embird tutorial - GG Designs Embroidery

EMBIRD TUTORIAL
Combining multiple Felt Stitchies designs and colour sorting
by GG Designs Embroidery
This tutorial will show you how to combine multiple Felt Stitchies (of the same design) into the hoop size of
your choice and colour sort to minimise colour stops. The resulting design will utilise two large pieces of felt for
all designs in the grouping (one front, one back), and the thread colours will be the same for all designs.
1.
Open the Embird
program.
Click Editor from the
top menu.
Select your desired hoop
size from the Options
menu, and click OK.
2.
Select Merge from the
File menu.
3.
Locate and select your
design, and click OK to
import it into the Editor
layout area.
4.
Move the design by
clicking on it (hold down
the left mouse button)
and dragging it to the
position of your choice.
The top left corner is a
good starting point.
5.
Right mouse-click on the
design and select
Duplicate from the
menu
-orselect the design and
press Ctrl-D
6.
Drag the duplicated
design to the desired
position.
Make sure you leave
enough room around
each design to allow for
cutting.
7.
Continue duplicating the
designs as above, until
you have the desired
number of designs in the
hoop and they are
placed appropriately.
Please be mindful of the
stitching order when
duplicating and placing
the next design, ie. make
sure you duplicate and
place the next design
adjacent to the previous
design so they stitch out
consistently either left to
right or down then up,
ie. don’t place a design
in the top corner, then
the next one in the
bottom corner, then one
in the middle etc.
otherwise it will be a big
mess!!
8.
Select all designs by
pressing Ctrl-A
- or –
click the Edit menu –
Select - Select All.
9.
Right mouse-click on the
selected designs and
select Smart Color
Sort from the menu
- or –
press Ctrl-K
If you get a box pop up
titled “Tolerance” with a
box to enter a number
for “maximal
difference”, simply click
OK.
10.
Colours will now be
sorted so that they will
stitch out all parts with
the same colour in one
go.
You can see over on the
right hand side in the
objects box that there
are now six colour stops
for this design.
11.
Select Save As from the
File menu.
Tick the checkbox next to
your file format, and
Click OK.
Browse to where you
want to save the file,
give it a name, and click
OK.
Transfer the design to your machine.
**Important - you will need to check the PDF instruction file for the particular design you are doing,
to ascertain when to place the felt on the front and back, and which colour stop is the final outline
stitching. Generally, the final outline stitching will be the final colour stop, however there are a few
exceptions to this, such as the owls and pumpkins, which have the final outline stitching as the
second to last colour stop. ALWAYS check the instructions first, so you know exactly when to place
the felt.
If your machine does not automatically cut jump stitches, you will need to trim all
jump stitches as you go, otherwise you risk the presser foot getting caught on the jump stitches
between designs.
Generally, the instructions are 1. Hoop your tearaway stabiliser.
2. Stich the first colour stop, which will stitch the placement line for all of the designs.
3. Place a large piece of felt on the top of the hoop which covers all of the placement lines.
4. Stitch out all other colours except the last one (**please check individual design instructions to
ascertain colour stops).
5. Remove hoop from machine (do not unhoop!). Turn over and trim all jump stitches from the back.
6. Place a large piece of felt on the back of the hoop (you can use temporary spray adhesive to hold
it in place if you wish).
7. Return hoop to machine (ensure the back piece of felt is flat and in the correct position on the
back) and stitch out the final outline.
ADDITIONAL HINTS & TIPS
•
If you wish to colour sort an existing group of Felt Stitchies designs provided in your
download, simply open up the group design in Embird Editor, and follow the above
instructions from Step 8.
•
Whilst it is possible, I don’t recommend colour sorting on any designs that utilise an applique
process on them, as there will be a lot of wastage of the felt/fabric used for the applique part
of the design.
HAPPY STITCHING!
Gail
http://www.ggdesignsembroidery.com