How To Get the Most out of Custom Embroidery

How To Get the Most out of Custom Embroidery

You’re probably familiar with it’s embroidery courtesy of your mom lovingly stitching your name into your underpants before being shipped off to summer camp. Maybe you have a totally adorable beach bag with your initials sewn to the front. Those are great starts but, at Jakprints, we’ve taken embroidery a few steps further. It makes apparel stand out (if you’re using 3D foam, it will literally stand out) and it’s a unique way to add continuity to your uniforms or personality to a baseball cap.

Keep reading to see how embroidery works and all of the specialty threads, effects and customizable apparel products we have for you to get creative with.

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How Does Embroidery Work?

All of our embroidery is done “in-house”, which means, instead of uploading your file so that a robot can tell another robot what to do, we have an actual person in charge of your design. When we receive your art, a professional redraws it, telling the embroidery machine exactly what to do and what threads to use. This allows us to make sure your finished embroidery is as close to your original design as possible.

 

What Apparel Works Best With Embroidery?

Embroidery works best on thicker apparel items, like sweatshirts and jackets. Generally, anything you would wear an undershirt with is good to go. Some of our favorite items to embroider include:

  • Baseball caps
  • Winter Hats
  • Polos
  • Jackets
  • and Hoodies

But embroidery is possible on tons of other apparel like Tote Bags and Work Shirts!

These work best because of the stiff fabric backing we use for embroidery. This backing is used so the threads don’t get displaced and scrunched when washed. It also helps by keeping the the design stay rigid so it’s easy to see. Any excess lining is removed after embroidering but can still be irritating when it rubs against bare skin.

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Designing For Embroidery

Embroidery looks great with stylized illustrations and logos but doesn’t translate well with intricate, photographic designs. Anything too detailed in your image will be lost. Details like filters and super fine lines, can’t be recreated with embroidery. Sometimes, gradients are possible but will not be as smooth as they are in print. Although our embroidery machine can use up to 14 colors at once, designs with defined shapes and solid, single colors work best.

When using text in your design, we generally ask for fonts no smaller than 10 pt. but because of the vast differences in fonts, this is a bit flexible. Keep in mind that small, thin fonts do not translate well to embroidery– bigger and bolder is better.

The size of what can be embroidered depends mostly on what apparel and what location you are embroidering on. Apparel like sweatshirts can have embroidery up to 14’’ but for apparel like hats the space is at much more of a premium.  Check the apparel templates for the products you plan to use to get a better idea of the size you are designing for.

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Special Effects

Don’t be discouraged by limitations! Jakprints has six specialty threads you can incorporate into your design like Metallics and Fluorescent Polyester. We can also do custom effects with 3D foam.

The 3D Foam effect is created by embroidering over a foam base, creating a raised graphic effect similar to logos on major league sports hats. The 3D foam effect is great for designs without thin or narrow fonts and lines.

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Now that you’re inspired, we suggest you start by downloading a template for the product you are designing from our website. Using a template will help you get a better idea of what your final product will look like.

Contact us with any questions you might have about your design or for more information about our custom embroidery. We look forward to working with you!