A sewing order is determined in embroidering at least one embroidery element on a sewing material in a sewing machine, which has access to a memory for stitch data for the embroidery element and a processor for reading the stitch data and for maneuvering the sewing machine to execute stitches according to the stitch data. An embroidery element is composed of basic elements, through a formation of clusters of basic elements having the same characteristics. A level for each cluster is determined. The clusters are sorted with regards to their respective characteristics and sorting of the clusters into a sewing order based on characteristics and levels of the clusters.