Embroidery - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 1-800-237-1917

Embroidery has become extremely popular over the last few years, especially in the corporate world where "dress down" days have become so common. Embroidery is most often used on sport shirts and caps as well as button down shirts to give a little "dressier" look to a garment than what screen printing can offer. As with screen printing, there are certain variables to keep in mind when putting together prices and, in many ways, embroidery is not as versatile as screen printing. Understanding its limitations is important before starting your project. Here are a few question/answers you should find helpful.

When should I choose embroidery over screen printing?

Much of that depends on what the decorated items are being used for. Usually an embroidered item is considered a "finer" garment so it will be used for business "uniforms" or an award item for "a job well done." They are also used as premium gifts for fund raising events when higher dollar amounts are donated. Also if you are interested in personalizing each garment with a different person's name on each, embroidery, rather than screen printing, is better suited to accomodate your needs.

(click here to go to screen printing)

What are the limitations I should keep in mind about embroidery?

First, the turn around time for embroidery is longer than screen printing. Where screen printing can do several hundred shirts in an hour on an automatic press, embroidery will take anywhere from a day to several days. Each item is stitched one at a time, and depending on how many stitches the design has, one item can take 20 minutes to stitch if not longer. The number of heads the embroidery machine has determines how many items can be done at once. A one head machine can only do one item at a time. A four head, four items and so forth. So, allow a little longer for your products to be done. Second, because of the nature of sewing, designs can not be as detailde as they could otherwise be in screen printing. There are occasions when a company logo or design has to be adjusted to make it better suited for embroidery. Third, because embroidery is basically using a needle to stick a bunch holes through material, the type of material needs to be fairly good quality. Promotional weight t-shirts willnever stand up to all of that stitching.

(click here for reference list)

What determines the price for embroidered goods?

The blank item is the first cost. Obviously, the item you choose to stitch will greatly effect the cost of your finished product. The next expense is the digitizing of the design. Digitizing is the process of taking a logo or design and converting it to computer language for the embroidery machine to read. The digitized design tells the machine where to put each stitch to get the desired design. Digitizing fees vary greatly based on the number of stitches (stitch count) the design requires. It can cost anywhere from $30.00 to $200.00- and even more if the design is really complicated. The last cost you can expect is the actual stitching charge. This charge is based on the actual number of stitches used on the design. The more stitches used, the higher the stitch charge. Again, this is not necessarily all inclusive, but my hope is that this will give you most of the information you need to get ready for your next embroidery project.

Site designed and maintained by Cyber-Designs TM