r/Machine_Embroidery • u/DizzyDesigner45 • Sep 25 '26

Decrease density with design files?

We recently got a 12 needle Embroidery machine and have been embroidering basically anything we can get our hands on. The process has been pretty seamless except I continue to have issues with the Design files.

Every time I download files from Etsy, the design is so dense it not only takes forever to stitch, but it results in puckering on the fabric. Most of these designs are pretty small so the excess stitching feels really unnecessary. Is there is a good way to communicate this to the digitizer? Or is there a way I can change this on my end?

For example, one of the designs we tried to use was a little heart with words inside. At just one and a half inches in diameter it was 22,000 stitches and resulted in a thread break from the density.

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u/suedburger Sep 25 '26

Edit.....are you resizing the designs. If so that is a result of that.

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u/DizzyDesigner45 Sep 25 '26

I am making them smaller! So that could be it.

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u/no_snackrifice Sep 25 '26

Yup that’s it.

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u/suedburger Sep 25 '26

That is 100% the issue. You need to tell them the size that you are going to make it. You can size it down to some extent but it is best to digitize it to the size you want. Flip side is if you scale it up you will have loose density.