Thred Lessons, by Alfie McCoskey Topics

Thred Lessons, by Alfie McCoskey
Topics ................................................................................................................................ 2
Lesson 01, Where do I start?...................................................................................... 2
Lesson 02, Making a Form............................................................................................. 5
Lesson 03, Filling a Form with stitches..................................................................... 7
Lesson 04, Changing a Filled Form, or Using the Form- Form ("F"). .................. 8
Lesson 05, Changing Screen Colors .......................................................................... 10
Lesson 06, Changing Thread Colors...........................................................................11
Lesson 07, How to Change Stitching Order & "Move to Mark"......................... 12
Lesson 08, Stitch Boxes ............................................................................................. 15
Lesson 09, Fill Spacing ................................................................................................ 16
Lesson 10, Loading a Bitmap ....................................................................................... 17
Lesson 11, Opening a File............................................................................................. 18
Lesson 12, Clipboard Fills........................................................................................... 20
Lesson 13, Clipboard fills, Continued........................................................................ 21
Lesson 14, Clipboard fills, section C ........................................................................ 23
Lesson 15, Rotate......................................................................................................... 25
Lesson 16, Marks.......................................................................................................... 26
Lesson 17, Chain Stitch .............................................................................................. 28
Lesson 18, Zoom, and Shift Zoom............................................................................ 30
Lesson 19, Frm-, or Form on/ Form off.................................................................. 32
Lesson 20, Picot Borders ........................................................................................... 33
Lesson 21, Picot Borders, Section B........................................................................ 35
Lesson 22, Centering................................................................................................... 36
Lesson 23, Copying a Form and Layers ................................................................... 39
Lesson 24, Convert to Satin Ribbon, and Lettering for Logos ......................... 42
Lesson 25, Lettering for Logos and X , B, File Overlay, Set Knots ............... 45
Lesson 26, Sort by Form (Shift/F3) ...................................................................... 47
Lesson 27, Sort by Form, part B, continued from Lesson 26, Sort by Form,
part A ............................................................................................................................. 50
Lesson 28, View Design Information ...................................................................... 51
Lesson 30, Snap to Grid ............................................................................................. 52
Lesson 31, Snap Together.......................................................................................... 55
Lesson 32, Nudge......................................................................................................... 58
Lesson 33, Sort /Auto................................................................................................ 60
Lesson 34, Satin Stitch Borders, Angle Satin...................................................... 62
Lesson 35, Satin Borders, Appliqué ........................................................................ 66
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Lesson 36, Satin Stitch, Perpendicular Satin....................................................... 68
Lesson 37, "D" Lines.................................................................................................... 69
Index .............................................................................................................................. 72
Topics
Angle Satin
Appliqué
Bitmap
Centering
Chain Stitch
Clipboard Fills
Convert to Satin Ribbon
Copying a Form
“D” Lines
File Overlay
Fill Spacing
Filling a Form
Form-Form
Frm-/+
Grid
Layers
Lettering for Logos
Making a Form
Marks
Move to Mark
Nudge
Opening a File
Perpendicular Satin
Picot Borders
Rotate
Satin Borders
Satin Stitch
Satin Stitch Borders
Screen Colors
Set Knots
Snap to Grid
Snap Together
Sort /Auto
Sort by Form
Stitch Boxes
Stitching Order
Thread Colors
View Design Information
Where do I start?
Zoom
Lesson 01, Where do I start?
When you open Thred, you are in stitch setting mode. To set a stitch, you
just put the cursor where you want the stitch and left click. If you click on a
menu item or make a form, the cursor may change. To get the needle cursor
back hit "Add" at the top of the screen. That lets you set stitches at the
end of the stitches already there. If you select a stitch in an existing group,
then hit the "space" bar, you can set stitches at that place.
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If you make your design by setting stitches manually, you cannot use Thred's
easy editing features. We suggest that you make a form. See Lesson 02,
Making a Form. When the program is ready for setting stitches the cursor
will look like a needle. If you dislike the needle cursor, you may change the
cursor to a cross by using "View/Set/Needle cursor/on/off".
If you have problems seeing your stitch points, you can choose to turn on the
stitch boxes, or you can have the stitch boxes show after a chosen number
of zooms. See, Lesson 08, Stitch Points.
Grid:
The grid you see behind the needle cursor is set in Preferences. Under" Grid
Size", you will see it is set for 2 millimeter squares. The Grid cutoff is set
at "0" (zero). This is entirely a matter of choice. Left click on the right hand
side of the box, and then enter a new number. If you want to change a
feature that is described in words, click on your choice in the box that will
come up when you click on the current choice. The number listed for Grid
cutoff tells you how many times you must zoom before you begin to see the
grid. I like to see it always, so I set it at zero.
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You may use any size of grid, or none, and you may change grid colors. Grid
color options are listed under "View/Set/Grid Mask". There are different
choices. The best way to choose is to try them until you like one. Default
works well on all but extremely light backgrounds, such as bright white, or
ultra pale pink.
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Grid Color Options
Lesson 02, Making a Form
When we talk about a form in Thred we are usually talking about what you
make after you click one of the choices shown below. Forms keep track of
your stitch choices, and make changes easier. To get to this box, left click
on the word "Form" on the menu across the top of your screen, or use the
letter hotkey for the type of form you want (in parentheses).
The form shown below is a Freehand form. You can see part of a bitmap
behind the drop box. See Lesson 10, Loading a Bitmap. The "cross in a box"
cursor appears when Thred is ready to set Form Points. You can see form
points, or form nodes, as we sometimes call them, below the cursor. That
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small rectangle is a form for the stem section of the apple. I made it by left
clicking where I want the fill.
To get a smooth curve you must put form points close together. You do not
need as many form points for straight lines as for curves. Use only as many
form points as you must. Thred sets a stitch where there is a form point, so
if you put form points very close together in a form used for an outline, you
will get stitches that are too short to look pleasing. Very short stitches may
cause problems with your embroidery machine, such as breaking thread,
bobbin thread pulling up on top, or broken needles.
To make a very small circle, select "Regular Polygon" and enter 6 points, or
at most 12 points. Then select the form and drag a corner form point inward.
That will make the form small. That way you have no more than 12 stitches in
your small circle. Keep in mind that things look different stitched in thread
than they look on screen. I use a two millimeter grid to help me with stitch
length. That helps prevent problems.
Right click to stop making form points. That should also select the form, but
if not, you must select it.
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Left drag to move a form point. You might want to zoom in and look at the
form before you try to fill it. ("Z", or "In" on the top menu, )
Before you can fill a form with stitches, you must select it. To select a form,
hold the mouse cursor near a point on that form and right click. A selected
form has a box around it.
Choose "Fill" on the top menu. The drop box will offer you fill and border
choices. Pick one, or one of each.
Once you fill a form, moving a form point will make the form refill. If you
change the Preference settings, and then your form refills, the new stitches
will be set according to the preferences settings at the time you refill the
form.
If you want to see your stitches without seeing the form, use the command
"Frm" on the top menu.
Lesson 03, Filling a Form with stitches
Once you have made and selected a form, such as the freehand form below,
left click the word "Fill" on the top menu. You will see these choices:
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This form is already filled with angle fill stitches. If you clicked the
highlighted words Thred would also add a border fill of perpendicular satin
stitches. A form can hold a fill and a border. If you want more than that, you
can use more than one form.
Lesson 04, Changing a Filled Form, or Using the Form- Form
("F").
When I selected Fill/ Border/ Perpendicular Satin in Lesson 03, the border I
got was ugly. I didn't like it. So I selected the form, by right clicking near a
form point. Then I tapped the "F" key. You can also select the form and then
click "Form" on the top menu. The "F" key hotkey is easier for me. What you
will see then is the box below, or something similar. Since I don't like the
border, I will select the box where the cursor arrow is pointing. Another box
will open, offering a list of the choices for borders. The first entry is
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"None". Select that one and the border goes away. There are other choices.
You can learn a lot by trying them. Thred will change the fill in your design to
go with the changes in this form. You can also change the color here, and
have a fill of one color and a border of another. The entries for Fill stitch
length, Fill, Fill spacing and so forth are also very useful. If you change them
here, you do not have to go back and refill your form with a new set of
choices. This is the place to change the fill angle.
Left dragging a form point will also change the form after it is filled. It will
refill with the same Preferences choices that are in the Preferences box at
that moment . This is an important detail. If your fill suddenly starts to look
funny, check your Preferences. If you change the "Maximum stitch length"
to 4 and then refill a wide satin border with a setting of 9, you will get a line
of stitches down the center, because the "Maximum stitch length" is shorter
than the "Satin border size". If that happens to your design, change the
Preferences, and refill the form. You can select it, then hit "F5", or just
move a form point a bit, or you can go through the entire "Fill/Border/..."
process again.
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If you are editing details, and have trouble selecting a stitch instead of a
form point, you can click "FRM " on the top menu. That will hide the forms.
To get them back, just click it again. To select a stitch, hold the cursor near
it and left click, or press "C". To select a form point, hold the cursor near it
and left click, or press "Y". Press "Q" or "Esc" to get out of any selection,
command, or to close a drop box.
Lesson 05, Changing Screen Colors
The Windows Color box is used to change background, bitmap and thread
color boxes . It's easy and fun. Let's start with background color. Just
select View/ Set/Background color".
This is what you will see. You can choose any color box, or if you prefer, you
can make your own color by moving the cursor on the colors, or by sliding the
arrow up or down to get a lighter or darker tone, or you may enter the RGB
numbers. R= Red, B= Blue, G= Green.
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Many of you will be familiar with this, since it is also used in the Windows
operating systems to change the desktop and window colors. The same
method can be used to change bitmap colors.
Lesson 06, Changing Thread Colors
The same Windows color box used to change background and bitmap colors
will change your thread colors. The color boxes are placed in the order they
will stitch in. Left click in the box that is on the right hand side. The color
box will pop up. See lesson 05 for how to change the colors.
To select the stitches in a color, click the left box. The left hand row shows
the ordinal colors. The right had row is the colors you prefer for this design.
These are the ones you can change. In the ordinal colors, black stitches
first, blue second, etc. Commercial embroiderers use the ordinal colors, and
will be able to tell at a glance which part of a design stitches next. But you
can color your thread as you like. For instance, if you were making a flag
using the colors of the USA, you might change color one (where the black
box is on the left), white, color two would be red, color three would be blue.
The colors stitch in the order you see, from top to bottom. Notice that the
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color ribbon on the right side of the screen is also arranged in the order the
colors will stitch.
Lesson 07, How to Change Stitching Order & "Move to Mark"
Suppose I fill the forms in my design and then change my mind about the
stitching order? In the heart design below, the small heart filled in blue is
under the red heart. When it stitches, you will not see the blue part, so it
must be changed.
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There are several ways to change stitching order. Since this design has only
two parts, you might select the blue stitches choose "Edit/Move/to End", or
you might make a mark and use "Edit/Move/to Mark". You could select the
red stitches and use "Edit/Move to start".
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To "Move to Mark":
Make your mark. Select the stitch at the place to which you want the group
moved. The stitches go in after the one you select. Then use
"Edit/Set/Order mark (.)", or if you can remember the hotkeys, use the
period key. See Lesson 16, Marks for help on order marks, zoom marks, etc.
Select stitches (not forms). Left click on the color in right hand color
ribbon, the stitches of that color will be highlighted and a selection box will
enclose them. Or select one stitch, then hold the shift key and the arrow
key (together) until you have the group of stitches you want moved. Right
arrow moves forward in the stitching order. Left arrow moves backward in
the stitching order. A little practice makes this very easy.
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Use "Edit/Move to Mark (;) ", or press the semicolon key (;).
It is very easy to use hotkeys to make a "Move to Mark". Select the stitch,
hit the period key (.); select the stitches you want to move, hit the semicolon
(;). Thred moves them.
Lesson 08, Stitch Boxes
Stitch boxes mark a stitch, so you can select it or see it on screen. The box
is located where the stitch will be made. To make it easier to see the design,
Thred allows you to hide stitch boxes, or turn them on after a chosen
number of zooms (Z). Change the number in the box by left clicking over it.
Type the new number in the blank box.
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Lesson 09, Fill Spacing
Fill spacing determines how close together the stitches in a fill will be.
You can change the "Fill spacing" in "Preferences" as seen above, or you can
select a filled form and change the setting in the "Form'Form" (F) shown
below. The blank box will change the fill spacing. This is also sometimes
called stitch density.
Notice the cursor arrow points to the "Border spacing" entry. I changed the
border number to 1 as a demonstration. The red heart border is filled at a
fill spacing of .3. You should test stitch various fills to determine what fill
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spacing will suit your embroidery machine and your design.
Lesson 10, Loading a Bitmap
When you want to load a bitmap for use as a pattern while you create a
design, just click "File/Load Bitmap".
Then click the file you want in the "Open File" box the operating system will
display. Your bitmap file should be in the same folder where you store your
design. For use in Thred, a bitmap should be 24 bit color (millions of colors),
or it should be 1 bit, Black and White, Line Art. Do not expect a 256 color
file to work, but you can easily change a 256 color file using a graphics
program. The images on this page are 256 color GIF files. They would not
work in Thred. When you look at a black image on a white background don't
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assume it is black and white line art just because it looks black and white. It
could be saved as 256 shades of gray, or as a half tone black and white.
Again, a black and white file that won't open in Thred can be changed to Line
Art/ Black and White in a graphics program.
Lesson 11, Opening a File
Windows uses a box like you see below for opening files. The file folder and
word "Lessons " means that the operating system will look in that folder for
a file. If that is not where you want to look, you can navigate by clicking on
the file folder and arrow to the right of the "Look in:" space. That leads you
up the logic tree to the Folder or disk drive where the folder Lessons is
stored. If that is not correct you can click on the small arrow at the right of
the word Lessons. That will show you a map of your computer drives. You may
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also click the small square with a file folder and a cursor on it. That one will
let you make a new folder.
To open a file in Thred, select a file in the large window. Thred will open
files of these types:
Bitmap, .BMP format
Tajima embroidery files, .DST format
Pfaff embroidery files, .PCS format
Thred embroidery files, .THR format. (also THR, THS and THT, which are
back up files of a THR file)
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Lesson 12, Clipboard Fills
A. Putting the stitches on the Clipboard.
Thred will make a fill from a group of stitches you put on the Windows
clipboard. To use a file from the Clip Library for the clip, just open the THR
file and select the stitches. The picture below was made after I left clicked
my mouse on the color ribbon at the right side of the screen. Thred selected
the black stitches on the screen.
To put them on the clipboard so you can use them as a fill, press the "C" key
while holding down the "Control" key. You may also do this with the command
"Control/X", but that command will delete the selected stitches from the
screen when it puts them on the clipboard.
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If you want to make a new clip, just create a few stitches and put them on
the clipboard. A clip for a clipboard fill should begin stitching at the bottom
and end at the top. For clipboard borders begin at the left and end at the
right. This prevents Thred from stitching back over your clipbaord fill.
If you are not already in stitch setting mode, you can select "Add" and then
left click to set stitches.
You can select stitches already on screen with the "shift/ arrow" keys, also.
See Lesson 13.
Lesson 13, Clipboard fills, Continued
To select a few stitches, but not the entire color, you can use
"Shift/Arrow". Select a the stitch where you want to begin. To do that, hold
the cursor at the stitch and press "C", or just right click. You will see the
tiny arrowhead. In the screen capture below the white cursor arrow is
pointed at a selected stitch.
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Once the stitch is selected, hold down the "Shift key" and at the same time,
press the right arrow key. The stitches will become highlighted as they are
selected. If you go too far, press the left arrow key while you continue to
hold the "Shift" key. That will go backward through the stitches. The image
below is a close up made when I had zoomed about 7 times.
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You can see there are two purple marks on hte right hand color bar. They
mark selected stitches. If I wanted to select all the stitches from the point
where the last stitc is now selected to the end of hte design, I could hold
teh shift key and press
Lesson 14, Clipboard fills, section C
Once you have a group of stitches on the clipboard, you should make and
select a form, or open a file with a form already in it and select the form.
Then click "Fill" and choose "Clipboard" , and select the type of Clipboard fill
from the list.
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The fill is there, but if you zoom in, you see unwanted jump stitches between
clips. That happened because the clip was upside down. Paste the stitch on
the screen. Use the "Control/V" key combination. Then select the stitches in
the group again. Rotate them 180 degrees. Press "Control/X" and fill the
form once again.
A Clipboard Border fill needs a clip that stitches from side to side, rather
than vertically. To make a Picot Fill, you need to rotate the clip 180 degrees
from the way that same clip would be for a Clipboard fill.
It is smart to use "Edit/Delete/Small stitches" on designs filled with
clipboard fills to remove unwanted single stitches. Sometimes the program
will put in one extra stitch in each clip. That really adds up if you fill large
form.
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Lesson 15, Rotate
Thred will rotate a selected group of stitches, and/or forms. Select your
stitches, then press the "Tab" key hotkey, or use the series of commands
shown below, "Edit/Rotate/Command" .
When you select "Command", you will see a box into which you should type
the angle of rotation you want. For instance entering "90" would make the
image turn on it's side by 90 degrees. Thred rotates just the stitches if
that is what you select. To rotate the form and stitches, select the form
also. You can rotate one and not the other. This is not always a good thing to
do.
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When you use the "Tab" hotkey rotate, you will see a box with across in it
over the selection. Put the cursor near that box, but outside it. Hold down
the left mouse button and drag the mouse cursor (Left drag). Now you see a
line between the cursor and the cross in the box. As you move the mouse,
the selection will rotate. You can't enter a number for this type of rotation,
but it is easy and fast to use. Unfortunately, the capture program won't
make an image of it in use.
Lesson 16, Marks
The mark I use most commonly is a zoom mark. Just tap the "M" key and
Thred will put a mark where your cursor is. Then if you hit "Z", it will zoom
on that mark. Hit "Q" to make the mark "Quit".
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You can hit "Shift M" to get a mark centered in the the middle of the
screen.
To use Rotate and Duplicate, you can Set a rotation angle from a mark.
If you select those commands, you will see something like this:
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It means that you can duplicate that stitch selection 14 times in a circle
around that mark and it will come out even, with no fractions left over. Use
"Edit/Rotate/and Duplicate" to do that. It will look like this.
For Move to mark, "Period" key, (.) see Lesson 07, How to Change Stitching
Order & "Move to Mark"
Lesson 17, Chain Stitch
To make a chain stitch border, create and select a form. Then select
"Fill/Border/Chain".
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A chain stitch border fill is affected by three different numbers. Border
spacing, (or stitch length), Border size ( how wide it is), and Chain position,
which governs overlap. To change those numbers, select the form, and press
"F".
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Note the very different look of the stitch when the chain position is
changed to three. This feature is new, so there is much we can learned about
it if we experiment.
Lesson 18, Zoom, and Shift Zoom
There are many ways to Zoom , some of which are unique to this program.
You can use the words "in" and "Out" on the top menu. The program will
Zoom in on a selected stitch or form. This is slow, but sure.
You can also use "Z" and "A" and "X". The "Z" key zooms in, The "A" (Away
)key zooms out.
The "X" key will zoom out to show the full screen.
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What you have selected determines where the program will zoom.
If you have nothing selected, Thred zooms in on the middle of the screen.
If you select one or more stitches or forms, Thred zooms in on the
selection.
If you have nothing selected, but the cursor is on the screen, Thred zooms
where the cursor points.
If you have a mark, Thred will zoom in on that rather than any of the above.
If you hold the cursor near an edge of the screen and press the "S" key,
Thred shifts the view to include the area in that direction. This is very
convenient when you are zoomed in close.
You can make a mark and Thred will zoom to that mark. Use the "M" key,
which will put a mark where your cursor points. If you have a stich or form
selected, press "Control/M" or "Edit/Set/Zoom Mark at selected point".
"Shift/M" puts a mark at the center of yoru screen. Thred will center the
zoom over a mark if one exists. If you have a mark on screen, but want to
zoom somewhere else you need to use the "Q" (Quit) key, which will erase all
marks and drop all selections, or you can make a new mark where you want to
zoom next.
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Lesson 19, Frm-, or Form on/ Form off
This menu selection toggles between showing the forms and hiding the forms
in a design. If you have difficulty selecting a single stitch, use Frm/- or hit
the "K" key to hide the form points. Thred selects a form point before a
stitch point if they are both in the same area. If you want to hide the
stitches, use the key combination "Shift/K" to turn them on and off.
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Lesson 20, Picot Borders
This border option is a Clipboard border. See also Lesson 12, Clipboard Fills,
section A Picots are traditional in crochet. This border is a fun way to
approximate the effect.
The group of stitches you want to use as the clip should begin to stitch at
the top and end at the top. Place it on the windows clipboard by selecting the
stitches and pressing "Control/C". The clip used for this border is outside
the heart. It is just four stitches arranged in a diamond, with the beginning
and end stitches at the top. I left it there for you to see, but usually I use
"Control X, which removes the clip from the screen at the same time it puts
the clip on the Windows clipboard.
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The border is inside the heart, not outside where it belongs. This is easy to
fix.
"Edit/Flip/Order" will solve this problem. The form points were running the
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wrong direction, and Flip Order rearranged them. "Edit/Flip/Order" will also
make selected stitches stitch in the order opposite to the way they were
before the function was used.
Lesson 21 shows changing the length of the "stems" under the clips, deleting
a form point to remove a picot the finished border with satin stitches over
the picots.
Lesson 21, Picot Borders, Section B
The Picot border feature combines some features of a Buttonhole border
with a Clipboard border. The length of the stems under the clips can be
changed in the "BH corner" line of the "Form-Form" ("F" key). That stem will
be made of bean stitch (triple stitch), so if you make it too short, it will not
stitch well. I like them long enough to show behind a line of satin stitch.
If you look at the top of the heart above, you see that the two sides of the
border overlap. You can fix this by deleting a form point, or moving form
points. To move a form point, left-drag it to the place where you want it. The
program makes a clip everywhere there is a form point. This border works
best when there is ample room between form points. To delete a form point,
select it and press the delete key.
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You can select a form point by clicking on it, or by holding the cursor close
to it and pressing "Y". ("C" selects a stitch.) Once the form point is selected,
press the "Delete" key.
You might like to copy the form and fill the copy with an Angle Satin border.
In this case I just selected the heart form and used "Control C"/
"Control/V", but there are several ways you can copy a form. You can center
it over the picot border by eye, or you can use Thred centering commands.
Lesson 22, Centering
There are several things you can do with the Centering functions in Thred.
You can center forms or parts of a design on top of each other.
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Before you select the option "Edit/Center/Forms", you should select each form,
beginning with the one you want to be on the bottom. Hold the Control key while
you left click on each form, then either press the "L" key hotkey, or click through
the long path: "Edit/Center/Forms". You should see this result:
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"Edit/ Center/ Horizontal" " or Control/-"will line the selected form up with the
center of the screen. The three forms below were selected and centered one at a
time. If you select all three and center them, it centers the group.
You can use "Edit/Center/Vertical" or " Shift/ -" to center the selected form or
stitches vertically. The three forms below were selected and centered one at a
time. If you select all three and center them, it centers the group,
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The "Center/ Entire Design" option is for moving your design around in the screen
window. It will place the design in the center of the screen and in the center of
the embroidery hoop.
Lesson 23, Copying a Form and Layers
The simplest way to copy a form is the Window's clipboard. For a simple form,
even a filled form without hand inserted stitches, it is possible to select it and
use "Control/C" or "Control/X" in combination with "Control/V" to copy it.
"Control/X" removes the original, "Control/C' leaves the original as it was.
Put your cursor where you want the new form and press "Control/V" to make a
new copy. You can do this more than one time.
You can have only one thing on the clipboard at a time. When you use this method
to copy a form, if you had some stitches already in the clipboard, they will be
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overwritten by the form.
To make a copy or several copies of a form you may also use "Edit/Copy to
layer/...” In this case, the form was copied to layer 1.
In order to see the new form, which will be empty, with no fills or borders, you
must click on the number "1" at the top of the screen. That moves you to layer
"1". You may have to move the original form to see or select the new one.
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Use Layers when you want to make two duplicate forms in the same place. It is
impossible to have infinite background color choices without some problems with
color canceling. If you put two identical forms on top of each other, the colors
may cancel each other, and the two forms can seem to disappear. So, when you
want two identical forms, put one on one layer and the other on a second layer.
If you have to move them to fill them, but you want them to be perfectly
centered, select the bottom one, and then the top, and press "-", the minus key,
or click "Edit/ Center/Forms". If you are unsure how many forms are there, you
can move through the forms using the "Up Arrow " and "Down Arrow" keys. First
Press "Q" to deselect everything, and then use the arrow keys. Each form will be
selected in order of form number. Down Arrow moves backward through the
forms by their form numbers, "Up Arrow" moves forward.
When you open Thred, you are on Layer "0". Anything on layer zero is visible on
all the layers. Anything on layers "1" through "4" is only visible when you have
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that layer selected.
When you paste something while you have one of the layers, "1", "2", "3", or "4"
selected, whatever you paste will go onto that layer, and will be visible only when
you have that layer selected.
Lesson 24, Convert to Satin Ribbon, and Lettering for Logos
The design used as an example for this lesson, Thredu3.thr is available for free
download.. (thr file) or you might prefer the ZIP file. It is a good idea to open it
and look at it as you study the lesson. Download the Thred bitmap.
If you open the THR file in Thred, you will see that it is made up of 28 forms.
The underlay is two line forms filled with line stitch border. The other 26 forms
began as line forms. They were transformed into Satin Ribbon. I used short
sections for the curves, and longer ones for the straight parts.
Step by step:
Load the bitmap and select the screen background color you prefer. You might
like to change the bitmap color to one that gives good contrast, is easy to see,
and restful on your eyes. Lesson 10, Loading a Bitmap , Lesson 05, Changing
Screen Colors.
Plan the stitching path so parts of the design which are behind others will be
stitched first. Think about the design a while before you start work. You may
prefer to start with underlay and go on to the top layers of stitches, or the
underlay may come last. In this case, I started with the satin stitches and made
the underlay last because I wanted to be sure I put support where it will be
needed.
Zoom in on the place where you want the first form. . Lesson 18, Zoom and Shift
Zoom
Click "Form/Line" , then left click to create form points . Lesson 02, Making a
Form Right click to quit making the form. For satin stitches, following a curved
line, use short form sections. There are border fills that make satin stitch, but I
prefer to use "Convert to Satin Ribbon". This feature lets you make satin
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stitches of varying width along the form. It is more time consuming than the
automatic border satins, but can make a very pretty curving line. You must check
the settings in "Preferences" and make sure the Maximum Stitch Length is set
for a length longer than the border size. I usually set Maximum Stitch Length at
9 mm to make sure the program will not insert stitches to break up too long
stitches .
A line form may look very strange when you first use "Convert to Satin" on it.
Each pair of form points will have a directional line between them. If you move
either form point, it changes the direction of the stitches. If the line looks
angular, and is not curved enough, you can add more form points and drag them
until the line is shaped the way you want it to be.
To add more form points, hold the cursor near the form point closest to the place
where you want the new one to be, then press "W". A new form point will pop into
place. You can left drag it to another location.
If you want a series of new form points, use "E". You will see a different cursor
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with a cross in a box, and a line connecting the cursor to the place in the form
where the form points will go.. When you are finished left clicking for new form
points, right click to quit. The form will close again, the line goes away and you
see the arrow cursor again. You may need to move the new form points until the
stitches look right to you. To cover a sharp corner or curve, you may have to use
several sections of Line form and let them overlap a little bit.
The end directional line is darker, and is a non-stitch line. You might think of it as
non-stick, too, since stitches don't stick to it. If you take that line out, the
stitches will taper off instead of stopping at a squared off end. You can replace
the non-stitch Directional line by using the "D" key. You must click twice, at the
beginning place and at the ending place. There can only be two non-stitch "D"
lines in any form. These lines are useful for controlling direction of stitches in a
Fan-Fill, too. (Technically, the Convert to Satin Ribbon feature is actually filling
the form with Fan Fll, but the stitches are the same length as the form is wide.)
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Remember you can use "Frm+/-" to hide the forms so you can see just the
stitches.
Finish making and filling the forms for the rest of the word. Save the file
containing the upper parts of the design. Remember where you save it and give it
a short logical name.
Lesson 25, Lettering for Logos and X , B, File Overlay, Set
Knots
Open a new (second) file and make underlay forms, or make the underlay on
another Layer. I used two files and combined them by using "File/Overlay", which
inserts the file into exactly the same place in the hoop. Click "Form/Freehand"
Left click to create form points. Lesson 02, Making a Form
Fill the underlay forms. You may prefer to use a different color than the satin
stitches so the underlay is easier to handle. You can change the colors easily
later, or you may prefer to use two colors in the design so that the underlay can
be stitched in the same color as the fabric.
In this case, I used straight lines of stitches to stabilize the fabric and to
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support the satin stitches so they look plump. "Fill/Border/Line"
It would also be possible to use a line form filled with a border of angle satin at
a fairly wide stitch spacing , such as 1 or 2 mm.. "Fill/ Border/Angle Satin". That
would create a loose crisscross fill, but it might be challenging to make it the
right width since the lettering is variable in width . Lesson 03, Filling a Form
Use "Save as" and rename the underlay file something like "Both" so that you
have the finished file safely saved under a name you can remember in case you
need to start over for some reason. Then, while you have open the renamed
version, use "File/ Overlay" to insert the satin stitch file. You could do it with
"File/ Insert", but it would be harder to line up the parts of the design.
When you have both sections of the design in the same file, save it under the file
name you chose for "Both" parts. Even though it is not finished, save it often as
you work. (Control/S) It prevents frustration.
Use "Edit/Set/Knots" to insert tie off stitches. The program inserts knots at the
beginning and ending of stitch groups, or where there is a stitch 10 mm or longer.
It won't put in a knot between colors unless there is a long stitch there. If you
change the design much after you set knots, you might want to use "Edit
/Delete/Knots" and set the knots again, in case you left orphan knots in places
where you changed the stitches. Knots show on screen as little boxes, unless you
have clicked "View/ Knots/ Off".
You may want to change the underlay stitches to the same color as the satin
stitches, and you certainly need to arrange for them to stitch first. Lesson 06,
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Changing Thread Colors
*
Lesson 07, Changing Stitching Order
You can also rearrange the stitching order by renumbering the forms and using
"Sort/ by form" (Shift/F3).
Lesson 26, Sort by Form (Shift/F3)
When you Overlay a file or Insert a File, sometimes you find that the design
stitches in the wrong order. You can change the form numbers until the forms
are numbered in the order in which you want them to stitch, then use "Edit/Sort/
by Form". An important detail you need to remember about Thred is that it uses
Zero based number systems. So the first form is number "0", NOT number "1".
The programmer assures us that there are good reasons for this.
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If you look at the color ribbon on the right side of the screen, and at the
stitches on the screen, you see the underlay is on top.
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To select that form, hit "Escape" to clear away any selections, then press the
"Down" arrow. That form could also be selected by using the "Up arrow", but
since it is the last of 27 forms, it is easier to do with the "Down arrow". The
form number of a selected form is on the left side of the screen where the
cursor arrow is pointing in the picture above. The number of forms and other
useful information about the design can be seen by pressing "View/Design
Information".
Once you have selected the form, press "Edit/Set Form Number" or (“/ "). The
hot key is the forward slash key. When you select this function by either
method, you will see a box on the screen.
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Lesson 27, Sort by Form, part B, continued from Lesson 26,
Sort by Form, part A
Once you have selected the form, press "Edit/Set Form Number" or ( "/ "). The
hot key for this sort is the forward slash key. When you select this function by
either method, you will see a box on the screen. Keeping in mind that the form
numbers begin with zero, type in the new form number.
Then select "Edit/ Sort/ By Form number", or hold down the "Shift" key and
press "F3".
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The design will now stitch out in the order in which the forms are numbered. The
underlay may still be a second color. This is a personal choice for the digitizer.
Some designers prefer to leave a color stop in the underlay so that the underlay
can be stitched in the same color as the background fabric; others use the color
of the stitches on top.
Lesson 28, View Design Information
To see this Design Information box, Left click on "View" then left click "Design
Information" or use the ( ' ) "Apostrophe" key. To make the box go away, click
any where on the Thred screen, or press "Q" or "Escape".
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Lesson 30, Snap to Grid
Snap to Grid moves selected forms points or stitches to the nearest grid
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intersection.
Before.
I selected the both the forms in the picture above by holding "Control" then
right clicking on the form.
Then I clicked "Edit/ Snap / To Grid" (Shift / S). Look closely, and see that
both of the forms are different shapes now.
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After
Before
In these pictures, I selected the stitches only, and pressed "Shift/S"
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After
Use this feature to make symmetrical clips for clipboard fills, or to make very
neat stitches by hand.
Lesson 31, Snap Together
Snap Together moves stitches that are close together into position right on top
of each other. It is handy for making clipboard fill motifs, or for "walking" back
out of a line of stitches exactly on the old ones, although you can also use
"Edit/Retrace" to do this automatically.
WARNING! Snap together may make a mess of your design if you set the number
very small and select the whole design. Look carefully at the results before you
move on to the next step, and use the "B" key or "Undo" if you aren't happy with
the result.
To Snap stitches together, you first need to set the "Preferences/ Snap to Size"
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Then you can select the stitches (right click on the color ribbon at the right of
the screen, or select them with Shift/arrow keys) and left click to select
'Edit/Snap/Together".
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If you have not chosen the a large enough "Snap to Size", Thred may not move all
the stitches you want to move. You can see that in the example below, where the
beginning and end stitches are not aligned. The program will not move any
stitches that are farther apart than the number you chose. You may have to
change that setting and try again.
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Lesson 32, Nudge
Nudge is not on the Edit menu, so you must us the key combination
"Control/Arrow key" for this feature. Nudge moves what you selected in the
direction of the arrow key you choose. The distance is set in "Preferences/
Nudge". You can use a very small number if you like.
Nudge works for stitches or forms. You can move groups or single items.
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Once you have set the Nudge distance you want the selection to move each time
you press the "Control/ Arrow", just select what you want to move and repeat
until you get the parts are where you want them to be.
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Lesson 33, Sort /Auto
In the design below, I filled the forms in the wrong order. Now I have more
thread changes than I want. Look at the right hand color ribbon to see that.
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Sort/Auto handled this problem O.K.. Look at the right hand color ribbon again.
Thred will sort a design automatically, but don't expect it to be brilliant about
it. This feature sorts by color first. For simple things, sort auto is fine. But if
you edit in hand stitches as underlay, do not use sort auto.
To sort, the program has to be allowed to flip order on groups of stitches. If you
flip order on something with hand edited underlay stitches, the underlay will
come out on top. This is one good reason to use forms for stitches and for
underlay, since Thred remembers what is on top if the stitches are made in a
form. You can use this sort on a design with hand edited underlay stitches as long
as you remember to "Flip/ order" on that group of stitches after the sort, but
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that may introduce jump stitches. For other ways to sort, see:
Lesson 07, How to Change Stitching Order & "Move to Mark" , Lesson 26, Sort
by Form (Shift/F3),
Lesson 34, Satin Stitch Borders, Angle Satin
Under "Fill / Border", Angle Satin, Perpendicular Satin, Appliqué, and "Edit /
Convert to Satin Ribbon" can all be used to create satin borders. Lesson 24 and
Lesson 25 cover Convert to Satin Ribbon, which is very pretty when used to make
a border with stitches of varying lengths, but for a border that is the same width
along the entire form, the automatic satin borders are easier to use.
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How do you set the Preferences for satin stitches?
"Border width", " Satin form ends", " Satin underlay", " Maximum stitch length" ,
and "Fill spacing" all affect the border.
Border width determines how wide the satin edge will be. You can set it before
you fill or select the form after you fill it and press "F". Change the Border size
number in the form data box that will appear on the screen. The size is measured
in Millimeters.
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"Satin form ends"
You can set "Satin form ends" in Preferences, or after you fill the form, you can
use the "F" key to get the form data box and change it there. You need to use
the "F" key data box if you want one end to be pointed and one to be blunt.
This image shows how the shape of a pointed end is changed by distance
between the end of the stitches and the form node closest to the end.
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You can use a border on any form type, but sharp pointed forms do not always
work well. The blue example would not stitch well and should not be used.
Appliqué borders look the same as Angle Satin, but the Appliqué feature creates
two layers of border. The first is a line of stitches intended to anchor a piece of
fabric to be applied. There is a color stop after that line of stitches, so that the
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user can stop the machine and trim the appliquéd fabric if desired. Then the
program makes a border of satin stitches.
Lesson 35, Satin Borders, Appliqué
Sometimes it is nice to use fabric to fill a design rather than stitches, or to use
fabric as a background to a lacy clipboard fill. A very easy way to make a nice
design in Thred is to use a heart form and fill it with an Appliqué Border. "Fill
/Border/ Appliqué".
For Appliqué Borders, it is best to set the "Satin Underlay /On" box, either in
Preferences or in the form data box you get by pressing the "F" key. The
underlay stitches help to hold the fabric layer down for stitching.
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If you leave the default "Appliqué color" setting in "Preferences", it will show on
the screen as color 16, (white). It may be preferable to use thread the color of
the garment for stitching this section of the design, especially if the thread you
use in the satin stitch part of the design is a light color. You can look at the
layers of stitches under the satin stitch by using "Pick Color" or "Up To", both of
which are in the bottom left corner of the screen.
I suggest a minimum border width of 3.5 mm. It seems to cover the appliqué
fabric edges best at that size. Longer stitches allow the fabric to peep through
and shorter stitches don't hold the fabric down well enough.
In some cases, I prefer to use ornamental stitches to further anchor the
appliqué before I stitch the border. You can rearrange the stitches in your
design to do that. It is easy to do. See Lesson 07, How to Change Stitching
Order & "Move to Mark". It is also easy to make two identical forms and make an
appliqué design if you do not want to use the automated "Fill/ Border/ Appliqué".
Fill one with a Line Border, and use one of the other kinds of satin stitch over
that. I did this for my version of the Thredworks Gardenia.
****************
We occasionally get a request for information about how to stitch appliqué
designs. Please remember that there are many ways to do this, but this is what I
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do.
To stitch out an appliqué:
First, I hoop the fashion fabric or garment to which I want to apply the design
and stitch out the first color of the appliqué. Then I return the machine to the
beginning of the design. This outline aids in placing the swatch of fabric.
Some people hoop the appliqué fabric with stabilizer and stitch the first part of
the design onto the appliqué fabric. Then they take the fabric out of the hoop
and trim the appliqué. Sometimes I find that by using appliqué scissors, it is easy
enough to trim the fabric in the hoop after it is stitched down to the garment, so
I don't always do that step. I might do it for Silk Dupioni, and not do it for felt.
It is best to choose a tightly woven fabric for appliqué, cotton broadcloth is
excellent. Avoid satin and silky synthetic fabrics. They fray and don't stay in
place well.
Then, I spray embroidery adhesive on a small square of starched fabric (or the
cut out appliqué) and place it under the needle and cover it with a sheet of light
weight water soluble stabilizer. This holds the stitches up out of the fabric, and
keeps fuzzy parts form sticking through the satin stitches.
Now embroider the satin stitch, which should cover the raw edge of the fabric
Appliqué. Remove the water-soluble stabilizer. You may need to dampen the
water-soluble stabilizer to get the last bits of it out of the stitches.
Lesson 36, Satin Stitch, Perpendicular Satin
Perpendicular Satin is so named because the stitches are perpendicular to the
form line. It does not make pointed angular corners. The way that Thred handles
Perpendicular satin border corners is easy to see in the picture below. The blue
star in the center is filled with "Fill/ Border/ Perpendicular Satin".
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Like other fills and borders, you can change details about the fill by selecting the
form and pressing "F". You can change the numbers in the form data box that will
come up on your screen.
Lesson 37, "D" Lines
To make a directional or "D" line, put the cursor near the form point where you
want the line to begin, then press "D" and left click on the place where you want
the line to end. The "D" line cursor is an X in a box. If you do this inside a form,
the lines will be the lighter "D" lines, but on the outside of the form the first two
you make will be the dark, non stick "D" lines.
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Use directional lines in Fan Fill to control the direction of the stitches . There
are two kinds of direction or "D" lines. First there are the end "D" lines, used to
determine which parts of the form will have stitches in them. The picture below
shows the end of a pair of identical line forms. I used "Edit/Convert to Satin
Ribbon" on both, and then I deleted the "D" line on the left form.
The second kind of "D" lines are used inside the form to change the angle of the
stitches. I also pulled the form points on the left form a little bit to the left.
You can see that the stitches are now at a different angle.
You can remove or replace "D" lines, but you can have only two dark colored "D"
lines on the end(s) or the sides of a form. No more than two are allowed. These
are non-stitch lines, where no stitches will appear. You can't make them stretch
over form points, only go between two. This is easy to see when you use "Edit/
Convert to Satin Ribbon". Satin ribbon is just a Fan Fill, but the program
automatically sets up "D" lines so that the stitches look like Satin stitch.
Remember that your "Preferences setting for Maximum stitch length must be as
long as the longest sating stitch you use, or Thred will put in lines of stitches at
the maximum length you have set.
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Sometimes you may fill a form and see no fan fill at all. This picture shows five
copies of the same form. The red stitches show what it looks like if you use
"Fill/Fan" with no directional lines at all.
Why does one form have no stitches at all? If you look closely, you see there is
no space between the two "D" lines at the base of the petal. Since the dark
colored, non-stitch "D" lines don't allow any stitches on them, there is no place
for a line of stitches to begin. In the form with blue stitches I moved the two
end points apart. This made a line long enough to make a sparse fill. To get more
fill stitches, the line on the bottom must be longer, like it is in the forms with the
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Index
Nudge.................................................. 36
Opening a File..................................... 18
Perpendicular Satin ............................. 36
Picot Borders....................................... 33
Rotate .................................................. 25
Satin Borders....................................... 36
Satin Stitch .......................................... 36
Satin Stitch Borders ............................ 36
Screen Colors ...................................... 10
Set Knots............................................. 36
Snap to Grid ........................................ 36
Snap Together ..................................... 36
Sort /Auto............................................ 36
Sort by Form ....................................... 36
Stitch Boxes ........................................ 15
Stitching Order.................................... 12
Thread Colors...................................... 11
View Design Information ................... 36
Where do I start..................................... ii
Zoom ................................................... 30
"D" Lines ............................................ 36
Angle Satin.......................................... 36
Appliqué.............................................. 36
Bitmap................................................. 17
Centering............................................. 36
Chain Stitch......................................... 28
Clipboard Fills .................................... 20
Convert to Satin Ribbon...................... 36
Copying a Form .................................. 36
File Overlay ........................................ 36
Fill Spacing ......................................... 16
Filling a Form ....................................... 7
Form- Form........................................... 8
Frm...................................................... 32
Grid ....................................................... ii
Layers.................................................. 36
Lettering for Logos ............................. 36
Making a Form...................................... 5
Marks .................................................. 26
Move to Mark ............................... 12, 26
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