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Comment by jasonjayr | Hacker News Reader

... there's no lock stitch underneath the fabric? if you pull on 1 thread the whole thing comes apart?

I have a Husqvarana Designer Jade 35 Embroidery sewing machine, and the embroidery arm is just that: an x-y plotter/positioner that the computer can synchronize with the timing of the needle stitch.

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Yep, seems to be a drawback of the punch needle embroidery technique, though, not just this specific automation of it. From a light skimming of a couple of articles even hand-done work in this style lacks a lock stitch and relies on the friction of the fabric and tightly packed loops.

Though that could make for an interesting ephemeral art piece, particularly paired with generated/algorithmic designs—a plotter that embroiders a piece and then unwinds it once finished, repeating in a loop and accumulating wear and knots and flaws.

You can hand stitch a lock stitch, you just have to pass a second spool through loops created from the first spool

From the videos I've seen, it's essentially the same as the way you make rugs - those are sealed on the back with a wash of glue and something like hessian. Presumably you can do the same here to "lock it in", as it were.

(I did try punch needle once but managed to misread the instructions and threaded the needle wrong. Hilarity ensued.)

That triggered a memory: For some reason, in 1980s Sweden, it was felt that the grade 1-9 classes of textile crafting needed to "get with the times". The solution was that many schools bought these digital Husqvarna sewing machines with various embroidery programs.

Weird times.

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