Downloading Free Embroidery Designs

If you really want to get something embroidered, but you don’t have the time to create your own designs, you can find embroidery designs on the Web that you can download for free. Whether you’re looking for cute and cuddly designs, sports imagery or anything in between, downloading free embroidery designs is a simple way to get you the images you need to make personalized apparel. Here are some good resources.

Embroidery Resource.com – The Embroidery Resource Web site has a free decorative design you can download directly to your computer in a zipped file. This do-it-yourself design is available in a number of formats to match your embroidery machine.

EmbroideryDesigns.com – This Web site lets you download three free embroidery designs in a month or charges a fee for downloading six or more a month. They have a wide selection of images from holiday images to floral designs.

AnnTheGran.com – AnnTheGran’s Website covers a range of embroidery topics, including free designs as well as designs for purchase, embroidery projects and links to products related to embroidery. Their free embroidery designs include a large library of everything from the alphabet to weddings.

Guidelines For Embroidering Custom Clothing

Embroidering is a straightforward process if you know the basic rules. If you’re thinking about embroidering custom clothing, here are a few guidelines to keep the process simple for you.

• Size matters. Whether you’re putting your design on custom clothing like a fleece jacket or cotton tee, check the guidelines of the embroiderer for maximum dimensions. For custom clothing, a 3.5” wide x 4” high graphic is typically the maximum recommended size.
• Check text dimension requirements. Some embroiderers cannot handle text smaller than a quarter of an inch in height.
• Find out if there is a maximum thread count. Some embroiderers will charge more if you exceed a certain stitch count.
• See if there is a set-up fee. Some embroiderers charge a set-up fee and some don’t. Find out what you’re being charged for in your quote and what your final cost will be.

Sizing The Image For An Embroidered Cap

When it comes to personalized gear, an embroidered cap is the ideal all-purpose custom product. Use an embroidered cap to personalize a birthday gift for your buddy’s birthday. Get multiple embroidered caps for everyone at the family reunion. Or use the embroidered cap to show off your company logo and give away at a corporate event.

There are a few restrictions to keep in mind when coming up with your design. Remember that the graphic size you might use for a custom embroidered tee might not work for an embroidered cap. Depending on the product and company you choose for your embroidered cap, you’ll have certain restrictions. For most baseball caps, your image should be no bigger than 2.5” high and 4” wide. Visors will typically need to have a smaller height dimension than baseball caps.

The Step-By-Step Process Of Creating Embroidered Clothing

Getting embroidered clothing is a snap if you understand the basics. To make the process easier for you, here is a step-by-step process for creating embroidered clothing.

1. If you don’t already have a logo, graphic or artwork, create it in a software program like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.
2. Determine what products you’ll be ordering and whether you’ll be getting them from an independent source or directly from an embroidery shop.
3. Check with more than one embroidery shop and get quotes for your order.
4. Submit a file as required by the embroidery shop. Typical acceptable files include JPG files, GIF files and TIF files.
5. The embroidery shop will digitize your image in order to prepare it for an embroidered clothing item.
6. View a digital sample of your final product or better yet, a physical one for proofing.
7. Receive your order in the agreed turn-around time, which may be about two weeks from the time of your order, depending on the embroiderer.

Embroidered Clothing Beyond Hats and Tees

We’ve all seen embroidered hats, embroidered tees and embroidered jackets. However, a London-based company has taken embroidered clothing to the next level by offering some cheeky, if not shocking embroidered business apparel. Aptly named, Social Suicide embroiders everything from jackets to shirts. Some of their more light-hearted apparel includes a men’s business jacket with a handbag embroidered on the right hand shoulder. It’s placed just so that the embroidered handbag appears to be hanging from the shoulder down to the hip. One men’s business jacket has a gun embroidered just beneath one pocket, while the back of the jacket says “Armed” in embroidery. There is another piece of embroidered clothing that features a single pink rose on the lapel of a flannel jacket and a full bouquet embroidered on the inside lining.

Helpful Hints For Do-It-Yourself Embroidered Clothing

For those of you who prefer to create do-it-yourself embroidered clothing with an embroidery machine, there are a few helpful hints that’ll make your creative endeavors a little bit easier. Want to find out what they are? Read on!

• Do a test stitch for every embroidered clothing project that you do. It takes more time, but you’ll find out things like whether the tread type, thread weight and hoop size and method are appropriate.
• Think about whether or not your design is appropriate for a certain fabric. For instance, a large, densely packed design will work much better on a denim jacket than a cotton t-shirt. A sparse embroidery design won’t show well on a fleece jacket, but would be appropriate for a button-down cotton shirt.
• Launder all cotton clothing before you have it embroidered. If you happen to embroider something like a 100 percent cotton tee and then wash it afterwards, you could end up with a very warped embroidery pattern. Save yourself the trouble by washing the article of clothing before you embroider it.
• Avoid puckering the fabric by getting the hoop in the embroidery machine right. This means using the smallest hoop for the size of your design. Using a hoop that’s too big could leave you with distorted fabric.

Enter An Embroidery Competition

If you’re a fashion student, textile student or embroidery student, and you want to show off your embroidery skills, enter an embroidery competition with entrants competing from around the globe. The Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery celebrates the use of hand embroidery in garments and other finished items. For the 2007 year, winners of the embroidery competition include first, second and third prizes. All prize packages include tickets to Sydney, Australia to receive the award and accommodations, a subscription to Embroidery magazine, mentoring and an embroidery course. The first place winner receives $10,000 dollars in U.S. currency.

Getting Custom Embroidered Clothing

If you’re thinking about customizing clothing or other items, embroidery is a great way to personalize. Custom embroidered clothing works well for logos, text, graphics or a combination of those. Typically, a computer-controlled sewing machine uses a needle and thread to embroider an image onto a piece of fabric. Thousands of stitches and more than one color of thread creates the final look. It’s important that the pattern be well designed in order to have a quality, finished product. There are many options for getting custom embroidered clothing. You can embroider denim shirts, t-shirts, cotton polo shirts, nylon jackets and fleece jackets. Other items you can embroider besides clothing include baseball hats, embroidered hats, fleece blankets, bags and terry towels.