Satin area — a shape filled edge to edge with turning satin

What is a satin area?

A closed shape filled from edge to edge with satin: long, glossy stitches laid straight across the shape, one beside the next. Because each stitch spans the full width at its own spot, the direction of the stitching follows wherever the shape leads — around a curve the stitches fan with it, at a taper they get shorter. That is what gives a pupil, a leaf or a petal its sheen: the light runs along unbroken threads instead of catching on the many short stitches a tatami fill is made of.

It is the opposite of our Satin column: there you draw the centreline and set a width; here you draw the outline and the form is the width.

How do I make one?

Two ways, same result:

• Pick the Satin Area stitch and draw a closed shape, exactly like a fill. It lives under the Fill tile, not the Satin one: tap the Fill tile, tap it again to open the Fill stitches, and pick Satin Area there.
• Or select any existing fill and press Fill with satin (turning) in its inspector, right under the pattern picker. Your row texture is remembered; Back to tatami returns it.

The idea behind it is simple: the outline is cut open at its two ends, and the two halves become the long sides of the shape. The needle goes back and forth between them, exactly as it does between the two edges of a satin column. That is why the settings feel familiar: density and underlay behave here just as they do on a column.

Where do the ends come from?

From the shape. The two sharpest points of the outline are the ends: a crescent’s horns, a leaf’s tips. Where a shape has only one sharp point — a petal, round along the top — the second end sits straight opposite it. On shapes like these there is nothing for you to set.

When the shape is ambiguous, or you want the stitches to turn differently, drag the two handles on the canvas — the green ring and the red ring, the same handles a column uses for entry and exit. Your ends are then kept with the object; Reset ends hands the choice back to the shape.

What shapes are wrong for it?

Compact shapes. A circle or a square has no ends, and its stitches would run 20 mm from edge to edge. Past the machine limit of 10 mm every throw is split in the middle, so it sews — but as a blob with a seam line, not as a band. The inspector and the design check say so; use a tatami fill there.

Shapes with holes. A stitch running across the shape would have to span the hole, and it would lie loose on the fabric there. So a satin area with a hole sews as a tatami fill instead, and the check tells you. Cut the shape so each part is a plain band without a hole, or leave it as a fill.

Can I puff it?

Yes. A satin area goes into a 3D puff section like a satin column, and the foam sits under the whole region. There is one difference, and it is a good one: the area has no open ends — its two tips close the foam by themselves, so no end bar is needed and none is sewn. Columns in the same section keep their caps, domes and points exactly as before.

What about density, underlay and caps?

Density is the satin density (0.4 mm is the column default). Underlay is the satin ladder — light, standard, firm — measured on the area’s mean width like on a column. Caps do not exist here: the tips of the shape are the caps, there is nothing to extend at a point of zero width.