Software Freedom Day

4 minute read

Example polo shirts

Steps

  1. Download the Software Freedom Day Logo file from https://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/Logo

  2. Open the file in Inkscape and delete all content other than the squarish logo, delete content by object rather than by group since some of the groups are linked

  3. Using File>Document Properties..., Change the background color to black, and resize the document

    Screen shot of square logo

  4. Using Layer>Layers and Objects... Re-arrange the objects so that they are grouped by colors, green, yellow and red. By grouping the same colors together, you will minimize the number of times the embroidery machine needs to change the thread. Label them appropriately. You will likely need to ungroup paths and then group them together appropriately.

    Screen shot of square logo and layers after re-ordering

  5. Using Object>Fill and Stroke... give all yellow objects a uniform stroke of RGB (249,213,35), and no fill. The green hill should have a uniform fill of RGB (57,181,54), and no stroke. The red part of the ‘f’ should have a uniform stroke of RGB (241,90,36) and no fill.

    Screen shot of square logo after updating the colors

  6. Select the green hill, then choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Params..., then give it a contour fill, going from inner to outer. Leave other parameters as default.

    Screen shot of contour filled hill

  7. Select the red bar, and zoom into it. As it is a polygon, and we want to use a satin stitch, we will need to replace it with paths. Select the Bezier curves and straght lines tool and overlay the top and bottom parts of the polygon with two straight lines both going from left to right. Color these lines with RGB (241,90,36). Then delete the polygon. To ensure a nice stitch finish, we want the beginning and end lock stitches to be hidden. Select the Edit paths by nodes tool, the select all nodes on the two red lines and add choose Insert new nodes into selected segments. This will add a node on each path midway between the end nodes. Choose these new nodes, and select Break path at selected nodes. Then in the Layers>Layers and objects... duplicate these lines, choose the bottom part to be left and delete the rightmost nodes, choose the other part to be right and delete the leftmost nodes. Finally, choose the Bezier curves and straight lines tool again and add a small horizontal dotted line going from right to left, between the lines forming the left segment. This line will be the start of the stitching, and will have a lock stitch that will be hidden.

    Screen shot of red part of f

    Select the right part of, then go to Path>Reverse. With the right part still selected, choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Params and choose a custom satin stitch with and end lock stitch, but not a beginning lock stitch. Do also add Zig-zag Underlay.

    Screen shot of stitches for right part of red part of f

    Select the left part, choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Params and choose a custom satin stitch with no lock stitches, and add a Zig-Zag Underlay.

    Screen shot of stitches for left part of red part of f

    Select the dotted starting line, choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Params and ensure there is a starting lock stitch, but no ending lock stitch.

    Screen shot of stitches for starting part of f

  8. As some machines may not easily create long satin stitches, you can choose to either use a contour stitch for the sun or a satin stitch. For the satin stitch, select the sun. Break it up into three non intersecting but adjacent paths with equal numbers of nodes.

    Screen shot of top part of sun to be used for a satin stitch

    Screen shot of right part of sun to be used for a satin stitch

    Screen shot of bottom part of sun to be used for a satin stitch

    Add a starting segment at the beginning of the bottom part of the sun to allow for a hidden lock stitch

    Screen shot of starting segment of sun

    Break off the last part of the top segment, and reverse its direction to allow for a hidden lock stitch

    Screen shot of end of top segment of sun

    For each of these segments, choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Params and ensure they are stitched in the correct direction. For all but the starting segment, ensure the stitch density is uniform and there is a Zig-zag underlay. If the stitch density is not uniform, add additional nodes to make it uniform. For all segments apart from the starting and end segments, ensure there are no lock stitches. For the starting segment ensure there is a beginning lock stitch, and for the ending segment, ensure there is a final lock stitch

    Screen shot of stitches for end of top segment

    For the filled contour stitch, break the sun into two non intersecting segments, one for the top, and one for the bottom. Using Object>Fill and Stroke... give the segments a uniform fill of RGB (249,213,35), and no stroke

    Screen shot of top part of the sun to be used for a fill stitch

    Screen shot of bottom part of the sun to be used for a fill stitch

    Select the top part of the sun, from the menu choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Params..., then give it a contour fill, going from inner to outer. Leave other parameters as default. Repeat this for the bottom part of the sun.

    Screen shot of simulated fill stitches for top part of the sun

    Screen shot of simulated fill stitches for bottom part of the sun

  9. For each of the rays, break up the paths into two lines with an equal number of nodes. Add a starting segment with a beginning lock stitch on the portion of the ray furthermost from the sun. Create a reversed ending segment with only an ending lock stitch on the portion of the ray closest to the sun.

    Screen shot of a ray showing dotted starting, left and reversed ending right segments

  10. For each of the letters, break up the paths into two lines with an equal number of nodes. Add a starting segment with a beginning lock stitch. Create a reversed ending segment with with only an ending lock stitch.

    Screen shot of a letter showing dotted starting, middle and reversed ending segments

  11. If the embroidery machine used supports automatic stitch trimming, add these for each ray by using Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Commands>Attach Commands to Selected Objects>Trim thread after sewing this object.

  12. Add a new layer with the license information

    CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed Unported
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
    Modified for embroidery from the originals
    https://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/Logos
    

    Choose Extensions>Ink/Stitch>Commands>Add Layer Commands... and ignore the layer for stitching but leave it visible.

  13. Embroider a sample, adjust it as necessary for the embroidery machine used. Embroider another sample. If it is ok, embroider a final piece, such as a polo shirt.

This tutorial has benefitted from many suggestions by Kaalleen, Claudine Peyrat, Michael Njuguna, Bianchifan, Lexelby and from the Low Tech Linux video tutorials.

Software Freedom Day (modified for Ink/Stitch by Benson Muite)

Software Freedom Day logo

Using a Satin Stitch for the sun

Stitchout with a satin stitch for the sun

Download

Using a Filled Contour Stitch for the Sun

Stitchout with a filled contour stitch for the sun

Download