Glossary

Terms used throughout the Octostitch docs.

Appliqué — Stitching a piece of fabric onto the base fabric and securing its edge. The appliqué stitch type emits a placement outline, a tackdown and a border, with machine STOPs for laying and trimming the fabric.

Bean stitch — A bolder outline stitch where each stitch is sewn back and forth several times (a triple run is the classic). See Running & bean.

Bézier path — A curve defined by anchor points and control handles; the editable geometry most objects are built on. See Pen.

Branch — Several objects grouped so they sew as one connected unit, with travel stitches routed between them to cut jumps and trims. See Branching & routing.

Cut line — A guide assigned to a fill so that every fill stitch crossing it is split on the line, leaving a row of needle penetrations that reads as a drawn seam. See Guides & cut lines.

Density — How closely packed the stitches are (row/stitch spacing). Too dense stiffens the fabric and breaks thread; too sparse shows gaps. See Density & resizing.

Digitising — Turning artwork and ideas into a stitch file a machine can sew — the core craft Octostitch supports.

Fill — Covering a closed area with stitches (tatami/parallel, circular, spiral or satin). See Fills.

Gradient — A fill blended through several thread colours. A machine sews one thread at a time, so it isn’t a blended colour but a set of passes, one per stop, that between them lay down exactly the stitches the plain fill would have. See Gradients.

Generator — A tool that builds a finished design from something other than a drawing — a QR code from a URL, or a pixel-art patch from an image. Generated designs stay re-editable. See QR codes & pixel art.

Guide — A non-stitching path that steers a fill’s direction so stitches flow around curves, or cuts a seam through it. See Guides & cut lines.

Jump stitch — A long move where the thread travels across a gap (often trimmed). Lots of jumps usually means routing or ordering could be improved.

Manual stitch — Individually hand-placed stitch points for full control. See Manual stitch.

Meta node — A marker placed along a path that overrides stitch width or angle at that point, letting one object taper or change direction. See Meta nodes.

Peak to peak — How satin, satin fill and zigzag spacing is measured: the distance between two needle penetrations on the same side of the column, not the step between consecutive stitches. One scale for all three, so the same number sews the same density. See Zigzag.

Pull compensation — Widening/extending stitches to counteract the fabric pulling in under stitching, so the finished size matches the design.

Redwork — Line-drawing embroidery worked as one continuous run of thread, traditionally in a single red thread. Redwork routing is the option on running and bean that sews an object’s whole line network that way, doubling back only where it must. See Redwork routing.

Rung — A line across a satin column, from one rail to the other, setting the direction the stitches run at that point. Rungs are what you place when converting a shape to satin.

Running stitch — A simple single line of stitches along a path, for outlines and travel. See Running & bean.

Satin column — Smooth, glossy stitching that spans between two rails; used for lettering and borders. See Satin column.

Short stitches — Shortened stitches on the inside of a curve so density stays even and thread doesn’t pile up.

Start / end marker — A pin placed with the Meta tool saying where the thread enters or leaves an object. A routing control: it decides where the machine arrives from and where it leaves for the next object.

STOP — An instruction that pauses the machine for the operator — at colour changes and during appliqué. See Ties, trims & STOPs.

Stabiliser — Backing material that supports the fabric during stitching (used with, and supported by, underlay).

Tatami — A parallel fill with a staggered stitch pattern so needle points don’t line up into visible tramlines. See Fills.

Tatami pattern — A designed grid of needle drops applied to a parallel fill in place of the plain stagger, so the penetrations form a visible texture (weave, herringbone, stipple). Saved as an .octotatami file. See Tatami patterns.

Tie-in / tie-off — Tiny lock stitches at the start/end of a run that anchor the thread so it can’t pull out. See Ties, trims & STOPs.

Tie pattern — The shape a lock stitch traces: back and forth, star, cross, triangle or zigzag. Set for the whole design in File → Project Settings…, and overridable per object. See Ties, trims & STOPs.

Trim — Cutting the thread rather than carrying it across a gap. Each cut costs machine time and leaves two tails, so short jumps are often cheaper left uncut. The rule is a project setting. See Ties, trims & STOPs.

Underlay — A first layer of light stitching that stabilises the fabric and supports the top stitches. See Underlay.

Wide run — A running stitch widened into a band of parallel rows following a path, sewn serpentine as one continuous run. For thick lines that still read as running stitch. See Wide run.

Zigzag — A side-to-side stitch along a path at a set width; a lighter alternative to a satin column. See Zigzag.