No matter if you have 4D^TM or 3D^TM Embroidery Software, fills are an important part of how a finished design looks. Whether you purchase an embroidery, create your own design in 4D^TM Design Creator (or 3D^TM Digitizing) or adjust a design in 3D^TM or 4D^TM Stitch Editor the fill type makes your finished embroidery full of life or flat on your fabric.

Let's start with a basic fill. A dictionary definition would refer to fill stitches as a series of running stitches sewn closely together. These may form broad areas of embroidery with varying patterns and stitch directions. Where the needle comes down in the fabric, creates the pattern. How closely the stitches are together is the density. And the angle that the fill is stitched influences the interest in the design. Even if you don't create your own designs, knowing a little about fills will help you see the quality of the embroidery.

So let's look at some fills in an embroidery. Open 4D^TM Embroidery, 4D^TM Embroidery Extra or 3D^TM Embroidery Studio.

Go to your Main Toolbar and click on the Search icon . In the Design Search window, type in Fashion 1920 where it says Containing. Search in the 4DEmbroidery or 3DEmbroidery folder.

Tip: Use the Search function when you know the name of the embroidery you want to use, but don't know what folder it is in. Use the View function if you just want to choose embroideries by looking at the image.

Load the Fashion 1920 woman. (If your hoop is too small for the design, choose another hoop that will the fit the design – Universal Large Hoop 2 works well.)

First Zoom In to the torso and head of the woman. See how the fill for the skin looks very different than the fill on the dress or hat. The fill pattern that is chosen for the skin adds texture to that part of the design. The pattern that you choose will really make your design lively or flat and plain on the fabric.

Look closely at the hat. This is a very structured and tight fill pattern. It makes the hat look like it is made from felt. Very proper.

Let's examine the dress (you may want to scroll down a little). Notice that the fill in the main body of the dress is at a different angle than the train of the dress. This makes the dress appear to be made with different pieces of fabric.

When designs are created automatically in the ExpressDesign Wizard (in 4D^TM Embroidery Extra or 4D^TM Professional) the fill angles are varied to create a more interesting result. If you have 4D^TM Design Creator (in 4D^TM Professional) you can create designs automatically, then change their patterns to whatever you like, or even make new ones!

Finally check out the darker blue overlay on the dress. Notice that the lighter blue is slightly showing through the darker stitching. This is because the dark blue is a much higher density (looser stitching). You can really see this if you hide some of the other thread colors. Go to the Edit tab and hide color 1 and 4. Notice how the stitches are quite far apart.

(For 4D^TM Embroidery Extra, take the check away from color 1 and 4. In 3D^TM Embroidery Studio, right click on the 1^st and 4^th color blocks, the block is now only has color in half of the square. In 4D^TM Embroidery, zoom in a little closer to the dark blue and turn off the 3D View.)

By choosing a different fill pattern, fill angle and density you can really add life to your design. These principles also let you see differences in designs you own.

Next month we will talk about how to adjust existing fills with 4D^TM and 3D^TM Stitch Editor and have fun creating your own fills in 4D^TM Design Creator or 3D^TM Digitizing.

Best wishes from Husqvarna Viking