A patch in VectorCraft

In this tutorial you draw a round patch in VectorCraft and choose how each part of it sews, with the StitchCraft plug-ins showing the stitches as you go. Then you write the machine file and sew it. The patch is 30 mm across. It has a blue disc of fill, with a white star of running stitch on it, inside a gold satin border.

You need

VectorCraft, in a version the compatibility page lists, with the StitchCraft plug-ins installed.
StitchCraft’s command line, installed.
To sew it: the machine and materials of your first sew-out.

Sizes here are in points, VectorCraft’s own unit: 72 points make an inch, and about 2.8 a millimetre. A field reads a size typed with its unit, such as 80 pt, whichever unit it shows.

1. Draw the disc and fill it

Choose File › New, and make the document 108 pt wide and 108 pt high. Choose the Ellipse tool and click near the artboard’s top left corner. In the Ellipse dialog, make the circle 80 pt wide and 80 pt high. Give it a blue fill and no stroke. A fill sews in the colour of its object’s fill.

With the circle selected, choose Effect › Plug-ins › StitchCraft Fill:

The dialog holds Ink/Stitch’s settings for a fill in sections, each with its label and unit. Rest the pointer on a label for its help, and the button after a field opens its page. Set Angle to 45, and choose OK. If the dialog is taller than your screen, see below.

The whole StitchCraft Fill dialog

The StitchCraft Fill dialog in VectorCraft, its settings in sections, from Fill, with Sew the fill and Fill method, to Longest stitch and Preview. Each row has a label, a field with its unit, and a button that opens the setting’s help page. Under them are the Preview checkbox, checked, and the Cancel and OK buttons. The StitchCraft Fill dialog in VectorCraft, its settings in sections, from Fill, with Sew the fill and Fill method, to Longest stitch and Preview. Each row has a label, a field with its unit, and a button that opens the setting’s help page. Under them are the Preview checkbox, checked, and the Cancel and OK buttons.

The circle now shows the rows the fill sews, at 45 degrees. VectorCraft lets a plug-in do only so much work for a preview, and a larger fill, such as a disc more than about 30 mm across, shows its outline instead of its rows. stitch export --preview shows every stitch, whatever the size.

2. Draw the star

Choose the Star tool and click in the middle of the disc. Make Radius 1 26 pt, Radius 2 11 pt and Points 5. Give the star no fill and a white stroke. A line sews in the colour of its object’s stroke. Choose Effect › Plug-ins › StitchCraft Stroke, and OK. Its settings sew the line in running stitch, 2.5 mm a stitch.

The whole StitchCraft Stroke dialog

The StitchCraft Stroke dialog in VectorCraft, its settings in sections, from Stroke, with Method, to Shortest stitch and jump and Preview. Each row has a label, a field with its unit, and a button that opens the setting’s help page. Under them are the Preview checkbox, checked, and the Cancel and OK buttons. The StitchCraft Stroke dialog in VectorCraft, its settings in sections, from Stroke, with Method, to Shortest stitch and jump and Preview. Each row has a label, a field with its unit, and a button that opens the setting’s help page. Under them are the Preview checkbox, checked, and the Cancel and OK buttons.

3. Draw the border

A satin column is drawn as its 2 edges, its rails, joined into one compound path (satin columns in VectorCraft). Lock the disc and the star first, and Select All then takes only the rails: choose Select › All, then Object › Lock › Selection.

With the Ellipse tool, draw 2 more circles, one 84 pt across and one 70 pt across. Choose Select › All, then Object › Align › Horizontal Align Center and Object › Align › Vertical Align Center. Join the circles with Object › Compound Path › Make. Give the compound path no fill and a gold stroke, and choose Effect › Plug-ins › StitchCraft Satin, then OK.

The whole StitchCraft Satin dialog

The StitchCraft Satin dialog in VectorCraft, its settings in sections, from Satin column, with Method and Zigzag spacing, through the 3 underlays to Longest stitch and Preview. Each row has a label, a field with its unit, and a button that opens the setting’s help page. Under them are the Preview checkbox, checked, and the Cancel and OK buttons. The StitchCraft Satin dialog in VectorCraft, its settings in sections, from Satin column, with Method and Zigzag spacing, through the 3 underlays to Longest stitch and Preview. Each row has a label, a field with its unit, and a button that opens the setting’s help page. Under them are the Preview checkbox, checked, and the Cancel and OK buttons.

4. Centre it

Choose Object › Unlock All and Select › All. Align everything again with Object › Align › Horizontal Align Center, then Vertical Align Center. The patch is done, and VectorCraft shows the stitches the plug-ins preview:

The patch in VectorCraft’s canvas, as the plug-ins’ previews show it. Rows at 45 degrees fill the blue disc, and a white star of running stitch lies on it, inside a gold satin border.

The objects sew in the order they were drawn. The disc sews first and the star next, and the border sews last, over the edges of both.

5. Write the machine file

Save the document as round-patch.vectorcraft, and run stitch export on it:

$ stitch export round-patch.vectorcraft -o round-patch.pes --preview round-patch.png
round-patch.vectorcraft
  file      round-patch.pes (PES v1, 4751 bytes)
  sha256    c06c3defb172d4e8e33096eaa48fbc7a898c25dfe4f83cc8b555c192fe792363
  profile   brother-pe800-5x7 (Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop)
  size      29.6 × 29.6 mm
  stitches  1633 stitches, 3 jumps, 2 trims, 2 colour changes, 0 stops
  threads   1. unnamed (#1f4e9c), shown as Brother PEC 2 "Blue"
            2. unnamed (#ffffff), shown as Brother PEC 29 "White"
            3. unnamed (#d9a400), shown as Brother PEC 11 "Deep Gold"
  preview   round-patch.png (269 × 269 pixels)

round-patch.png shows what the machine will sew:

The VectorCraft tutorial’s patch as it will sew. The blue fill’s rows run at 45 degrees, and a white star of running stitch lies on it, inside a gold satin border.

6. Sew it

Load round-patch.pes and sew it as in your first sew-out. Thread blue first, white when the machine stops, and gold when it stops again.

Dialogs taller than the screen

From VectorCraft 0.14 the rows of a dialog taller than the window scroll, and a section’s heading folds its rows away. The satin’s dialog is taller than most screens.

VectorCraft 0.12 and 0.13 don’t scroll a plug-in’s dialog, and list every setting under its Ink/Stitch name. The fill’s and the satin’s dialogs are taller than most screens there, and the stroke’s is taller than the window VectorCraft opens with. Their first rows, or the OK button, can be out of sight. Make VectorCraft’s window as tall as the screen allows, and click a field you can see. Tab and Shift+Tab move to the others, and Enter applies the dialog.

Embroider a VectorCraft design shows how to leave objects out and mark where a shape starts and ends. It also explains what stitch export says.

Keyboard shortcuts

StitchCraft