Satin column settings

A satin column lays its stitches across a narrow band, from one edge to the other: smooth, raised and glossy, the stitch of borders, bold lines and the strokes of letters. Choose it for a band up to about 7 mm wide. Wider than that its stitches lie loose, and a fill sews better. For the strokes of a letter or a logo, Satin (area) lays the columns for you, and a satin border round a shape is its Outline set to Satin (band).

Draw a line along the column's middle with the Pen / Path and choose Satin column under Type. In the Stitch view the bar above the canvas holds Width, Spacing or Density, and Method, and Pull once Automatic pull compensation is off. Everything else is under Stitch settings in the right rail, or behind the gear beside Type, the expert settings under Advanced.

A small arrow beside a setting marks one you changed from what a new column starts with; click it to put that value back. Reset stitch settings, at the top of the settings, puts them all back at once, and Presets above them applies a set you saved, such as Small text (New designs, Preferences and presets).

Each figure on this page is the stitch engine's own plan: every line is a stitch, sewn where NextStitch would sew it, and the numbers under it are counted from those stitches. Most figures leave out the underlay and pull compensation a new column gets, so you see only what the setting does.

How a column is sewn

A new satin column is 3 mm wide, and NextStitch chooses its underlay and pull compensation by that width. With Underlay on Automatic, a column narrower than 1 mm gets none, from 1 mm a Center walk, from 1.5 mm an Edge walk, and from 4 mm an edge walk and a Zigzag. Automatic pull compensation widens each side by 0.05 mm for every millimetre of width, plus 0.08 mm, and keeps it between 0.1 and 0.35 mm: 0.23 mm for a 3 mm column. Underlay and pull compensation explains what both are for and every setting under Custom.

Here the edge walk runs along one edge and back along the other, so the satin starts where the column begins and swings from edge to edge to its end. Stitch length (mm) under Advanced (2.5 mm) is the length of the running stitches that join the underlay passes and the satin.

Width and taper

Width in the bar, Column width (mm) under Stitch settings, is the column's full width, centred on the line you drew. A new column is 3 mm wide. A satin drawn with two rails, its two edges, takes its width from them and has no Width.

To draw a column by its two edges — one that tapers unevenly, as Wilcom's Column A/B and Brother's Manual Punch draw it — pick the Pen / Path, choose Satin column in the bar above the canvas, click along one edge, press Enter, click along the other and press Enter again (Draw lines and curves). NextStitch puts a rung, a short line across the column, at each end. Without rungs the two rails are paired point by point, so whatever one has beyond the other's last point is not sewn and the stitches slant; Problems warns about such a satin. Here the first edge has three points and the second two:

Taper at start (mm) and Taper at end (mm) narrow the column to a point over that length, at the end it starts from and the end it finishes at. 0, the default, keeps the full width to the end. Use them for pointed ends: leaves, flourishes, the tip of a swash. The columns in the Spacing follows width figure taper over their first 12 mm.

Spacing

Spacing in the bar is how far apart the satin's stitches lie along the column; under Stitch settings it is Zig-zag spacing (mm). Closer stitches cover the fabric fully and take more thread and stitches. Wider ones let the fabric show between them. A new satin column lets its width choose the spacing, so its bar shows Density in that place: switch Spacing follows width off to set a spacing of your own, 0.4 mm until you change it. Move the slider to see a 3 mm column at each spacing.

Spacing follows width and Density

Spacing follows width, under Stitch settings, spaces each stitch by the column's width where it lies: 0.5 mm up to 1 mm wide, 0.45 mm at 2 mm, 0.4 mm at 4 mm, 0.37 mm at 6 mm and 0.36 mm from 8 mm on, in proportion in between. A narrow column stays open enough not to pile up into a hard ridge, and a wide one close enough not to look thin. The width it reads is the stitch before pull compensation. New satin columns have it on. A satin from a design saved before keeps its fixed spacing until you switch it on. It works with the Satin method only, so the switch is shown only for that method.

Density (%) scales that spacing, from 75 % (closer, for caps and heavy fabrics) to 115 % (more open, for light fabrics); 100 % is the spacing the width calls for. In the figure, the fixed spacing sews the column's narrow point as closely as its wide end. Following the width, the point is a little more open and the wide end a little closer.

Short stitches

On a curve the inner edge is shorter than the outer one, so the needle points crowd there, and at a tight turn they pile into the same holes. Short-stitch inset (%), under Advanced, pulls them in. Along each edge, a needle point that lies closer than Short-stitch distance (mm) to the last point left at full length is moved inward along its stitch by that percentage of the stitch's length. Points further apart stay where they are, so a straight column doesn't change.

A satin column you make starts at 15 %, with the distance at 0.25 mm. Raise the inset for tight curves and small lettering, where the inside still looks heavy; set it to 0 to keep every stitch at full width. The stitch count stays the same: only the stitches on the inside of the curve get shorter, so less thread is sewn.

Long stitches: max stitch length and split method

A satin stitch much longer than 7 mm can loop and snag. Max stitch length (mm), under Advanced, splits every satin stitch longer than this into shorter ones; 0 switches splitting off. A satin column you make starts at 7 mm. A satin that still sews longer stitches, from an older design or an import, is named under Problems, and Split at 7 mm there splits it.

Split method, offered once a max stitch length is set, decides where the splits fall:

• Default divides each long stitch into equal parts, as few as the max length allows, so on a column of even width the split points line up along it. Split jitter (± %) moves each split a little at random. Random split phase begins the splits at a random point on each stitch instead, and Min. length to split (mm) lets it split stitches shorter than the max length as well.

• Simple splits at the max length, measured from one edge, the same on every stitch. The split points line up too, away from the middle.

• Staggered splits at the max length but shifts the splits along from one stitch to the next, through a cycle of Split staggers stitches (4), so no line of holes forms. It can take more stitches.

Method

Method, in the bar and under Stitch settings, is the pattern the thread lays across the column:

• Satin, the default: a stitch straight across, then a slanted one to the next, edge to edge. It covers best, and its spacing can follow the width.

• E-stitch: a line runs along one edge, and single stitches reach across from it and back, like a blanket stitch. Choosing it opens a satin's close spacing to 2.5 mm, so the stitches across stand apart; choosing Satin again closes it to 0.4 mm.

• S-stitch: a stitch straight across, a step along the edge, then across again, stepping along each edge in turn. It is a dense satin variant, so it keeps the satin's spacing, and chosen over an open one it closes it to 0.4 mm.

• Zig-zag: every stitch slants from edge to edge, with none straight across. Its spacing is measured from one point to the next on the same edge, so the needle crosses the column every half spacing: at a satin's 0.4 mm it lays as many stitches as the satin and looks like one. Choosing it opens a satin's close spacing to 1 mm, so the slants stand apart; choosing Satin again closes it to 0.4 mm.

E-stitch, S-stitch and Zig-zag always keep a fixed spacing.

On a column drawn as a line, the E-stitch's line runs along one edge, and Sew the other way round, at the top of Stitch settings, moves it to the other. On a column with two rails it runs along the first rail, and Swap rails moves it. Teeth, which turns a blanket stitch's short stitches onto the shape or outward, is a setting of a satin Outline with the method Blanket (E-stitch), not of a satin column.

Corners

Corners, under Stitch settings, shapes the stitches where a column drawn as a line turns a corner. Point at its three buttons to see their names:

• Miter: the outer edge runs on to a point, as the line's corner does. With Limit tips, on unless you switch it off, a corner sharper than 60° is cut flat instead of reaching out as a long spike.

• Round: the stitches fan round the corner.

• Bevel: the corner is cut flat.

Satin columns you make are mitred; those in earlier designs stay round until you choose. A gentle bend, one that turns by less than 50°, is fanned whatever you choose. A satin drawn with two rails has no Corners: its rails draw them. In the figure the upper corner is a right angle, and the other turns by about 130°, so Limit tips cuts its tip flat.

Turning lines

A satin's stitches run straight across the column. To turn them somewhere, to slant a stroke or to lead the stitches round a bend, add a turning line: press Add turning line under Stitch settings and drag across the column on the canvas, from one edge to the other. Letting go lays the line where your drag crossed the edges, and the stitches turn towards it from the turning lines, or the ends, on either side of it. Hold Shift to keep the drag to 15° steps; Esc adds nothing. A turning line that crosses one already there takes its place, since two that cross would fold the column over.

A turning line runs between the column's two rails, so a column drawn as a line becomes one with two rails when you add the first, in the same step: the notice line says so, and one undo takes both back. It then has a turning line every 5 mm or so, as Path ▸ Bake satin to rails makes it, which keep its stitches straight across while you edit its rails; the one you drag replaces those it crosses. Double-click the column to drag the nodes of its rails and of its turning lines. In the Stitch view a selected column shows its turning lines dashed.

Random width

Random wider (%) and Random narrower (%), under Advanced, vary the column's width from stitch to stitch, for a hand-sewn look. Each edge of each stitch moves at random, inward by up to Random narrower per cent of the width, or outward by up to Random wider per cent. With Same on both sides on, one pair of fields sets both edges. Switched off, each side has its own (Random wider, side 1 (%) and so on), side 1 and side 2 in the order of the column's rails. Random width doesn't change the stitch count. Spacing jitter (± %) varies the spacing between the stitches in the same way.

The pattern comes from a random seed of the object's own, so the stitches stay the same each time you open the design. New variation, shown once something is random, draws a new pattern for all of the selection's random settings, and undo brings the last one back.

Swap rails and direction

Sew the other way round, at the top of Stitch settings, sews the column from its other end.

Swap rails, under Advanced, is there for a satin drawn with two rails. It starts each stitch from the other rail, and the settings for each side go with it: the pull compensation set Per side, random width per side, and the edge an E-stitch's line runs along. A satin drawn as a line has no rails of its own to swap; on it, Sew the other way round moves the E-stitch's line to the other edge.

Good starting values

• Keep a new column's choices to start with: Automatic underlay and pull compensation, Spacing follows width at Density 100 %, a 15 % short-stitch inset, a 7 mm max stitch length, mitred corners.

• Caps and heavy fabrics: Density below 100 %, as low as 75 %. Light fabrics: above it, up to 115 %.

• Tight curves and small letters: raise Short-stitch inset step by step until the inside of the curve looks even.

• Columns wider than about 7 mm: keep the split on, and choose Staggered where a line of split points would show. Much wider than that, sew the area as a fill.

• An open, decorative edge: the E-stitch at its 2.5 mm spacing.