3D Puff Embroidery Digitizing Tutorial and Design Download
Underlay
Set your running stitches to about 1.5mm stitch length. The needle penetration of an 80/12 needle is about .75mm, so you dont want too short of stitches that might cause poor runability. Too long of a stitch length will not perforate the foam very well and could leave areas open for the foam to stick out from under the design.
Density
We will work with two densities on our cover stitching, both being very heavy to fully cover the foam. An example design can be downloaded here, and a sewing tutorial using this design can be viewed here.
The way to approach 3D design is to re-think your regular pathing methods, running your underlay stitches as more of a border around each area (or walking stitch underlay). Don't be afraid to run around a segment two times to assure that you are 1) sewing the foam to the substrate and 2) perforating the foam where you want it to tear off.
Next, start capping the ends of columns. For instance the letter "I" in a satin column stitch would have open ends at the bottom and the top. Run two columns over each other in these areas (horizontally in the case of the example letter "I") with a density of about .30mm.
Once you have captured the area with your walking stitches, and capped of the ends you are ready to start 'burying' foam. I like to start with a zig zag column at 2.0mm to hold the foam down well, then go over with a satin column at .30mm, then one more final satin column at .20mm as shown in the downloadable design.
If you think constructively and come up with creative ways to use your thread, pathing and cover stitching to "build" your design you will shortly discover many other methods of achieving good 3D embroidery.
Good Luck!
3D Heart Embroidery Design
FREE!
