How to Get Flawless Embroidery By Stopping Puckering

When I embroider, I really don’t want my project to have puckering, so I’m willing to do anything to prevent it. When I first started embroidering, it was a huge issue for me. After many mistakes, I’ve learned ways to avoid it when I’m embroidering a design.

OK, so maybe you are new to embroidery, and you’re thinking, “What is this puckering she speaks of?” It is when a bunching of the fabric around the stitched area of your embroidery design. When you have puckering, the material no longer lies flat; you see folds in the fabric.

A great example is this windbreaker with my daughter’s monogram. (Fortunately, I don’t have to take credit for this terrible monogramming job.) But I shouldn’t criticize too much here because windbreakers tend to pucker.

Do you see the fabric not lying flat around the stitched letters? This, my friends, is classic puckering and exactly what we want to avoid.

Puckering happens when your fabric moves around during the embroidery process.

There are three types…

This occurs when you “trap” fabric and stabilizer within an area. If you embroider from the outside of the design to the inside, the needle foot will cause the fabric to move forward. This makes the fabric get trapped until it has nowhere to go, causing you to experience puckering in the middle of the design.

Imagine working on a construction site. The person opposite you pushes dirt towards you, causing a pile to form.

This occurs when you pull the fabric super tight when hooping. The stabilizer holds the fabric in place and looks great, but it snaps back when you remove it from the hoop. All that stretched fabric relaxes and locks the center flat, resulting in distorted fabric.

Tightening an area of stitching causes this because of a really dense design.  This one will have puckers in between two sides of stitching.  The fill contracts the fabric and stabilizer.  Lessening the density will greatly help.

So why does puckered embroidery generally happen?

If the fabric moves while your machine stitches, it will bunch up instead of lying flat. Therefore, keeping your fabric in place while stitching out an embroidery design is the secret to avoiding puckering.

But for some fabrics, this is easier said than done…

How to become a pucker detective!

While puckering is frustrating, learning to be a pucker detective is still important!  When you look at the puckers, they vary, which can help you learn how to solve them.

Slippery fabrics like nylon and satin are prone to puckering because they can slide around on the stabilizer. The monogrammed windbreaker is a great example of a slippery fabric that is challenging to embroider without any puckering.

Knit fabrics like t-shirts and polos can also be problematic because they stretch. It may pucker if you stretch the fabric excessively or do not adequately support it on the hoop during embroidery. You will see fabric puckers when you remove your garment from the hoop.

Another tricky category of fabrics that can easily pucker is very lightweight textile-like broadcloth or linen. Because they are flimsy and thin, they can bunch up while embroidering, which leads to puckering.

The solutions vary for these fabrics to prevent puckering as they are very different, but let’s discuss them now!

Your strategy in preventing puckering with satins and nylons is to stop the fabric from slipping in these tightly woven fabrics. Running a basting stitch to prevent the design from moving may seem tempting, but it’s likely not a good idea. After you remove the basting stitching, you will likely still see holes in your piece of fabric. Pinning the nylon windbreaker on a floated stabilizer in the hoop is probably not a good idea for the same reason.

One of the best ways to prevent slippage is to hoop and not float the fabric. We recommend hooping when embroidering two layers of fabric to prevent the top layer from shifting. This is especially important when working with a windbreaker, which typically consists of a lining and a top layer. Hooping your garment will hold the layers in place and ensure a better-stitched result.

Learn more about embroidery hooping with our tutorial, tips, and tricks to level up your embroidery.

To keep both layers from moving, use a cutaway stabilizer on the back while hooping them.

Stitching with a new, sharp needle can also improve your pucker-free odds. An old, dull needle can snag and bunch up the fabric, making it pucker. In addition, using a water-soluble topper can also help.

If you try embroidering on a slippery, satin ribbon, you will face additional puckering challenges. The thinness of the ribbon prevents it from being hooped properly. You can attach it to a stabilizer and tape it down to keep it in place.

Wonder how to embroider ribbon properly? Learn how to easily machine embroidery ribbon with great results.

Hooping helps prevent puckering on slippery fabrics, but it may not be the best choice for embroidering on knits. If you hoop a knit fabric too tightly, you can stretch it while stitching. Then, when you take it off the hoop, the fabric relaxes and bunches up around the stitching.

Knitwear can be a difficult fabric to use in embroidery; check out our helpful tips to make embroidering knit less difficult.

Instead, place a piece of fusible poly mesh on the wrong side of the fabric (underneath the design). Then, hoop some tear-away stabilizer and float the knit fabric on top of it. Stick the knit fabric to the tear-away material using a spray adhesive or self-adhesive tear-away stabilizer.

You can pin the knit fabric to the stabilizer around the design area. Knits are forgiving and won’t show pin holes. Finally, float a piece of water-soluble topper over the design area.

You can improve your overall results with a couple of additional precautions. Fusible poly mesh can shrink, so it’s a good idea to wash and dry it before use. You should also embroider knits using a stretch needle. Regular needles break the fabric fibers, and needles designed for stretch fabrics push them out of the way.

Embroidering on hankies and light materials is challenging because of their delicate nature. The stitching can bunch them up and cause puckering.

So, the secret to preventing puckering with the lightweight fabric is temporarily giving it some heft. You can do this in a couple of different ways.

Spraying it with heavy starch is a good way to start. Then, use at least one layer of tear-away stabilizer, although most people recommend two. Adhere the layers of stabilizer to the cloth using temporary adhesive and hoop it all together.

Light cotton broadcloths behave like knits in that they can stretch a bit. Avoid over-stretching them in the hoop. Unlike knits, though, they are best embroidered with a smaller and very sharp embroidery needle and not a stretch needle.

Did you know your embroidery machine speed can affect your embroidery results?

A note from John:

“From my experience, poorly digitized embroidery designs are one of the top reasons why puckering occurs.

After all, the quality of any embroidery design depends on how well it was digitized or created. If the digitizer didn’t know what they were doing, or if a design was simply auto-digitized using embroidery software, chances are you might run into some issues (puckering of course being one of them).

If the correct type of underlay wasn’t used by the digitizer when creating the design, no solid foundation is stitched into the area in which the design will be sewn. This can cause registration issues and make the design pucker.

To help avoid this issue, be sure to purchase your designs from reputable companies who know what they’re doing and have a proven track record. Oftentimes, “free” designs online may not be the most machine friendly options or produce the best embroidered results.

If you’re looking for a suggestion, I do recommend trying our designs to see and sew the difference quality digitizing makes. Download our free Embroidery Legacy Design Kit to experience 11 of our fan-favorite high-quality designs.

Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to rescue a project if you notice puckering is happening. Stop the machine and stick a layer of tear-away stabilizer underneath your hooped fabric, then resume stitching.

This extra layer of stabilizer may be the solution to fixing the puckering while it’s happening. Good ironing can sometimes minimize puckering after completing a project.

Puckering is a pain we all deal with, so be sure to take precautions and use professionally digitized embroidery designs.

I hope these suggestions have been helpful.

Happy stitching,

Julie

P.S. For more machine embroidery tips, resources, inspiration, and fun designs, check out my website: http://www.machineembroiderygeek.com

P.P.S. Use Embroidery Legacy embroidery designs to avoid common embroidery problems like puckering and misregistration that can be caused by poorly digitized designs.