Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Embroidery Process Made Simple

By Dean Zellman

A very popular way of imprinting logos or designs on clothing is embroidery. Embroidery produces a professional and long lasting imprint. Colored threads are stitched to a garment to create the desired image. Most embroidery is done by a machine using a digitized file.

What is a digitized file?

An image will need to be digitized before the embroidery process can begin, as this provides the design for the machine to work with. Digitizing is the process of changing an image into a computer file that the machine can read as stitches. This file will then direct the machine to actually create the image through stitching various colored threads onto the garment. The quality of the digitized file is what will determine the overall quality of the finished embroidery. It is therefore very important to convert the image to a high quality digitized file. Not all images can easily be digitized and as different machines will require a different file format, it is always advisable to discuss this with your embroiderer beforehand. Using a program like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw to create computer generated graphics is more likely to result in a more polished finished embroidery.

Editing Designs

Once your design has been converted to a compatible digitized file, it can then be edited if necessary, using other software programs. These types of software enable the embroidery design to be rotated, cropped or duplicated to produce different designs. You will also be able to add text and change any color on the design. It will also be possible for certain effects to be added to give it more depth, since embroidery is a 3 dimensional design. The more advanced software packages will allow the embroiderer to edit, add or remove certain stitches to create a better finished product.

Loading Designs

Now the perfected digitized file will be loaded onto the embroidery machine. Various embroidery machines have different ways to loading the file, but the more common ones are via cables, CD, USB, or even special memory cards.

Fabric Stabilization

Stabilization is required to avoid wrinkling and other stitching problems. Each machine will have it's own way of stabilizing the fabric. This often involves placing additional material underneath and around the garment to secure it. Also, the garment can be tied-down during the stitching, through hooping around the edges

Embroidering the design

After the stabilization process has been done, the thread colors will be loaded and the embroidery machine will begin stitching. The embroidering needs to be carefully monitored. Before this starts, the machine will be programmed to stitch in a certain color sequence and speed.

Completion

Once the garment has been completed it will be checked thoroughly to make sure that it has been finished to the highest standard and the backing and any excess threads tidied up.

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