How Does Fabric Selection Affect the Look of Your Embroidered Design?
EMBROIDERY DIGITIZING / MARCH 27, 2019
Are you thinking of getting your logo or team emblem embroidered on a T-shirt? If yes, it is very important that you choose the best possible fabric to stitch your logo on. To start with, the same embroidered logo can look different when sewn on different fabrics.
When it comes to the “best” and “worst” fabrics for embroidery, it comes down to the level of difficulty to create an attractive, clean edge embroidery with the least amount of deformation of the material to be embroidered. Factors such as the fabric’s weight, thickness, weave, and content all affect how the stitches will hold up close to each other.
The following three qualities of any given fabric can affect embroidery:
Texture
The surface texture and the general coarseness of material differ from fabric to fabric. With a material with excessive texture, such as ribbed knits, small stitches and/or unsupported stitches tend to “fall in” to the texture’s low points, damaging coverage, and making the embroidery look rough. Materials that are overly coarse and dense with low thread count such as some tote bags, could cause poor edge quality. Material like faux fur and terry cloth can also cause issues as the loops/fibers stick through embroidery or over-shadow a design’s edges. It is easiest to work with materials that are smooth to achieve fine detailed embroidery work.
Material Stability
Unstable materials such as a stretch fabric, tend to shift in the hoop with the tension of the stitches, causing puckering. With stretch fabrics, the chances of shifting and deformation during stitching, go up. Materials with stretch resistance ensure a cleaner embroidery finish.
Durability
Materials like tissue, burnouts, light handkerchiefs, and some performance materials are thin and fray. Delicate material such as these doesn’t hold up well to being repeatedly pierced by a needle. They are more prone to getting damaged due to the tension under which they are placed, by the embroidery.
When it comes to embroidery, it naturally stands out better on stronger fabrics. Fabrics such as caps, twill, poly denier nylon (bags and duffels), etc. are examples of this. The stitched logos on such fabrics don’t require as many underlay fill stitches to maintain the integrity of the design therefore, lowering your stitch count. As a part of our embroidery digitizing service, we help you choose a fabric that promises a clean cut embroidery finish.
Embroidery is less of a printing technique and more of an embellishment, which is why it has different requirements. Here, more than absorption material, the sturdiness matters. The stronger and tighter the weave of the fabric is, then the better it will work. The sturdier the fabric, the better chances it has of surviving the process. Not every material has the capacity to resist the simultaneous drilling of several needles. This is why it is important for you to inform your promotional products supplier about the material to be sewn on while requesting an embroidery quote or placing an order. We, at Art logo provide embroidery digitizing services for the best end-finished -product.