Hello Everybody,

Busy season is officially upon us.  Between now and Christmas we will be busy little bees working as hard as we can to be the best programmers on the planet.  Especially during busy season don’t forget, if you ever need extra consideration on a design or you think you need to give special instructions it is always in your best interest to call us BEFORE you place your order.  I promise, if we can discuss a complicated job before you submit it we will always be in a better position to get your job done right the first time.  Additionally, for those of you who place your orders using our web based ordering system (instead of email) please remember the Order Notes field is not an area meant for questions.  The staff who reviews your order is not in a position to speak with you directly.  If you ask a question here the design will definitely be delayed because the question will get forwarded to me and Flora for answering.  You can avoid delays in your orders if you give us a call before you place your orders when you have questions.

I was speaking with my partner before writing this blog and I asked him what I should write about this month.  He mentioned “3-D puff Embroidery.”  This immediately struck a chord with me because it is an area where both digitizers and embroiderers often struggle.  I am here to tell you that quality embroidery is a marriage between excellent digitizing and superior embroidery technique.  No place is that more evident than 3-D Puff embroidery.  First off, for the most parts 3-D is almost always done on 6 panel hats which are tricky enough to embroider without complicating the issue.  Throw in 3-D embroidery and the complexity factor is significantly increased.  Furthermore, customers are often teased by very fancy design found in the retail marketplace.  What those consumers don’t know is many of those hats are embroidered “flat” and then assembled in to hats.  While this does not necessarily make it any easier you can certainly get away with more (especially in regard to size of design) on a hat panel than a finished cap.  Understanding this is critical to the commercial embroidery because they need to know (and be able to explain to their customers) what can (and cannot) be done with 3-D embroidery on (what me most embroider) finished caps.
I was going to write my own TIPS for 3-D embroidery but as I was researching this blog I found an excellent article written by Kristen Shreve of EnMart.  You can find her original piece at https://www.printwearmag.com/features/10-tips-stand-out-3d-embroidery but I am going to present her tips below.

There are some measures to take to make sure your 3D embroidery designs offer the best effect. Use the following tricks to help your embroidery really stand out:1. Use a fairly large ballpoint needle. Ballpoint needles make larger holes than sharps, so will perforate the foam more easily and ensure the foam gets cut properly during sewing. This also makes it easier to tear away excess foam once the design is complete.
2. Make your top tension tighter to prevent bobbin thread from looping under the design.
3. It may be necessary to slow the speed of your machine. Time and experience will tell you the optimum speed at which your machine sews best when working with puff embroidery.
4. Always sew out a test sample prior to the production run. Use the same type of materials as you will use for production. This will help pinpoint potential issues before a production run.
5. Thinner sheets of foam may produce less loft, but also may be easier to work with. Choose the thinnest size puffy foam you can that will produce the effect that you want.
6. The top layers of designs intended for puff embroidery should have more density than the base layers. Most embroidery machines can be adjusted to manage stitch density, keeping underlay stitches closer together. A thick layer of satin stitches on top adds to the loft.
7. Use a needle that perforates the foam so it can easily be removed. The more the foam is perforated, the easier it will be to tear off when the stitching is complete.
8. If you find that little pieces of foam are being left behind, run a heat source (a heat gun or a hair dryer) over the finished design. If the fabric does not react well to heat, weed the design with a pair of tweezers to remove excess pieces of foam.
9. Puffy foam can be used on a wide variety of fabrics, but works best with flatter fabrics, like hat material, which don’t compete with the foam. Plush fabrics, which have a high degree of loft on their own, will result in a less noticeable 3D effect.
10. Avoid using puff embroidery on delicate fabrics. Designs for puffy foam embroidery require more density, which may tear a more delicate fabric.

That is all I have for this month.  If there is a topic in the world of commercial embroidery or digitizing you would like me to address in this blog please drop me a line here or shoot me an email to steve.freeman@qdigitzing.com

Until next month,

Steve Freeman
Managing Partner
Qdigitizing