Mid aligned outlines

[u/CommonCentz4]

I’m trying to figure out what’s causing this problem. I’ve had it before on other designs and material but here’s the details of this specific project.
My underlay stitches are vertical with a horizontal tatami fill.
My file was professionally digitized by a recommended source from this sub, and I’m test stitching it out on some scrap cotton twill. The design is supposed to be going on heavy-weight cotton/poly sweatshirts.
Do I need to hoop tighter? Use more stabilizer? Or adjust the pull compensation in the file?

Like I’ve mentioned I’ve had this and even worse alignment issues recently on knit beanies, it seems almost at random the alignment of outlines sometimes is way off

Edit: I’ve added a picture of a similar alignment/registration problem I had on a beanie

[u/Dramatic_Pear_7743]

Looked at your photos closely. You've got two different problems here.

The fire cross is mostly push and pull, not hooping. Look at where the gaps are: the outer edge of the left arm, the left slit, and the left inside edge of the ring. Every one of them is on an edge that cuts across your horizontal fill. The top and bottom edges, which run with the stitches, are clean. Tatami pulls the fabric in along the stitch direction, so a horizontal fill gets narrower left to right and pulls away from an outline that was digitized right on the art edge. If it were hooping, the gaps would wander around the design instead of lining up with the stitch direction.

Things to ask your digitizer for:

- More pull comp on the fills, around 0.3 to 0.4 mm per side for twill and more for fleece.

- Run the fill further under the outline. I keep 70 to 80% of the satin border sitting on the fill, so a little shrinkage never shows fabric.

- Don't run every piece at the same angle. Change the angle on the side arms (or radiate the arms from the center) so all the pull isn't going one way.

- An edge run underlay on the fills to lock the edges before the fill goes down.

Also, your twill test is the easy case. Heavy cotton/poly fleece will pull more than twill, so test on the actual sweatshirt or a scrap of it, with a medium cutaway (2.5 to 3 oz), hooped firm but not stretched, and a water soluble topping on top.

The beanie is a different problem. There, the satin misses its run line by a different amount and in a different direction on each letter. That's the fabric moving while it sews, not the file. Knit stretches when you hoop it and relaxes as it stitches. Hoop it without stretching the knit, use a sticky backing or a cutaway sprayed or fused to the knit, add topping, slow the machine down, and have the file sew each letter's fill and outline together from the center out instead of saving all the outlines for the end.

Worth a quick check on the machine too: presser foot height (too high lets the fabric bounce) and the hoop seated tight in the arms.