Needle spacing

Needle spacing is the distance between adjacent needles on the Schiffli machine. Different machines use different spacings, a result of slight variations of the French inch. Needle spacing is therefore characteristic to the machine and is part of the machine format values.

ES Schiffli lets you adjust this value to suit the type of machine which will stitch the design:

27.04mm (Saurer)

27.07mm (Plauen & Zangs) – the ES Schiffli default

27.08mm (Hiraoka)

This is an important number because when designing for continuous fabric or freestanding embroidery (chemical lace), design repeats must adjoin each other precisely. Otherwise, once the substrate is washed away or steamed out, the lace will fall apart. In EmbroideryStudio, the repeat setting must be accurate down to fractions of a millimeter.