This week I got to learn with Alec from the EECS shop on how to CNC embroider. It was amazing.

To start I needed an idea and an SVG file. For the longest time I have been wanting to make clothing embroidered with rhino commands and their corresponding symbols. So this week I indulged and did just that. After filtering through the rhino command list, I decided to go with a classic - boolean union. I drew the symbol in Illustrator.

Then the next step was to move my vector file into Inkscape, which has the necessary plugin - Ink/Stitch

Using the Inkstitch plugin, I generate the lines that the Brother embroidery machine would use to stitch. Alec also showed me how to do lettering using ladder stitches, but we decided it might be fun to try out the native fonts on the machine

With the file on the EECS computer that has the brother software, we added the text.

From there, we moved to the machine. Alec walked me through the workflow of stretching my chosen sweatshirt and aligning/centering it. We were worried that there the fabric might be too stretch but we moved forward anyway to test.

Then at the machine, he masterfully showed me how to thread the needle with my chosen color, insert my fabric, and start the process. You have to stop after every color layer, but once it started it was a surprisingly painless process. I had so much fun learning this tool and will definitely be back to use it again in the future.