Friday 18 October 2013

How to Make Embroidery Digitising Designs That Are Sure To Sell?

If you want to commercialize your embroidery digitising designs and you are looking to make good and impressive revenue from it, you need to learn the secret of the trade. The big question is what designs sell and what will make people buy your embroidery digitising products? The answer is simple. You need to offer the rare blend of best designs and right price. At the same time, you need to come up with designs that are in tandem with the popularity meter.

Keep The Occasions In Mind

As Halloween is round the corner, there is a huge demand for embroidery digitising fabrics that have the “feel” of Halloween. So, you need to design such patterns that look befitting for Halloween costumes. For instance, you can make use of glow in the dark threads as they emit a bright light in the dark. No doubt, it is a big hit for all those who are looking to buy Halloween costumes.

So, if you wean to rev up your sales, you need to find the upcoming occasions and events for which people will be shopping. If you can design something that is in tune with the shopping need of people, your sales figure are likely to shoot higher.

Double Check Your Work

It is crucial to check the work before commercializing it. Always remember that it takes a lot of years to build a reputation and only seconds to get it destroyed. So, when you are working in embroidery digitising projects, you need to be sure that you are checking the work twice and may be even thrice. Embroidery is one such work that involves a lot of fine detailing.

Even after you have checked out all aspects diligently, a slight unwanted curve can make the stitches flawed. Not only this, when the embroidery is digitized, there is scope for even greater errors. So, you need to be on an alert and you must thoroughly inspect both the embroidery and the final output after digitization. The art of digitizing the embroidery needs skill of the highest order.

The fact that the embroidery technicalities differs based upon the quality and nature of fabric to which you will be etching the design makes it even more complex.

So, if you have the desire to become one of the embroidery digitising firms, you need to be thoroughly proficient in the field. The density of the stitches, the right stabilizers, the length of the stitch, the pull compensation, the underlay that is used are some of the key points that must be kept in mind. Failure to do so will lead to flawed output which is not going to be appreciated by people.

However, with polished skill and continuous practice, you will be able to excel in the field of embroidery digitising and become a name to be reckoned with.

Express Digitising is one of the ace embroidery digitising firms that has been in this field since a long time. They have been embroidering a lot of different fabrics and their work quality is immaculate. They are versatile as their designs portray immense variety and their rates are affordable too.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Handling The Letters In Embroidery Digitiser Projects

When you are working in an embroidery digitiser project, you have to be careful of every minute detail because even a little flaw can destruct the overall beauty and pattern that you want to project. One of the key aspects where you need to be extra cautious is when your embroidery makes use of letters.

Many customers can give you order for embroidery digitiser projects that are heavily loaded with texts. When the concentration of text is more, there is a common tendency among designers to place the words close to each other and make then narrow. However, if the letters are extremely narrow, punching them can become cumbersome.

So, you need to keep a few aspects in mind when sizing the letters and spacing them. These are not industry standards and you are not bound to follow them. However, in most cases it has been seen that they have yielded the best output and sticking to them can help you in getting the perfect output.

•    Ideally, you should try to have the text in block letters. This makes for better reading and digitizing is easier too. However, you can use small letters too, but when you do so, you have to be even more careful regarding spacing and widths.
•    In order to ensure that the words are readable and the overall text is catchy rather than blurry, the minimum height of letters should be 5 mm. This is valid regardless of the fact that you are using capitalization or not.
•    The width of the letters is an extremely important aspect because having extremely narrow letters can make embroidery look fuzzy and post digitization; it may lose its appeal too. The column width should nearly be 1 mm. +/- 0.2 mm is acceptable. However, when you are using letters like “o”, “p”, “b”, "d”, “q” and other similar ones that have the rounds in them, the spacing becomes even more important. Embroidering these letters can be tough because the loops and circular pattern diffuse the letters and makes the final output blurred. So, in such cases, the space within the letter should have a diameter of approximately 0.9mm as this will make digitization efficient and will ensure that the letters won’t slide one above the other.
•    The density of the stitches that you are using is an extremely important point too. If you do not use the right density, the letters can have a hairy look and it will look fuzzy rather than distinct and clean. So, use an underlay and follow the standard for density of stitches for the specific garments on which the embroidery digitiser design will be implemented.

When you follow the above tips, you are likely to excel in the field of embroidery digitiser projects brilliantly.

Express Digitising has been offering top notch embroidery digitiser designs to its customers. Their pricing is justified and the skill and dexterity that the digitizers working at Express Digitising exude is phenomenal and worthy of appreciation. They have a quick turnaround policy and are known for producing digitized embroidered work par excellence.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Digitising Embroidery: Why Use Bags as Promotional Giveaways?

‘Branding’ and ‘brand image’ seem to be the only buzz words ruling the world of marketing these days, and why not. Every marketing campaign, every advertising strategy, in fact, everything that a company does is directed towards creating a healthy brand image with which the end user can connect. And, this can only be achieved by grabbing the maximum number of impressions with giveaways that prove to be useful. This is where digitising embroidery and the concept of branded bags come in.

A number of recent surveys have shown that branded bags not only tend to grab the maximum number of impressions a month, but are also the product most likely to be retained by your target audience. While the first fact might still be a revelation for many, the latter does not come as a surprise, since bags do make for one of the most useful giveaways during any promotional event. Surveys also indicate that bags are one of the more successful branding tools, ranking higher than baseball caps or even pens.

Getting your logo or custom message embroidered onto any kind of bag with the help of a Embroidery Digitising professional can further help you save money, besides being an attention grabber. Given the kind of usage and re-use value offered by a bag, and the number of times an individual is likely to carry it around, they prove to be extremely cost-effective. One of the most practical and widely recommended bags that should be considered as a branded, promotional giveaway is the tote bag. Easy to work with when digitising embroidery and versatile in use, tote bags are also a major convenience for the end user. Also, the combined cost of the bag, digitising embroidery service and getting it embroidered practically seems to pay for itself when you begin to consider the response rate, making it top the list of promotional giveaways.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Accentuate Columbus Day Celebrations with an Embroidery Digitizer

With Columbus Day round the corner marking the discovery of the Americas, you can easily have loads of fun discovering how an embroidery digitizer can help you impress your loved ones with lovely decorations and party favors. Just like every other holiday gives you the opportunity to gather around and express your love for your friends and family, Columbus Day too happens to be a great reason to host themed barbecues and parties that bring people together.

Columbus Day represents the spirit of exploration and getting your guests party favors and accessories under the same theme can prove to be a wonderful way to conclude the celebrations. An embroidery digitizer is the person responsible for converting custom or borrowed designs into embroidery machine readable code, so that you can have your vision sewed onto fabric.

Considering the theme of Columbus Day, you can easily have special table covers, party hats and even aprons adorned in the designs of your choice. All you would need to do is to give or tell your embroidery digitizer about the design and fabric you would like to have digitized and embroidered. The embroidery digitizer will then either offer you an altered, more embroidery-friendly design for approval or straight away digitize the same, so that you do not lose any time during preparations.

Getting the word “explorer” embroidered onto party hats, telescopes and ships embroidered on the table covers or even aprons featuring symbolic designs in red, blue and white can lend your event with that extra dose of excitement. With a talented professional in tow, the sky is the limit.

You could even ask your embroidery digitiser whether it is feasible for you to have a 3D or glow-in-the-dark design given your choice of artwork and fabric. In case you are hosting an evening affair with lots of children part of the gala, getting yourself glow-in-the-dark embroidery comes highly recommended.

Thursday 1 August 2013

Embroidery Digitizers and the Cross Stitch

While cross-stitching may not be considered a popular choice for creating machine embroidery designs, it is a request our embroidery digitizers come across every now and then. The most popular patterns that entail the use of the cross stitch include birds, flowers, motifs and holiday patterns. Since one of the oldest and most adored forms of embroidery, the cross stitch is now possible in machine embroidery, we would like to take you through the intricate details that an embroidery digitizer usually needs to take care of while recreating beautiful patterns.

Fabric compatibility is of utmost importance when using the cross stitch. Any experienced embroidery digitizer will opt for a cotton-polyester blend, linen or denim to recreate a cross stitch design and recommend staying away from stretchy fabrics. The advisable thread for this type of embroidery is the rayon or polyester 40 weight thread or even the cotton 30 weight thread that proves to be quite effective when used for 10 to 14 count designs.

The cross stitch is all about the counts; and a general rule of thumb is that the higher the count, the smaller the crosses. Our team of embroidery digitisers always begins by visualizing the final size of the design, so that they can establish the best count fit for your project. An embroidery digitizer usually makes his/her choices from amongst 10, 14, 16 and 18 count versions of the same artwork. While a 16 or 18 count will bring out the best in a scenery design, a 10, 14 or 16 count will infuse new life into floral, lettering and abstract patterns. And, while an 18 count is best suited for medium to heavyweight fabrics where a higher density is required to cover the background, a 10 to 14 count would be better suited for lightweight fabrics due to their low density. Also, the skillful combination and use of different counts in the same design helps achieve an interesting play on depths and perception.

Monday 15 July 2013

Washing and Ironing Instructions for Embroidery

Being professional digitizers, we not only like to inform our readers about the various ways in which digitizing embroidery can make life easier for the commercial as well as individual clients, but also on how they can give more life to their embroidered products. Caring for your digitizing embroidery solutions or simply put, embroidered fabrics is almost as easy as the rest of your delicate garments.
  • Only use mild detergents when washing embroidered articles.
  • It is best not to use bleaching agents such as peroxide, chlorine or sodium carbonate as they can lead to discoloration. In case you cannot avoid the use of bleach, it is best to opt for the non-chlorine variety.
  • For machine wash, it is best to use cold water, keep the settings to a delicate cycle and keeping the load light to avoid friction.
  • It is best to remove the embroidered articles promptly from the washer and never leave such garments in a wet pile or soaking.
  • Once the wash cycle is complete, immediately remove the embroidered articles and place them in the dryer with the settings as recommended for the fabric. Drying on high heat or wringing out the embroidered articles will end up ruining the design.
  • Do not pour fabric softener directly onto embroidered articles; rather add it during the final rinse.
  • Though it is safe to dry clean most embroidered articles, caution should be exercised when handling darker shades.
  • Do not use pre-spotting agents when dry cleaning.
  • It is best to iron embroidery on the lowest settings, or cover it with a towel and iron it from the back.
  • Do not use the steam settings or wet the embroidery when ironing.
  • Most digitizing embroidery service providers recommend the use of polyester threads for designs that will be subjected to industrial laundering.
Following the above simple cautionary steps will go a long way in helping your preserve your digitising embroidery solutions and make those logos and customized designs last longer and better.

Friday 21 June 2013

Digitizing Embroidery for Your Club

Being part of a club is one of the best ways to get in touch with people who share your interests. Whether you are part of a book club, science club, comic book club, sports club, biker’s club, cooking club, or any other hobby club, spending time with fellow members is something that makes the highlight of the day for most people. If you truly wish to string together your club members and give them a sense of belonging, then one of the best ways to go about it would be to have t-shirts or caps adorned with your club’s logo/motto as part of your club uniform. And, one of the easiest ways to get your logos onto the item of clothing of your choice is to get in touch with a Digitizing Embroidery expert.


A digitizing embroidery expert will help you convert your artwork/logo/motto into a file that instructs embroidery machines to recreate the pattern to the tee onto your chosen fabric. In this way, digitizing embroidery gives you a great sense of liberty, as a biker club can choose to have their club emblem and motto embroidered onto their jackets, a fishing club can have their insignia embroidered across their caps, a comic book club can wear their favorite superheroes on their jumpers and a cooking club can even have their logo sewn onto their mittens.

Whether it is text or artwork that your particular club relates to as a whole, Express Digitizing is a fantastic way to flaunt your passion. One of the more compelling reasons to choose digitizing embroidery over commercial printing is that embroidery lasts longer in the face of regular washing and ironing activities. Your club members will thank you for not giving them the tedious job of dodging the printed logos, as you can easily iron over most types of embroidery. And, with embroidery requiring only as much care as the fabric itself, your members will be able to wear their favorite motto day in, day out for longer.

Friday 7 June 2013

Embroidery Digitizing: Wear Your Attitude!

T-shirts have long been a way to express what’s on your mind. But, what if there was a way to customize caps, tote bags, jackets and more items of clothing to say what’s on your mind? With embroidery digitizing you have the liberty to put your own twist on a whole variety of fabric, and guys can easily make use of it too. By opting to go for embroidery digitizing services, you can customize any kind of artwork or slogan and get it embroidered onto the fabric of your choice.


One of the main reasons why embroidery digitizing is appealing for both, men and women is that it always outlasts printed material. All you have to do is give your digitizer the particular artwork and within a few hours you will have a custom file that helps get the artwork into embroidery form by instructing a machine. Another brilliant aspect about getting your designs embroidered is that regular ironing and washing has little or no effect on the design, which is especially appealing for men, as it takes away all the fuss related with ironing and trying to dodge the design area.

Whether you are a biker who loves to flaunt his favorite company, a geek in love with comic book heroes, a golfer who loves to have unique quotes on his tees or a regular Joe with a funny streak, Digitizing Embroidery is for everyone. You could use quirky quotes off the internet, like “The trouble with real life is that there is no danger music”, “Never trust a skinny chef”, “If you can't take the heat, don't tickle the dragon”, or simply get creative, either way you can be sure of wearing your attitude with pride. Also, with 3D embroidery being all the rage in the world of embroidery digitizing, you can experiment and get life-like designs in no time.

Friday 24 May 2013

Tab Front Shirts

Embroidery digitizing extends to many different project ideas. If you have a couple of knit scraps lying around and are keen to perfect your skill, you could pull them out and cut out some tab front shirts to practice on.

Working with larger shirts to begin with is a lot easier. Do keep in mind that if you choose a multi-colored striped shirt to work with that you need to be careful with matching the stripes on the facing.

A common mistake when working with tab front shirts is to sew to the point of slit, tapering it at the end and then turning at the point and tapering back out. The end result though is puckered. Don’t try to snip on the tapers to see if you can get less puckering and don’t try to use a hot iron. Rather, keep practicing until you perfect the technique and style!

You should be careful to cut the facing so that stripes match the shirt and sew very carefully. Taper as the pattern suggests,trying to avoid puckering. Once you are happy with your end results you can consider what type of embroidery digitizing you would like to use on the shirts.

If you are embroidering for a client you may well be requested to place a logo or slogan on the shirts. If you are designing them for a child, for example, you could consider embroidering their favorite cartoon character.




If it’s logos you find yourself embroidering, there are a few things to consider:

Color Blending

Many of the professionally designed logos tend to have blended colors or will transition from one color to another. This can be difficult to master in a small left chest, for example. It is difficult to embroider a blended color really well. So try to avoid using blended colors at all if you can help it.

Logo Size

If you will be embroidering on the left chest of the shirt, we recommend working with logos that are 3 to 3.75 inches wide. 

Materials for Embroidery Digitizing

Keep in mind when embroidering t-shirts that designs should have fewer stitches as the fabric isn’t as heavy as, say, denim or fleece.

Logo Colours

Always consider the colors of your logo in relation to the colors of the items you will be embroidering. For example, a predominantly royal blue logo will look great on a white t-shirt but won’t show up too well on a blue t-shirt. Also take pantone colors into account. There just aren’t enough threads to match Pantone shades.

Thursday 18 April 2013

Embroidery Digitizing - Lettering

Let’s talk about embroidery digitizing and lettering. All embroidery software, from the most basic home program to the most costly commercial software, has some type of lettering function. The user friendliness of the software means that quality has improved greatly over time and it has become difficult to differentiate between low and high cost digitizing embroidery software.

If you are planning on embroidering logos, offering a custom embroidery digitizing service, done by hand, will produce a better result than keyboard lettering. Keyboard fonts simply cannot adjust for every single design or fabric situation and individual letters need to be edited for pull compensation and fabric.


If you’re not too familiar with an embroidery digitizer yet you might find you tend to crutch on the font lettering. Try to avoid doing this as much as possible. Take a look at designs with lettering that sews really well and notice how the letters join and corner. This will help you to gain a better understanding of how lettering should really look and will apply to hand digitizing.

If you do wish to use keyboard lettering, make sure to familiarize yourself with the lettering and what it can do as well as the recommended sizes for each font. Keep in mind that certain lettering styles will work better at smaller sizes. If you wish to edit the keyboard fonts extensively, rather digitize the letters by hand. Some fonts will be okay at smaller sizes (such as block type fonts) but fabric really needs to be considered as to whether the fonts will sew cleanly or not.

Unfortunately there is no way to assure that the design will work 100% perfectly since customers will sew onto multiple fabrics. However, ¼ ‘’ standard font size for basic lettering tends to work well with embroidery digitizing. You will need a different version for fabrics like terry and fleece to account for materials that incorporate more density.

There are same designs and fabrics that will allow for block lettering as small as .16’’ such as twill and nylons. But fabrics like knits are somewhat unforgiving and will tend to sawtooth easier. The rule of thumb with fabrics and lettering is that it should be dense enough for coverage and smooth edges but not so dense that is causes knots, bunching and crowded spacing.

If you want to branch out from using keyboard fonts, you will need to understand the dynamics of embroidery digitizing lettering as well as densities, column widths, underlays and pull compensation too.

Friday 15 March 2013

Digitizing Embroidery – Shrinking Designs

There will be times when someone requests, for example, a left chest size variation of the jacket back that you have just digitized and it will be up to you to explain that the entire digitizing embroidery process will have to be redone.

If you find yourself having to enlarge a design from a 4” chest size to a 12” jacket size, for example, you will need to have some or all of the design repunched or have satin stitched converted to fills. When it comes to satin and column stitches, if they get above a certain width you will need to use a fill stitch so that the machine is not making massive movements and the stitches aren’t too wide. If the stitch is too wide (for example a pencil is able to be inserted into the open end of the column) chances are far more likely that the stitching will snag and the embroidery will be ruined.

Detail should also be considered carefully. What may seem incredibly detailed at 4” wide looks fairly straightforward when enlarged to around 10” and gaps will appear between joints along with other elements that didn’t really present an issue in the smaller variation of the design. Keep in mind that when you enlarge the design by 200% you are also enlarging the gaps and spaces by 200%.

In comparison, if you want to shrink a design from jacket size the opposite is going to happen. Fill areas become smaller or narrower to use fill stitches properly and you will have to convert to satin stitched. Just like outlines, satin stitched that are reduced further need to be repunched with running stitches once they get below approximately 1.5mm wide.  You will probably notice that some of the design details even get too small to include in the final design and you will have to eliminate those.

It is important that you discuss these elements with your customer, particularly if they want to order both jacket and chest sized versions of the design. Sometimes if there is an element that will end up being too small for chest applications to be included the customer will choose to leave it off the larger version so that the two designs correspond.

Be sure to give your customer all the information they require to make an informed decision when ordering their Embroidery Digitising.

Saturday 23 February 2013

An Insight into the Exciting World of 3D Embroidery Digitising

As with every other industry, evolving with the ever-growing demands of consumers almost always leads to innovations that create a sense of excitement in the market. The embroidery digitising industry is no stranger to this effect, since it is also an evolution of the more traditional manual embroidery trade. Accordingly, a more recent development in the embroidery digitising industry is the addition of 3D designs. These 3D designs are generally used to enhance numbers, alphabets, flowers, animals and even cartoon characters for a more realistic touch.


3D designs can be easily and skillfully added to fabrics with the help of two techniques. The first is the use of layered embroidery. Layered 3D embroidery works best in case of thinner materials such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, polos, etc. that are also meant to go through regular washing and ironing. The 3D embroidery digitising technique makes use of a higher density of stitches as well as adding consecutive layers to specific areas of the design to achieve the raised effect. This technique is highly recommended for when more details need to be captured in the embroidered design.

The second, more popular technique used in 3D embroidery digitising is creating a puff using specialized foam. Puff embroidery is widely used to achieve the 3D effect in tougher materials only washed periodically such as caps and hats. Ranging between 3 and 6 mm in density, foam matching the color of the thread used to embroider is placed on top of the fabric to create a 3D effect. This foam sheet needs to be first kept in place, before the machine goes ahead with the rest of the embroidery, for which an outline is first created following which an appropriate “stop” is placed in the program. Once placed, the Digitizing Embroidery program is then resumed to complete the piece. Finishing touches are then added by removing the residual shreds of the foam with a heat gun.

Monday 21 January 2013

Propping Your Label on the Road to Success with a Reliable Embroidery Digitizer

Whether you are a local boutique or a full-scale design house trying to grab the attention of the mall shopper, keeping a reliable embroidery digitizer in tow can benefit you on various levels. The world of fashion has often been compared to the weather as far as its unpredictability is concerned. What is quite ‘in’ this season can become the faux pas of the next. So, in order for you to create a niche for yourself in the demographic of your choice, you need to keep coming up with new designs each season. However, the key to success essentially lies in getting your latest collections into the store on time, each time.

For those whose collections rely heavily on embroidered pieces, the benefits of having a trusted embroidery digitizer on board are incomparable. Your go-to embroidery digitizer will not only make sure to offer you the best possible rates in the market, but also make sure the order is ready on time, every time, while ensuring excellent quality.

One of the more significant, but less mentioned advantages of having a trusted embroidery digitizer is the confidentiality of your designs. When you choose to change digitizers on a regular basis, you also put the confidentiality of your designs in grave danger, by making them more vulnerable to exposure before they hit the counters. However, when you have selected and rely upon a single embroidery digitizer for all your requirements, he/she automatically assumes the responsibility of keeping your patterns safe and secure.

Another major advantage of hiring the same embroidery digitiser time and again is that over a period of time they begin to recognize your order pattern and preferences. They come to understand your needs instinctively and help you save precious time on having to explain every minute detail. With this kind of a collaborative partnership, you are not only able to get your designs to the shelves in time each season, but also know that their quality and integrity are well taken care of.

Monday 7 January 2013

Tie Together That Sorority Using an Embroidery Digitizing Service

There’s nothing that gives an eager freshman the sense of belonging like being part of a sorority. Most freshmen not only have their college decided in advance, but also know which sorority they’d like to be part of once they’re at the campus. Wearing a jersey with the name of their sorority plastered up front is a matter of pride for all. However, with college life being so exciting and chaotic, there’s no time for most to care for printed jerseys, with regular washing and ironing wearing out your sorority’s logo before the semester ends. This is where the services of an experienced embroidery digitizing firm can come in handy.


Embroidery digitizing is a process in which any kind of artwork is recreated into a digitized file, so that it can be read and executed by an embroidery machine to be sewed onto fabric. By choosing to digitize the logo of your sorority and getting it embroidered onto the jerseys or t-shirts handed out to freshmen and other members, you can not only save on a great deal of hassle, but also a great deal of money. With an expert embroidery digitizing firm in tow, you can have the logo of your sorority replicated to the tee on fabric. We, at Express Digitising understand how every element of a sorority’s logo is important, which is why we take extra care to replicate every color and angle to peerfection during the embroidery digitizing process. We also offer to create full back and left chest designs at flat rates, making it extremely affordable for students to wear their logos with pride.

By choosing to opt for Digitizing Embroidery, you gift your sorority’s logo a new lease of life. Since embroidery sews on the pattern of your logo onto the fabric, it tends to stay on for years at end. Unless tampered with intentionally, embroidery outlasts printed materials, since regular washing, ironing and minor tugging and pulling has little to no effect on its colors or shape. Thus, by choosing to go for embroidery digitizing for your sorority’s logo, you can make sure that your members get to wear their favorite jerseys to alumni meets years later as well.