Stitch types
Every shape you stitch is sewn one of three ways: a running stitch for lines, a tatami fill for areas, or a satin column for narrow, glossy strokes. Read this page to pick the right one for each part of a design, and to set the fabric preset so new objects start from numbers that suit what you sew on.
Every vector object has a Fill type. Pick it from the stitch-type picker, either on the essentials bar or in the Properties panel; the picker shows the stitch rather than the word for it. There are three:
| Fill type | What it makes | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Running stitch | A single line of stitches tracing the path | Outlines, fine detail, redwork |
| Tatami fill | Rows of parallel stitches filling a closed shape | Large filled areas |
| Satin column | A dense zig-zag laid across the width of a column | Lettering, borders, narrow shapes |
For example, on a round patch the background is a tatami fill, the name across it is satin, and a thin detail line is a running stitch.
You change a selected object's fill type at any time; the stitches regenerate. Each type has its own settings (stitch length, spacing, angle, underlay, and more): see Stitch parameters for the full list with defaults.
Each type also has a style inside it, new in v1.3.2:
| Type | Its choice | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Running | Stitch | Run, Triple run, Sculpture run, Backstitch, Stemstitch, Motif run |
| Tatami | Fill | Tatami, Stipple, Spiral, Offset, Maze, Radial, Motif, Appliqué |
| Satin | Stitch | Satin, Zigzag, E stitch, Square, Contour, Motif |
So a stipple or a spiral is a tatami with a different fill, not a fourth type. Several of these are Pro at export. See Stitch styles and decorative fills.
The three Motif choices (new in v1.3.3) repeat a small drawing, such as a heart or a star, along a line, in rows over a shape, or along a satin column. Appliqué (also new in v1.3.3) makes the shape a patch of fabric under a border, with machine stops to lay and trim the fabric: see Create an appliqué. A satin can also carry Flexi Split, a pattern laid into the column as a texture.
And a few more decisions inside them:
- A satin on a closed shape can be placed as a Contour (a ring around the outline) or as Inner satin (the interior read as real satin columns). See Inner satin. As of v1.4.0, any part of an inner satin wider than 10 mm is sewn as tatami among the satin parts around it; a plain ring stays satin at any width. See Wide parts are sewn as tatami. (This placement is not the same thing as the Contour satin stitch in the table above, which sews rows along the column.)
- A tatami can carry a tiled pattern, so the shape reads as a relief in the stitching. See Add a pattern to a fill.
- A tatami can also carry a gradient: its rows open up across the shape, so it fades into a second thread or out to the fabric. See Add a gradient to a fill.
Setting the default fill for new shapes
Select a drawing tool and deselect everything else, and the Properties panel shows that tool's new-shape defaults instead of an object's properties: the fill type (and its settings) the next shape you draw will start with. This is a device-local preference, remembered per tool group, not part of the design:
- Pen and Freehand: start as Default, which reads what you drew. An open line becomes a satin column; a closed loop becomes a tatami fill. You can override it with Running stitch, Tatami fill, or Satin column. The two tools share this setting: changing it for one changes it for the other.
- Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star: start as Tatami fill by default; you can switch to Running stitch.
- Satin column tool: always Satin; it has its own defaults panel (spacing, underlay, and more). See Stitch parameters.
Changing a tool's defaults doesn't affect shapes you've already drawn.
Bean stitch and passes
To make a line read heavier, use a bean stitch: a running stitch retraced several times. Set Bean passes on a running-stitch object to an odd number: 1 is a plain running stitch, 3 is a triple (bean) stitch, and so on. Picking Triple run as the running Stitch is the same as Bean passes 3. Bean passes is hidden for Sculpture run, Backstitch, and Stemstitch, which set their own repeats.
To make a line end where it started, use Passes: it runs the whole path again, each lap retracing the last. A bean line always finishes at the far end, so only Passes can bring the thread back: set it to an even number.
For example, pick Triple run for a bold outline around a patch, and set Passes to 2 on a stem or a whisker that should finish back where it started.
Underlay
To keep a fill or satin flat and fully covering, give it underlay: stitches sewn underneath the main stitching to stabilize the fabric before the top layer goes down. Tatami and satin can both have it.
- Tatami has two checkboxes: an Edge run around the outline, and the Tatami underlay rows (once called Edge-walk underlay), sewn Single or Double (crossed).
- Satin picks its underlay By width by default (none on a very narrow column, building up to contour walk and crossed zigzag on a wide one), or Manual, where you tick Center walk, Contour walk, and Zigzag underlay yourself.
For example, on a T-shirt or other knit, sew the tatami underlay Double (crossed) and set the satin underlay's Fabric to Stretch fabric. The Knit / Jersey fabric preset sets both for you.
See Stitch parameters.
How pixel art stitches
A pixel sprite does not use the three fill types. It is a grid of cells, and it has its own Stitch as choice (a sprite stitched as Tatami fill does get the tatami settings, Fill included):
| Method | What it makes |
|---|---|
| Cross-stitch (default) | One cross per painted cell. |
| Mini-satin | One small satin block per cell, the thread direction alternating between neighbors so the sprite reads as a woven basketweave. |
| Tatami fill | Floods each blob of color solid. Better at large cell sizes, but it gives a silhouette rather than pixel art. |
You don't have to paint a sprite by hand: a small picture can become one in a single step, already filled in. See Import as cross-stitch.
Contour lettering
Digitized text has its own stitch designs rather than a fill type, and one of them is Contour: each letterform traced as a single running line, one loop around each glyph and each counter, with nothing filling the middle. Because it is a line rather than a fill, it works at any size. See Fonts and lettering.
Stitch vertex types
Inside a stitch block, each vertex is one of three kinds:
- Stitch: a normal needle penetration.
- Jump: the needle moves without stitching (travel between areas).
- Trim: the machine cuts the connecting thread.
An appliqué also has machine stops, where the machine pauses on the same thread so you can lay or trim the fabric. The sewing animation pauses there too.
You can see jumps and trims, and every needle penetration, in Stitch mode using the stitch overlays.
Fabric presets
Pick the fabric preset that matches what you sew on, and new objects start with spacing, underlay and pull compensation suited to it. A project has one fabric preset, which seeds the stitch-parameter defaults. Change it from the header's Fabric list, next to Machine and Hoop: each row shows the preset's name and what it assumes. New projects start from the default set in Settings.
As of v1.3.2 each preset also says what its numbers assume about your backing and hooping, because pull compensation depends on those as much as on the fabric:
| Preset | Tuned for | Assumes | Pull compensation, tatami / satin (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton | Standard woven cotton, balanced defaults | A tear-away backing, hooped snug | 0.2 / 0.2 |
| Polyester | Slightly slippery | A tear-away backing, hooped snug | 0.15 / 0.2 |
| Denim | Thick woven, wider spacing | A standard tear-away backing, hooped snug | 0.1 / 0.15 |
| Knit / Jersey | Stretch fabric, crossed underlay | A cut-away backing | 0.4 / 0.4 |
| Organza / Sheer | Lightweight, minimal density to avoid puckering | A light wash-away backing, hooped snug | 0.1 / 0.1 |
| Felt | Non-woven, stable | A light tear-away backing, hooped snug | 0.1 / 0.1 |
| Vinyl / Faux Leather | Needle holes are permanent, so open density and no underlay | A hooped stabilizer with the vinyl floated on it, not hooped | 0.1 / 0.1 |
For example, pick Knit / Jersey for a T-shirt or polo, Denim for a jacket or jeans, and Felt for a patch cut from felt. If your setup differs from what the preset assumes (say, cotton with a cut-away backing instead of a tear-away), calibrate it.
The presets also set the tatami Row ends, the underlay style (Edge run, and Double passes on Knit), the running stitch's tolerance, and the satin's By width spacing scale and underlay bands (Knit uses Stretch fabric). See Stitch parameters.
Vinyl and faux leather do not close up around a needle the way a woven does: every penetration stays. That is why its preset opens the density out and skips underlay, and it is also why a test piece is worth more on vinyl than on anything else in the list.
Calibrate a preset for your setup
If your backing, hooping, or machine pulls differently from what a preset assumes, measure it once, and new objects on that fabric start with pull compensation taken from your own sew-out. New in v1.3.2.
- Open the header's Fabric list and click Calibrate for my setup… at the bottom. It calibrates the fabric the design uses now.
- Sew the swatch. Pick your machine's File format and Download swatch: a 100 × 100 mm test with no pull compensation, holding two 24 mm tatami discs (A with rows across, B with rows up and down) and two 4 × 30 mm satin bars (C across, D up). Sew it the way you sew for real.
- Measure it. For each of the four pieces, enter how long it came out Along the stitches and Across the stitches.
- Save for fabric. Boldbobbin works out the pull compensation for tatami (from the two discs) and for satin (from the two bars). If the fabric pushed out across the stitches much more than it pulled in, it suggests more underlay or a firmer stabilizer instead.
A measurement that cannot be right (a piece longer along the stitches than it was drawn, or more than 1 mm off) is refused, so a typo does not become your setting.
The calibration is kept on this computer, with its date: the Fabric list then reads "Measured date", and the pull compensation help says so. It applies to new objects and to a change of fabric; objects you already made keep their numbers. Use the preset's numbers, in the same dialog, takes it back. (Settings → Reset to defaults leaves calibrations alone.)
An individual object can override the project's fabric preset in its Properties panel Fabric section, instead of inheriting it. If you change the project preset while some objects have their own override, Boldbobbin asks whether to update those objects too or leave them on their own preset.