Bridging is when you sew across the seam, keeping stitches from falling into it.This only works if the letter or design will fully cover the center seam. If hooped in a flat hoop, there will be more even tension on the cap's fabric and the stitching order will be less important for good results. Unstructured hats or the back of caps can be hooped flat. A cap hoop holds the hat by the sweatband so it's most stable near the brim. Center-Seam Placement Let's start with the most common placement location for headwear lettering: the center over the seam. When using a cap hoop, the lettering needs to be ordered so that it sews from the center of the design and outward. I prefer to digitize the tie-in or lock stitch with a center-run underlay to control the location in which the letter begins to stitch.The objective of the design is to smooth the fabric from the brim of the cap and upward, and from the center seam and outward. Manually digitizing underlay allows you to control the tie-in stitch; secure the fabric to the stabilizer; secure the center seam and bridge it if necessary; and allows the thread to stay tight on the fabric, resulting in clean and crisp letters. Bridging is when you sew across the seam, keeping stitches from falling into it.This only works if the letter will fully cover the center seam. If the edge of a satin stitch falls on the seam line, adjust the kerning - space between letters - to shift the satin stitch to either fall directly over the seam or off to either side. If this adjustment isn't made, the stitches will disappear into the seam, giving the letter an uneven look. Use Info*Action #11 at impressionsmag.com/infoaction APRIL 2020 32-34_IMP_0420_TMD_EmbDigitizing 33 P.33 3/19/20 9:36 AMhttp://cit.com/impressions http://www.impressionsmag.com/infoaction