What is Push and Pull Compensation in Embroidery Digitizing?

Does push and pull compensation sounds scary to you?

Don’t worry! Push and pull compensation in embroidery digitizing sounds complicated, but actually it is not and we’re here to make it easy!

In embroidery digitizing, push and pull compensation is a technique use to handle the distortion that can occur when stitches are sewn onto fabric.
Let’s break down the two effects and see how it works.

Imagine squeezing a tube of toothpaste – pull compensation works the same.

The thread tension pulls the sides of the stitch inwards, which make the stitches narrower.

This is most visible in dense stitch areas like satin columns or fills.

On the other hand, the tension on the threads creates pressure that pushes the fabric outwards from the edges, causing the stitch to expand slightly at the ends.

Push and pull compensation are especially important for:

• Densely stitched areas: Satin stitches, fills, and large lettering are more prone to distortion.

• Thin or stretchy fabrics: These fabrics are more sensitive to being pulled and distorted by the stitches.

• Sharp corners and points: These can be particularly affected by push and pull forces, that’s why you need to use more pull compensation here.

• Lettering: Letters have horizontal and vertical columns, and it is important to add pull compensation to keep them at the same height on the fabric.

For lettering, we suggest you to add pull compensation around 0.2 - 0.3 mm.

Distortion is an unwanted change in a design’s shape or size that occurs due to poor push-and-pull compensation during embroidery digitizing.

Irregular pull compensation causes design shrinkage and distortion.
It mostly occurs on long and straight stitches, or lettering.

Irregular push compensation causes the design to expand and bump, especially with highly dense stitches, such as satin outlines or highly dense tatami.

You can minimize the chances of push and pull distortion by following these considerations.

Always choose the correct stitch density as per the fabric.

Accurate stitch density prevents the embroidery stitches from irregular push & pull effect that causes puckering.

You can avoid unusual push & pull distortion with the help of Embroidery Underlay.
Because underlay stabilizes the fabric when it is attach to the stabilizer or backing and can prevent distortion.

You can avoid unusual push & pull distortion with the help of embroidery underlay.
Because underlay stabilizes the fabric when it is attach to the stabilizer or backing and can prevent distortion.

Fabrics with more stretch require up to 0.40mm of pull compensation for machine embroidery.

Some fabrics, such as knits, shrink and stretch more than woven fabrics. That's why they need extra compensation to manage the shrinkage during digitizing.

Following are some suggested pull compensation values.

1. cotton 20 mm.
2. T-shirt 35 mm.
3. Fleece 40 mm.

The basic rule of thumb to add the compensation is simple.
‘The longer and wider the column width, the more compensation is required to get high-quality results.’
If the column of the satin stitch is 2 mm wide, then you need to add the compensation value around 0.15mm, depending on the fabric’s stretch.

The type of artwork is a must-consider thing before adding push-and-pull compensation.
For example, if the artwork has letters, fills, and small objects, then you need to add the pull compensation for each of them.

During the embroidery digitizing process, there are many things that need to be consider for the best results.
Push and pull compensation is one of those things because it helps you compensate for the embroidery design and prevents natural stretching & shrinkage of fabric during the embroidery digitizing process.