Judie

Can some of you experienced machine embroiderers help me figure out a problem and how to avoid it, please.

I was making a clothespin bag and decided to embroidery some little "clothes" on a clothes line.. I have an endless design that I had chosen these things from. It's an Anita Gooddesigns pattern..

I chose the clothesline with pins attached, and 3 little pieces to hang on the line.. two t-shirts and a pair of jeans..

To save thread changes I merged the thread colors.. I began the stitch out, it did a part of the first shirt, then went down to do a part on the last shirt hanging on the line. It came back and did another part on the first shirt, then as the hoop moved across the embroidered part to the shirt, I heard a clunk, but did not see what happened.. After that the rest of the stitch out was off a bit so things did not line up. You can see in the attached pictures that the cuffs are misaligned, as is the sleeves of the first shirt and the designs on both shirts are no longer centered.

The jeans that are in the middle was stitched out in completely different colors so they were not part of the 'going back and forth'.. if that makes sense..

When the piece was finished I did go and look at the pattern, magnifying it up to see how the stitches were programed.. they are exactly where they should be.

My question is two fold.. first, What happened? did the needle hit that first part of the embroidery and that cause it to get misaligned? or does that happen when you merge thread colors?? and second, is there anything I can do to get it back in the place it should be once I discover this is what has happened??

Thank you for your insight. I'm still too new to machine embroidery and haven't figured out all of these problems.