I definitely want to learn to digitize my own files for embroidery. The prohibitive cost of the software ($1000+) means I probably won’t be doing so any time soon, but Wilcom has a new package called Hatch which I downloaded a 30 day trial of. It’s a full featured digitizer with a (theoretically) easier to use interface. So I’m playing around with it and today I gave the auto-digitizer a spin.
I used this adorable octopus, which Chris designed for hand embroidery on a dress I made a few years ago.
I ran it through the auto-digitizer, setting a blue fill for the body and white fill for the eyeballs. Everything else is satin stitch. I tweaked the fill angles a bit and reordered some of the objects for easier to cut jump stitches, but otherwise left it as-is. Wilcom thinks it will look very nice! There are a little over 14,000 stitches. So it will take about 40 minutes to stitch out, not counting the time it takes me to rethread the machine between colors.
![The stitch preview generated by Hatch](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/OctopusTrueView.png)
I stitched it out on some “linen look” cotton fabric using medium weight tear away stabilizer.
![What a happy octopus!](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2812-1024x683.jpg)
Aside from the jump stitch I couldn’t quite get at with my scissors, there’s noticible pulling at the top of the head and the bottom of the legs.
![Top of the head](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2813-1024x683.jpg)
![Bottom of the tentacles](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2814-1024x683.jpg)
There’s also some around the eyes. This is not entirely unexpected, the stitches tend to pull in, leaving a gap and the vertical edges of the stitches.
I measured the gap at the top with my calipers (0.045 inches) at tried to compensate accordingly by reshaping the objects in Hatch. Then I eyeballed the other gaps and adjusted them too. I stitched out the pattern again, this time with contrasting thread so it’s easier to see how things line up.
![Still cute!](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2815-1024x683.jpg)
This one came out better, but I was too conservative with my compensation. There are still visible gaps between the outline and the fill.
![IMG_2816](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2816-1024x683.jpg)
![IMG_2817](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2817-1024x683.jpg)
![Eyes and Mouth](http://www.kellbot.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2818-1024x683.jpg)
I think with the 3rd round of revisions I’ll get it right, but this has definitely confirmed my skepticism of folks selling purely auto-stitched designs without a sample sew-out to show. A lot of the designs on Etsy have just the computer generated preview, and I suspect many of them have never been tested in the real world. I’m going to play with Hatch a little more to get a feel for manual digitizing, but for complicated or important designs I’m going to continue sending them out to professional human digitizers.