There are these days cleaning agents that can be used on isolated areas of garments but with the majority of these you need to follow up with a washing cycle and this is generally neither desirable nor advisable. One way of attacking this situation though is with a spot cleaning gun such as the BBI TG-002A as supplied by Your Embroidery Services Ltd. These devices have their own built in motor and so you just have to plug it into the mains and away you go. They work by forcing a jet of water or cleaning fluid through the textile at high pressure which picks up the dirt and transports it out of the garment. Because of the pressure used these very often work well with plain water but sometimes stubborn stains require something a little more substantial and in these instances you will need to use an approved cleaning fluid. In earlier years the standard for this was Trichloroethylene but this became a strictly controlled substance back in 2003 making it virtually impossible to use legally in an embroidery environment. Modern substances are likely to contain either Methylene chloride or Perchloroethylene and, whilst not as powerful as Trich', they are still strong enough to remove most stains. Many who operate these guns though make a fundamental mistake in the way they use them. To get the maximum benefit from the action of the gun the water or cleaning fluid needs to blasted through the fabric into an open space. This ensures that the dirt is dispersed and also allows the fluid to evaporate more quickly. It is also more effective to have the garment under stress such as when it is an embroidery frame. As with all cleaning fluids though you should always check that the garment and the embroidery will withstand the process so a trial is strongly recommended.

Stopping appliqué fabric from pulling out:

Currently appliqué is not as popular as in the past but there does seem to be a move back towards it in some areas of fashion so to lay down a few rules now could save a lot of time, and heartache, later on. First of all though let's explain exactly what appliqué is. The dictionary definition is "decorative work in which one piece of cloth is sewn or fixed onto another, or the activity of decorating cloth in this way". In embroidery terms it can be a very useful way of filling an area without using stitches and thereby keeping stitch time down it also affording an attractive design variation. One of the most common problems with this type of embroidery is where the appliqué fabric itself pulls out from under the border and, to make matters worse, this is not always immediately obvious not showing itself until later on when the garment has been dispatched. As with most problems there can be a number of explanations but there are two that would rate as the most common, border width and type of fabric. The border that is embroidered around the edge of the appliqué fabric is one of the most important areas of this type of design. It is extremely important that the width is sufficient to firmly hold the fabric and it is normally recommended that a minimum 3mm border be used. In the studio at Your Embroidery Services Ltd. we always use this as the starting point but sometimes the design itself does not lend itself to this so what then? You MUST contact the customer, explain the situation and let them make the decision. At least then if faults develop later on you have the "I told you so..." comfort factor. Even when the border is the correct width though this problem can still occur and much of the time this is down to the fabric itself. Not all textiles are suitable for appliqué as the weave, for instance, may be too open or slack and therefore not afford enough strength to hold it under the border. If you are using a woven fabric, and most appliqué fabrics fall into this category, then it is important that the weave is fairly dense as this means that a number of weave or weft threads will be caught under the border stitching resulting in a better hold.

For further information contact Your Embroidery Services Ltd. on 01623 863343 or email them at sales@yesltd.co.uk or visit www.yesltd.co.uk

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