EMBROIDERY 101
The Artwork
Bring us your logo, company name, individual name and monogram or our art department can create you an original all your own. It is important to remember when translating a printed logo into stitching for embroidery that the logo will lose some detail and may be simplified more then what you are use to seeing it. This is the nature of embroidery and your logos may not look exactly as it will when printed in ink. All text can be no smaller than 1/4” so please limit the amount of text on your embroidery order. We will advise you during this process to create an attractive “stitch-out” of your logo. See our Embroidery Gallery for some of our samples.
The picture below shows the different levels of detail that can be achieved in a logo design for embroidery. The numbers represent the stitch count. The left two items are simple text stitch-outs, the middle items are the actual logos--either in a graphic outline or in text, and the right two items are logos in full color.
The next picture below of stitch-outs shows a left chest position at various sizes and complexity.
The numbers represent the stitch count in each design.
Salute = 3.5” x 1.125” Shenshawpotoo = 3.5” x 1.75” Eagles = 3” x 2.5”
Proofing
Once we create your desired design we will send it to you to review. This is called the proofing stage.
As the customer, the art department encourages you to review your proof and carefully look over your design, read the text to make sure no spelling errors occurred, colors are correct, the position of the imprint/size is appropriate and give us your honest feedback. The artists want you to be pleased with your design so be sure to communicate your thoughts fully about the design. If you have any concerns about the design, this is the time to bring them up, as the further the design goes through the process the more costly it is to make changes. Because of this reason, any changes made after the proof approval will result in additional charges.
The proof will be in the form of an emailed jpeg image, a faxed copy image, or a printed hard copy for you to come and view. So be sure to give us more than one form of contacting you. Check out the Embroidery Proof Process to see more details about our proofing.
Digitizing
Once we have your artwork in an electronic format, we send it to our digitizing department to convert the artwork into a computerized stitch pattern. Our embroidery machines can read .dst, and .dsb files. Quotes for digitizing are based on number of stitches in the design. A sample of your image is stitched out on a piece of fabric for you to approve before we begin production. We call this a “stitch-out” proof.
Production
Our embroidery team loads your digitized image on our Tajima or Barudan embroidery machines. The thread colors needed--up to 15 at a time--are loaded. Interfacing is sometimes added to the back of the garment where the image will stitch to keep the area stable, particularly on a fabric that may stretch. Your garment is placed in an embroidery hoop and positioned on one of the machine heads to be stitched. With the touch of a few buttons, your design stitching is set in motion. More intricate designs can take a whole day to complete stitching. The good news is our machinery can handle several garments at one time. We have a twelve-head, an eight-head, a six-head and a two-head machine on-site.
Finishing
To finish a garment before it goes out, we have some trimming to do. We trim away excess threads from the garment. We trim up the interfacing in back of the image. After a little spritzing to remove hoops impressions, the garment is folded and bagged.
Embroidery Positions and Sizes
Embroidery Art Specifications
Embroidery Thread Color Swatches
Stitch Count Estimator
Sizing Information
Proofing
Art Department Support
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