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.