An Embroidery machine is not a ‘thread printer’. Often times we hear that a design looked perfect on the screen, but didn’t sew out that way. It almost never will sew out the way you see it onscreen. As the design sews, thread is being pushed through the fabric, opening it up, tightening it in the hoop, reducing its elasticity and drawing it together. As the fabric moves, the ‘location’ of all subsequent stitches is going to be incorrect by some small amount. This produces various sewing defects such as loss of registration, puckering/gathering, dancing baselines, poor coverage and even fabric tearing. If we pay attention to how we construct the design we can minimize these difficulties, and even use them to our advantage if we are crafty. We also want to allow our objects the ability to move around a bit, and anchor them as needed. It is a process guided by experience. Let’s look at some common issues: