Learn to Digitize - Unit 4

Unit 4: Stitch Types & Attributes.The Learn to Digitize Training Series is the ultimate digitizing course taught by a master digitizer. Don't just learn to punch buttons in your software. Learn your software and how to think like a digitize!

This unit continues in the tradition of the first unit: a quick start tutorial to get you off the ground immediately, plenty of illustrations, conversational tone, and even more exercises and videos! You've learned a lot in previous units and now that you've gotten your feet wet and know your way around, we'll head off to deeper water with stitch types and attributes.

What’s an embroidery design without stitches? Generations™ provides a wide range of stitch types beyond the basic run, fill, and satin.

As you learn more about the entire embroidery process, you’ll discover the truth about why there is no such thing as a andldquo;one-size-fits-allandrdquo; design. In other words, just because you have a machine, a design, fabric and all the necessary supplies—thread, bobbin, needle, backings, toppings, hooping aids, and hoop—doesn’t mean they all work harmoniously together. Instead you need to examine a design’s characteristics to determine how well it will work on a particular fabric and what, if anything, you can do to optimize it for a successful result. In this unit, we’ll be approaching that from the design side by controlling stitches.

Unit Objectives (Partial)

• Know the difference between the different stitch objects and what stitches can be applied to each
• Familiarize yourself with the applicable stitch attributes, what they do, when and how to modify them
• Learn how to control curvy stitches such as spirals, radials, arcs, and fluid contours
• Understand how to create auto-appliqué
• Discover feathering for fun and realism
• How to take advantage of semi-automatic digitizing with the Magic Wand tool
• Understanding pathing (design sequencing) and how to balance for color changes, jumps and trims, and registration
• How to create your own stitch preferences and attach them to a background fabric

This disc-based digital training product includes 2.5GB of information:

• 1 Illustrated, full color, e-book—190 total pages
• 11 QuickTime video lessons + 3 embedded videos
• Optional evaluation of your project

• Successful completion of all previous units
• Generations Embroidery Software, version 1.6 to perform the exercises
• Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF files (a free download is available from adobe.com however, this program is installed on most computers)
• Apple Quicktime to view the supplementary training videos (a free download is available from apple.com)
• Anatomy of a Design: How to Think Like a Digitizer & Become a Better Embroiderer (ebook by Lindee Goodall)