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Sewing over pleats

Craig Keller

New Member
Has anyone Sewed over pleats before with solid fill stitching? These are police vests.
 

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WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Usually my go to when dealing with something that can be problematic for regular embroidery only, I'll either go with a lattice motif fill underneath and embroider on top of that or applique a piece of fabric and embroider on top of that.

Use the same color as the substrate for either the applique or the lattice motif helps "hide" the extra production techniques to facilitate the embroidery.

Lattice motif is what I tend to do while trying to tame pile on towels (just if that ever comes up for you).

For police vests though, patches would probably be the my first bet in this case. They should be used to having patches on their stuff. If you don't have a merrow machine like a MG3U for the overlock border, just applique twill using a satin border and finish off with your embroidery. For applique border stitches, already use a denser satin stitch, so that will help those satin stitches.
 

Craig Keller

New Member
Never did patches but it's a police badge sews out pretty much like a patch already. So what material would be best to sew it on? Twill?
Thanks
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Never did patches but it's a police badge sews out pretty much like a patch already. So what material would be best to sew it on? Twill?
Thanks
Twill is usually the base for applique and patches in general (although can use other fabrics, but twill is typically the default).
 

Craig Keller

New Member
Well turns out they don't want a patch they like it Sewed straight to their vests lol I tried one and it did better then I thought. But he said it showing so small gaps lol I'll try with more tajima underlay next. I got an old one to practice on now.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Well turns out they don't want a patch they like it Sewed straight to their vests lol I tried one and it did better then I thought. But he said it showing so small gaps lol I'll try with more tajima underlay next. I got an old one to practice on now.
The lattice underlay will help if you want to use regular density. If don't want the lattice underlay, up the density (hopefully these are nice wide satin stitch lines or big tatami fills, if not, run the risk of bird's nesting, needle breaks etc) to compensate. Maybe add a layer or two of light weight tear away stabilizer to compensate for the stitch heaviness while being able to remove the excess after embroidery and they never need know how much extra stabilizer (for the most part).
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Is lattice completely under the design or does it stick out past the design,
If you semi manually do it (by that I mean use the complex fill tool etc), it can be setup how you want it. Typically it does have an outside offsite, especially if you use the built in tools. But if using just the Complex Fill tool (which you have to do one at one angle and the second one at the other angle, match up start/end points accordingly with proper density settings), can set it up how you want it (of you are really gung ho, using the manual stitch).
 

binki

New Member
Well, it will suk no matter what. Maybe divide the sewing into 2 parts, one on each side. That is how I would handle something like that. I am assuming it is text.
 
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