Jamie Hood of David Sharp explains how to reduce your stitch count on a grand scale
The use of ‘cross stitch’ in digitising is a great way to save a huge number of stitches in your embroidery pieces. It’s not suitable for all jobs – workwear logos require a fuller stitch to perfectly represent the artwork, for example – but for your more creative pieces or even jobs where a budget is tight but embroidery preferred over print, cross stitch could be your new friend.
Switch the stitch
Wilcom, the embroidery digitising software used for this design, makes it easy to switch the stitch type from solid to cross stitch at the click of a button. It fills the selected digitised shape with an instant pattern of criss-cross-effect stitches, with the garment colour being visible through the empty spaces.
The number of stitches, or the spacing between each row of stitches, can be easily controlled by changing the number of ‘stitches per inch’. This allows you to increase or decrease the number of rows of stitches with ease.
The vase at the bottom of the design shown here has a much more open stitch in order to give a more see-through glass-effect.
The main design uses the ‘full cross’ style of cross stitch, whereas the upright cross stitch type has a square look
Further stitch savings
There are no underlay stitches or packing stitches needed when using cross stitch – further saving on stitch count. To emphasise the stitch saving, when digitising using cross stitches, we made the same artwork up using normal stitch types as if it were a normal design request at 27cm wide. The stitch count was 81,700 stitches. The ‘cross stitch’ version, at the same size, comes out at almost half – 44,800 stitches.
Wilcom offers two types of ‘cross stitch’ depending on the look you want. ‘Full cross’, which is the type used in this design, for an angled stitch, and ‘upright cross’ for a squarer look.
What’s more, you can run cross stitch pattern designs using your existing standard weight thread and current needle set-up. So, next time you need to save on stitches, consider switching to cross stitch.
