soulstorm brew (oddworld) embroidered patch

[lexelby]

Hi folks!  I'd like to share a project I'm really proud of, made with inkscape and rendered using the inkscape-embroidery extension I've been contributing to.  It's an homage to Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, one of my favorite games of all time.  Now I have my very own bottle of soulstorm brew as a patch on my bag. :D

The patch is made up of ~25,500 stitches and takes about an hour to sew on my entry-level Brother SE400 embroidery machine.  I've been working on it for over a year and a half off-and-on, but things progressed much more quickly lately after I added a few major features to the extension.  The work in inkscape is more like drawing a set of instructions than an actual picture, since the vectors guide the extension in where and how to do the stitching.  A lot of careful work is necessary to ensure that the thread lays down how you want it and you don't get too many stitches in one place and jam the machine.

Inkscape, of course, makes all this vector editing a dream :)

More examples of patches I've made are here, all made using inkscape.

[Moini]

I think we'll need an Inkscape icon patch some day ;-) (just fantasizing: Could be given out as a prize in a challenge...)
How do you fix them to the object where they will 'live' on? I guess they're not iron-on... ? Or are they?

[lexelby]

I find iron-on doesn't work well.  I use monofilament and do a stitch every two cm or so around the border using a curved needle (and pliers).  I've heard good things about the product Badge Magic but I don't want adhesive on my bag.

I'll see if I can do an inkscape icon design at some point.  I've been thinking of maybe doing a screencast of the design process to supplement the readme doc, and I could include the video and the resulting svg in the repo.

[Moini]

Yes! I think an Inkscape icon would be great for that tutorial (and it has only two colors, if you take the simplified version - which are easy to find/buy, as they're just black and white).

[lexelby]

Okay!  I recorded a video of me converting the inkscape logo into an embroidery design twice -- vokoscreen ate it the first time (oops).  I'm not sure it will work to well as a patch, since the blobs at the foot of the mountain are detached, although I suppose I could put a circular outline around it.

I'm going to post-process the video and add text overlays explaining what I did and why I made the decisions I did, since I didn't record my voice.  I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to do that... maybe this Sunday when I'll be on a 5-hour plane ride.  Once I finish, I'll upload it to youtube.

[Moini]

That sounds like it's going to be very helpful for users of the embroidery extension! When you've uploaded it, could you 'upload' the link at https://inkscape.org into your personal gallery, and put it into the tutorial category? That would give it even more visibility.

[brynn]

Wherever you decide to host it, I still would like to add it to our collection here.

(Hhmm.....I need to think of a way to bring all the tutorials on the website into our collections.)

[lexelby]

Done!

Let me know if there's anything I should clarify.

[Moini]

Wow!!! As a non-embroiderer who has no idea of the process and the requirements, I primitively enjoyed the animated preview most The rest looks quite complex, but the explanations look helpful (but I can't really give any valuable feedback about that).

As a last part of the video, I'd have liked to see the actual machine working, and the result - would it be possible to add something like that (when you have time for it)?

[lexelby]

Yay, glad you liked it, and thanks for watching!

I'll try to record a video of the design sewing out.  Not sure when I will get to it.  I haven't actually sewn it yet -- it might be terrible!  These things are always iterative in nature

[brynn]

"animated preview"???  Is the preview only viewing it on YT site?  I don't see any preview.

I'm not sure if a shot of the actual embroidery taking place would be necessary.  I only watched about halfway through, but the simulation of stitching the outline seems enough for me.  Would be nice, but not vital.

I like your approach of seeming to make mistakes as you go along, to show why certain things need to happen.

I do think your last comment above should be included, though, that you have no idea whether this design will look good, and that it's important to expect there will be trial and error.

Is it ok if I put the video inside an article (see Articles tab) and add it to our list of tutorials?  Well, you're welcome to do it yourself, but I'm guessing you're quite busy.

[lexelby]

Is it ok if I put the video inside an article (see Articles tab) and add it to our list of tutorials?

Please do, and thanks!

I think the "animated preview" Moini mentioned is the Embroidery > Simulate extension.

[brynn]

Ooh, ok!  I thought she meant a preview of the video.

[Moini]

lexelby, do you already have an account at https://inkscape.org ?

[brynn]

I'm afraid I've lost track.  Has there been a finished version of this script which will install Inkscape with all the extensions and python things yet?

[Moini]

Yes. For Ubuntu/Linux, there is. It's also part of the extension. See repo at github.

[brynn]

Could you give me a hint?  I found the extension.  https://github.com/stesie/inkscape-embroidery  Right? 

But which part is the script which installs everything?  Does it download Inkscape for you, or does it already have Inkscape in it, and installs it?  Or does it assume Inkscape is already installed? 

Does it automatically download the python parts, or do you already have to have them installed?  I want to write up the steps in a tutorial.

What was blocking the path for Windows support?

[Moini]

That's the wrong extension. https://github.com/lexelby/inkscape-embroidery already has instructions.

[brynn]

How odd that a search for "inkscape embroidery" does not turn up this extension in the results!

Thanks for the correct link!

Why can't an installer be made for windows?  Just a general answer is all I need.  I don't need technical details.

Edit
One more question.  Is it correct to say that this extension "digitizes" the image?  Or is that a whole different "thing"?

[Moini]

Reason 1: I do not want to write installers for Windows.
Reason 2: I cannot write bat scripts.
Reason 3: There's also no easy way to automate that, so it would always get the latest versions, without constantly adapting the script.
Reason 4: No idea if it's even possible to avoid user interaction with a Windows installer.
Reason 5: Just no, no, no.

Call it whatever you want. I'd call it creating an embroidery pattern from a vector drawing.

[brynn]

I'm sorry Moini.  I didn't mean to imply that I thought you should make a Windows version, or that anyone should or should have done it.  (I actually had no idea who did it.)  It was just a simple question, for which apparently "not currently feasible" would have been an adequate answer. 

You might recall that I've been wanting to get all the information together, in one place, so the next time someone asks, I don't have to search all over, and strain my brain.  And hopefully in simple language, for those first time users - like those who get a new embroidery machine for xmas.

Apparently "digitizing" means a particular type of software for embroidery.  I was just going to link you to the discussion about it, as a way of explaining why it's important, when I realized the question may have already been answered there.  And I think it has.

I'm still feeling my way through this but I love digitizing and I want to get better at it.

From that, I would infer that this extension is digitizing software, although perhaps could be seen as an early attempt.

Even though I've read everything I can understand on the github page (and a lot that I didn't understand), there are still a few questions for which I need an answer.  I don't mind waiting for lexelby (or anyone else) to answer, Moini, if this is not a good time for you.  There's no huge rush 

1 - Does this extension work on Macs?

2 - In the Manual Setup section of the github page (which I assume is for Windows, and maybe Macs), it says

Code: [Select]

pip install -r requirements.txt

All I know about that is that I think you enter it into a terminal  (command line or command prompt).  Could someone explain that in English, please, for those of us who aren't technically advanced?

2a -  what needs to be downloaded (python things, I guess)?

2b -  from where can it be downloaded?

2c -  how to install it properly?

From some earlier discussion, I have gleaned that Inkscape already contains the basic Python program, and that the Shapely module can be downloaded from here (for Inkscape 0.92.2):  https://pypi.python.org/packages/9b/9f/1a9c26b8e8a2f74fe3bc97c560ce80cecef09291776f7d8e6d8172d8632e/Shapely-1.4.0.win-amd64-py2.7.exe#md5=38aad844178d3aa78065cae51849d3ca

And further that it must be installed into "Inkscape's Python installation" which I'm guessing is C:/....../inkscape/lib/Python2.7.

Is that correct?

Is there more?

Or is the only way to do it with the terminal?

Is manual setup essentially the same for Macs (assuming the extension can run on Macs) except users would need a different Shapely file, and the Python Installation folder path is different.  Is it the same terminal code for Macs?

3 - Under Extension Installation, is says to "clone the source".  And further, to "symbolically link into the clone".  What does that mean?  How is it different from our generic instructions for installing extensions? 

3a - What benefit does cloning and symbolically linking have over the generic instructions - I mean for new users?  Can they just use the general instructions?

Thanks for your help and patience