Patent ID: 7991500

Claim:
A method for determining a sewing order in embroidering at least one embroidery element on a sewing material, the method comprising: stretching the material on a stretching device mounted on an embroidery unit in a sewing machine utilizing a stretching device holder of the embroidery unit, wherein the stretching device comprises at least a first sub-area and a second sub-area, arranging the first sub-area and the second sub-area such that a position of the stretching device relative to the stretching device holder when embroidering in the first sub-area differs from a position of the of the stretching device relative to the stretching device holder when embroidering in the second sub-area, accessing with the embroidery unit a memory for stitch data for said embroidery element and a processor for reading said stitch data and for maneuvering the sewing machine to execute stitches according to stitch data, said at least one embroidery element comprising basic elements, said basic elements comprising characteristics including at least sub-area, color and thread type, forming clusters of basic elements such that the basic elements in the cluster are sewn on a same sub-area, wherein the clusters comprise an overriding priority based on an order in which the basic elements are added when composing the embroidery that is to be sewn on the sewing machine, determining a level for each cluster, sorting the clusters with regard to color and thread type, and sorting the formed and sorted clusters into a sewing order based on said characteristics.