On-Demand Embroidery
What is Embroidery?
Embroidery is the process of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread, using automated commercial embroidery machines. This technique involves sewing logos directly on items such as clothing, hats, and bags.
The process starts with a digitized design file, which is loaded into the machine’s computer to guide the placement of stitches, color changes, and other details. Embroidery is widely used in the promotional, corporate, and fashion industries due to its durability and professional appearance.
How Does Embroidery Work?
To embroider an item, it must fit into an embroidery hoop, which is then placed in the machine. The hoop holds the item securely and stretches the material to ensure proper sewing. A stable material backing is placed behind the item to improve the quality of the embroidery. The hoop locks into the machine, and it’s crucial to position items correctly to ensure perfect logo placement. There are tools available to assist with this alignment.
The digitized logo, stored in a .dst file, is loaded into the machine’s computer. This file guides the machine on stitch placement, color changes, trimming, and other details. Commercial embroidery machines can use up to 15 colors per logo and typically operate at speeds between 600 and 1200 stitches per minute. However, running the machine too fast on detailed designs can compromise logo quality. These machines can also handle multiple items simultaneously, with some capable of embroidering up to 20 items at once.
What Items can be Embroidered?
- Apparel - Shirts, jackets, vests, pants
- Hats - Baseball hats, golf hats, beanies, visors
- Bags - Duffel bags, backpacks, totes, luggage
- Accessories - Blankets, Towels, flags
What is the Minimum Quantity iCoStore will Embroider?
With an online company store at iCoStore, we pre-configure all your logos and incorporate your style guides into our system, allowing us to decorate individual pieces. We have machines that can embroider one, six, or eight items simultaneously. Depending on the size of your order, the items are assigned to the appropriate machine.
Our ability to offer on-demand embroidery for single pieces is due to our advanced integration and automation. The machine scans a barcode, and the logo is automatically prepared for embroidery. Typically, setting up a logo is a tedious process, which is why contract decorators often avoid small orders or charge high fees for them.
The iCoStore infrastructure is specifically designed for on-demand embroidery of single items, which provide a significant benefit to our clients.
How are Embroidery Logos Set Up?
We start with a vector file, and our digitizer programs the embroidery file using specialized software. This process involves rebuilding the logo so the machine knows where to place each stitch, change colors, and more. High-quality digitizing is crucial for creating a great logo.
- Ensure Size Compatibility: Verify that the logo can be sewn at the desired size. Small text and fine details can be challenging, so sometimes logos need alterations before setup.
- Determine Sewing Order: Plan the sewing sequence to ensure the best appearance and clean stitching.
- Set Stitch Patterns: Decide on stitch types, such as satin stitches for letters or fill patterns for large areas.
- Set Density: Adjust stitch density based on factors like the material, logo complexity, and overlapping colors. Overly dense logos can cause the material to pucker.
- Assign Thread Colors: Designate thread colors for each color stop.
- Sew a Sample: Create a sample, make adjustments as needed, and repeat the process until the logo looks perfect.
High Quality Embroidery
Digitizing
A good logo starts with great digitizing. There are a lot of shortcuts that people take to make logos sew faster, but that reduces the quality. We digitize every logo in-house, sew them on multiple materials and adjust them until we are happy with the result.
Machines
There are many different types of commercial embroidery machines. We use Tajima, which are the gold standard in embroidery.
Experience
Experienced operators know to slow down machines when running small text or fine detail. They know when to use double backing or adjust the tension. The machines are great, but experience makes a big difference. Running on-demand embroidery, changing styles, logos and colors for every item is challenging, however our team has done it for years.
Attention to Detail
Our goal is to make your logo look great. That isn’t the goal of many contract embroiderers. They get paid on the number of pieces they produce, so they turn up the speed and don’t trim between letters, etc. We set up our logos to have extra stitches hidden under the logo, which helps it sew better. We trim between letters, which significantly slows down production, but produces a much cleaner result. The attention to detail in our on-demand embroidery department is unmatched.
Looking to Upgrade your Swag?
Our attention to detail and logo quality is unmatched. The details are what set us apart from the competition. Let’s discuss how we can take your program to the next level.