometimes called tack or lock-down stitch, purpose is to prevent loose ends coming off from handling and washing, typically found at endings of each colour change, letters, stop points and end of design.
Logo	Name, symbol or trademark of a company or organisation. Short for logotype.
Looping	Erratic stitch construction often due to improper top thread tension, or using different types of thread (polyester ,rayon or metallics).
Merrow	type and name of machine to stitch overlock edges of emblems.
Monogram	Embroidery of stylized lettering, typically three or fewer letters representing the initial(s) of a person’s name or organisation.
Needle	Round slender piece of steel in very smooth finishing with one end thicker for attaching to the machine and the other either in taper point, ball end and sharp. Just before the pointed end there is a hole (eye) for the thread to pass through.
Nippers	Small scissors for thread trimming.
Pile	fabric with a surface of upright yarns or fibers, cut or looped.e.g. corduroy,velvets and terry towels.
Print Outs	also called production worksheet, critical link between the designer and machine operator as it contains essential information .
Programmer	the puncher who designs and produces the computer tapes.
Puckering	Gathering of fabric in a wave like manner due to embroidery tension, inappropriate backing and wrong hooping.
Pull Compensation	Deliberate distortion digitized into design to compensate for thread pulls. Eg. 10mm column will finish as 9 or 9.5 mm, therefore distortion should be 0.5mm compensation
Registration	Proper relationship and alignment of all colours, stitches, sequence and processes.
Running Stitch	Could be called ‘walking’ stitch, used for fine details, outlining, joining separate design elements having the same colour and primarily for stabilizing the desing as an underlay of threads to pin the backing to the fabric.
Satin Stitch	Similar to zigzag stitching, except that this is so closely packed together they form a continuous column in varying lengths,angles and density.
Scaling	Proportionate enlarging and reducing the whole digitized design.
Short-Stitch Filter	Feature in newer digitizing softwares that eliminates stitches shorter than a pre-determined length to reduce thread breaks.
Short Stitching	Deliberate shorten stitches around corners and in letterings incorporated so as there will not be clustering and thread breaks.
Software	Embroidery software is specifically designed for the embroidery industry. It is designed to generate stitches and output the information in a language that will communicate with the embroidery machine. Software such as Corel Draw, PhotoShop, FreeHand, Arts & Letters, etc. are great for generating graphics but do not generate stitches and will not write to a file that an embroidery machine understands.
Special Fill	A function in the newer digitizing softwares that incorporates special patterns and textures at the fill areas.
Stitch Editing / Editing	Alteration of one or more stitches in an embroidery design or function changes eg. trims, stops, colour changes and re-sizing.
Stitch Master	the technical person in charge of stitching, responsible for maintenance of equipment, production and quality control.
Stitch Processing	the calculation of stitch information by means of specialized software, allowing scaling of expanded format designs with density compensation.
Stock Designs	Similar to clip art, ‘evergreen / generic’ embroidery designs available in digital format from design houses at a lower cost than a custom ordered design.
Stump	threads that are not trimmed properly leaving a small end of thread.
Swatch	a piece of fabric , embroidery or yarn.
Tackle Twill	Text characters cut from twill fabric with an adhesive backing, typically used for athletic applications, usually used as an applique.
Tape	Archaic (rendered obsolete by digital technology) means of storing and transmitting embroidery design information on a paper tape, peforated with holes (similar to telex paper tapes). Presently, most embroiderers and design houses use diskettes.
Tatami	See fill stitch, there are 3 types of tatami backstitch to produce different effects and edges : standard, borderline and diagonal backstitch. Standard backstitch is suitable for dense fill stitching rows are almost parallel and alternating row of backstitches is shorter, in order to avoid too many small stitches on the edge of the tatami. Borderline backstitch tatami is suitable for very open fill (layers of underlay). This is also called Trapunto Style Tatami. Rows are parallel, stitch rows goes to the edge of the shape and connects to the following row along the pattern’s edge. Creating a smooth and well defined edge. Suitable if the fill requires edge definition or fill needs to have a running outline along the edge. Diagonal Backstitch consist of forward stitches going straight across the shape and the backward rows are diagonal. This is suitable for connering and turning shapes that need tatami fill.
Templates	empty design with initial pre-set values to suit a certain type of embroidery job. Values, styles, and properties are all pre-defined.
Tension	Two or more strand of filaments twisted together for strength and other characteristics . Generally, comes in rayon, polyester, cotton and metallics.
Thread	threads that are not trimmed properly leaving a small end of thread.
Tie ins and Tie offs	the lock stitches in the beginning and end of a sewing sequence.
Thread cutting	the removal of floats and unwanted thread jumps by hand or machine.
Through Miss	a mistake in design or punching where a part of the design was left out.
Topping	Material placed on top of fabric while embroidering , used to neutralize fabric surface characteristics such as towel, fleece, corduroy and velvets.
Trimmers	Devices found on most machines manufactured after 1990. They trim the threads between color changes, jump stitches, between block lettering, and at the end of the design
Trimming	The removal of excess stitches and thread ends after embroidery.
Triple Run	Similar to running stitch but that this runs 3 layers (forward, backward & forward) used for borders around fill stitches. Thickness is between running and satin stitching.
Tubular Frames	Frames or hoops that are especially designed to sew on garments that are manufactured in a tubular fashion i.e.: tee-shirts, sweat shirts, golf shirts. It also works well with jackets. The opposite side of the garment hangs below a cylinder arm and is out of the way of the garments on the other heads. In the case of a jacket the front and arms would be out of the way(this mchine always comes with a function called table drop).
Underlay	Stitches applied prior to other design elements for nuetralizing fabric, stabilizing design and to create special effects such as depth and dimensionality.
Walk Stitch	see running stitch.
Zigzag	Stitches that progress in an alternating angle (zigzag manner) , used for tacking down appliques and tackle twill.
Zigzag Underlay	run stitches under wide columns fashioned in zigzag manner or double zigzag form for stability and support, even used in 3-D embroidery to hold foam down for stitching.
Trimmers	Devices found on most machines manufactured after 1990. They trim the threads between color changes, jump stitches, between block lettering, and at the end of the design
Trimming	The removal of excess stitches and thread ends after embroidery.
Triple Run	Similar to running stitch but that this runs 3 layers (forward, backward & forward) used for borders around fill stitches. Thickness is between running and satin stitching.

back to top | or go to "Lingo for Professional Embroiderers