Embroidery Puckering

[mhprinting]

Hello all,

Been a long time reader and decided to post because I have been having a long time issue with puckering.  We have a Chinese embroidery machine (it sucks), but we have to make do with what we have.  Almost every single design we do puckers and it's hurting my business.  We have tried almost everything to prevent puckering all from getting thicker backings, mighty hoop, loosening bobbing tension, switching digitizers, and we are still getting puckering. 

We have a potential big job in April and I want to fix this as soon as I can.  We will be getting about 290 button down shirts that are 60/40 cotton/poly.  Initially the design was about 31,000 stitches, but we got it down to about 23000.  This will be going on the left chest.  Any tips on what type of backing I should use?  This is a very big order and I don't want to mess it up.  Any tips?

Thanks,
  Mike

[Ryan]

I would try some of this. I have some that I use on poly and stretchy items. Works better than some of the other stuff I've used
http://www.gunold.com/c/302/performance-backing

[Denis Kolar]

i do not think that will help. 23K for a performance polo might be just too much.
Too much tension and not adequate backing with a combination of many stitches will do that to you.

[mk162]

yeah...farm it out.  i would try and sew one or two, but the time you waste on this could be made sewing or selling something else.  Also, how many heads do you have?

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

Two pieces of Cutaway should stabilize anything.

The majority of the work we do is contract if you want to farm it out to us. We run 6/12 head Tajima machines.

[mhprinting]

Yeah you're probably right, I may have to farm it out.  And we have a 6 head 12 needle

[mk162]

6 heads aren't bad, but 23,000 stitches will kill you.  if it was 4-9000, easy.  or if you have a ton of time open for your embroidery person.  You are looking at over 5 days production on that job...

I personally would farm it out.  Get a sew sample first. 

[3Deep]

Is it puckering right after you sew or after a few washes?...I don't think the machine being a cheap one has to much to do with puckering, more like DK said tension and backing. We have a customer that hates a heavy backing because they don't wear an undershirt so we use one pc of backing and have not had any puckering problems far as I know....and we don't have the best market brand machine.

[mhprinting]

Kind of a long shot, but I heard this before.  Would it help if I ran the garment before it's embroidered on in the dryer then run it again in the dryer once it's done? 

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Higher tension values can cause more puckering. I'm not saying it is your particular problem, but it might be...

I've seen it several times.