Solving Cap Design That Breaks Needles

When I have been in seminars or classes for embroidery, the question always arises from the instructors: "Who in this room embroiders caps?"  Most of the time only a few people raise their hands. Then the second question is " Who loves to embroider caps?"  This is almost always answered by grumbles and even fewer raised hands.  If this is you, don't feel alone. My "relationship" with caps is still developing and as such some days I am in love and other days I want some alone time.  Caps are a unique item to embroider  because they are not flat and your embroidery machine really likes to sew flat things. So you have tools that help get around the curves on the cap; like special cap hoops, and extra clips that can hold things taut.  Heavier weight stabilizers that give more structure to your cap to prevent flagging are also important. My machine even has a separate needle plate that is slightly raised around the needle hole. This helps isolate the needle to make sure it can penetrate where it needs to. I have even used steam in the past to try and loosen up the cap before doing my embroidery. This does work, but worrying about the possible watermarks or color changes on the cap and the extra time can slow your production process. 

 All of these things are very helpful, but you still have to contend with the design of each cap, materials they are constructed of and the person who sewed it all together.  When sewing a group of caps, you will see that even if they are the same brand, color, style etc. each one will be slightly different because they are sewn by individuals.  Until you start working with a lot of caps, you may not realize this.

So you are not crazy and stop pulling your hair out.

If you have a design that has been digitized to sew on a cap, you may see that each time you press start on your machine, you get a different reaction.  Sometimes it may sew just fine, and other times you may get a needle break.  There are so many variables to work through and your inner detective may need to come out. This is very frustrating when you are in the middle of an order and worried your needle supply is dwindling. The picture above shows a structured cap and I am pointing to the root of a lot of problems. The middle seam on a six panel structured cap can be quite thick.  Depending on the design you are stitching, the results of your sew out can vary. 

On this cap, the inner material includes a piece of buckram and a finished seam which overlaps. So the needle is dealing with several layers.  When a cap design is digitized, it usually starts in the center and moves out to either side then moves up. This is to promote even stitching as the material is pushed along.  When I digitized this design, the letter C was the very first thing to start sewing.  As you can see, it is right smack dab in the middle of the cap front. Since the design itself is text and I was constrained by size, I couldn't move the text around too much to avoid that middle area because you would see it.  Sometimes, depending on the cap, it would sew on just fine. Then other times, the minute I pressed start, my needle would plunge into the cap, get stuck and the tip would break.  

I was able to workaround the issue by going into my design in my Embroidery software.  I first changed the sewing order to start with the letter O and move to the left. This kind of goes against that whole start in the middle concept, but it is still close enough that the push of the material is in the same vicinity as the letter 'C". Then when my machine moved back to the right to sew that letter C right in the middle, I added a small meandering tie in stitch. That way, I could know for certain exactly where my needle would make the first penetration and the stitch line would meander toward the first part of that letter C. I was able to hide the meandering stitch underneath the "C". By adding that little bit of machine stitching, I had movement from the left outside the bulky middle materials.  Instead of my needle plunging and fighting with the force of downward movement, the motion of the previous stitches helped it move through that middle bulk. Remember Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Motion? An object at rest stays at rest but an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by another force."  Those small adjustments made all the difference and the remaining caps I sewed all performed much better.

If you are digitizing designs yourself this would be an easy addition or your digitizer can add something similar for you.  Of course this will be different depending on each design and having the option to hide any tie or beginning stitches.  The key is to watch your stitches, look at the cap and try to diagnose the problem. I made sure all of the mechanical areas were good on my machine first, then I looked closely at the cap and then I looked at my design.  So for this particular one, I should be able to move forward confidently no matter what cap I am sewing it on.  I do have a video that goes into more detail on the cap parts and also shows my actual software and the changes I made to the design. You can watch it below. I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work!