What to Know Before Ordering Embroidered Apparel
When it comes to decorating your apparel, you’ll often have a number of options. Within each type of decoration, there are specifics you’ll need to know, and with embroidery, it can be a little overwhelming if it’s your first time.If you’re not a sewing enthusiast and have never ordered embroidered apparel, some of the terminology may confuse you. Here’s a list of the 5 Embroidery Terms to Know Before Ordering.
- Embroidery:Let’s start from the beginning. Embroidery is a decoration method that uses needle and thread to create images or words on fabric. Some hobbyists embroider by hand and others use basic single or multi-needle embroidery machines. Most embroidered promotional apparel is decorated using a machine with at least six needles, often more. The more needles a machine has, the less time it will take to create a finished piece.
Why? Basic embroidery is done on a 1 to 1 ratio – 1 needle to 1 thread color. The more needles you have, the less often you have to stop for a color change. If you’re embroidering a design with many colors, every time you’re done with one color you’ll have to stop and re-thread the machine. Watch the video below from our friends at Northeast Stitches & Ink to see industrial embroidery machines in action.
- Digitizing:Digitizing is the translation of a design to an embroidery file–usually vector artwork, but some digitizing programs can convert more complicated images such as photographs. Embroidery machines are computerized. You need to tell them how the needle should move, and they need to be able to read the file. Digitizing is basically turning a flat image made of lines to one made of stitches that the embroidery machine can read.
On the left, you can see the Crown Royal logo (http://www.crownroyal.ca/) and on the right, is a digitized version of the Crown Royal logo (https://nestitchesink.com/embroidery/).
- Stitch Count:Imagine a drawing of a simple house (like one a child would draw comprised of five lines: a base, two sides and a simple roof. ) Now imagine that same house was made of five stitches. The stitch count for that design would be five. Stitch count can be a little more complicated than this. If you take a piece of embroidered apparel and look closely at the embroidery design, you’ll see that each row consists of numerous tiny stitches. The thicker (or more dense) the design, the more stitches it has. In promotional apparel, you’re usually charged for a number of stitches. The more stitches that are included with your purchase, the more complex and larger your design can be. This stitch count charge is justified because larger designs generally take more work from the decorator. An embroidery hoop is a tool that is used to hold fabric as the machine (or person) does the stitching. Hoops come in a variety of sizes, but not every machine accommodates every size hoop. You can’t always use a large hoop with a big design. If you can’t, the digitizer must break the design into portions that fit into the decorator’s hoop. Every time a section of the design is finished stitching, the decorator needs to stop the machine and re-hoop the fabric. So essentially, larger more complicated designs take more time; you’re paying for the decorator/embroiderer’s time and effort.
The flower on the top has longer stitches, and is likely less dense than the embroidered flowers in the image under it.
- Density:Density is related to stitch count and often measured in stitches per inch (SPI). The higher the SPI, the more dense your design is. Good digitizers will know how to keep the stitch count low so you have a design that is completely filled without being too bulky. If you want fabric to peek through your design, request a less dense design created with longer stitches.
- Design Size:The size of your design is related to stitch count, but they’re not the same. Some small designs may be extremely dense, resulting in a higher stitch count, while other larger designs may have longer stitches and more white space. The size of design allowed on a particular garment generally relates to where it is placed. A design on the back of a shirt can be much larger than that on the front left pocket. Worried your design is too small? Ask your decorator about thinner, finer threads made specifically for small embroidery designs.
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