In this section we will illustrate what should you expect when inquiring about embroidery job - what are the steps, and what factors will determine the price of your order.

Artwork Preparation

The end result of this stage is to have a good quality pixel image file (most often JPEG file), ready to be digitized. This step is required if customer brings us a business card and wants to reproduce the logo on the shirt. Basically, any form of "art-on-paper" that involves scanning and retouching the image in Photoshop® or a poorly scanned (or too small) image that requires enlargement or again, retouching - all this will end up with artwork preparation stage and applicable charges in place. We charge $45 per hour with a minimum of 1 hour for artwork preparation. You can avoid these charges by preparing your logo to be:

• A pixel image (JPEG, TIFF, GIF, or BMP file) with clear colors and outlines, if any;
• The size of the image should be as close to what you think your embroidery design will be. Use 72dpi resolution.

Digitizing

Digitizing stage is almost always neccessary. Exceptions are previously digitized logos or artwork with no alterations - 5% scaling either way or removal (only) of some isolated text are OK. Read more about digitizing in our "Digitizing - what is it?" section.

When quoting digitizing charges, we need to determine how many stitches it will take to embroider your image. The complexity of the design from the digitizing point of view is measured in 1,000 stiches intervals. Average logos - about business card-size (2"x3.5") can be anywhere from 3,000 to 12,000 stitches. Large designs, especially ones that are put on jackets' backs can reach 70,000-100,000 stitches.

Since we cannot know for sure how many stitches the design is going to be before we actually digitize it, we usually give a flat rate for image digitizing: $15-$20 for simple lettering (a large variery of fonts are available), $50-$80 for standard logos up to 15,000 stitches, and about $5 per 1,000 after that. Stock designs from our embroidery library are always free.

Actual Embroidery

Our facility has 2 brand new embroidery machines - a 4-head production machine and a single-head small runs and personalization machine. This is why we welcome any embroidery order - even for a single item.

 

Of course, the price of embroidery depends on the quantity of the order. The more items in the order - the less is the price per item. Also, number of stitches pay a significant role in the price - the higher the stitch count, the higher the price per item. Reason - more thread and bobin needed, plus more embroidery time for the machine. Both 4-head and 1-head machines are capable of operating at 1,000 stitches per minute speed, but our numerous testing and actual orders proved time and again that the optimal speed, at which we achieve the best quality of the embroidery is 750-850 stitches per minute. Therefore, your average 8,000 stitches design will be embroidered in about 10 minutes + hooping and cleaning time.

Before the machine can start embroidering the design, it needs to be hooped. Hoop is a device that stretches the fabric and holds it in place alongside with the backing material (if neccessary) so it won't shift during the embroidery cycle. We use 4 hoop sizes for the 4-head machine, and 5 hoop sizes for the 1-head machine. The maximum design area for 4-head machine is 11"x11". And the maximum design area for the single-head machine is 15"x15".

Also, about 95% of the finished embroidery designs need to be cleaned up after the embroidery is finished. The clean up is not much - a few threads that stick out - but each item has to be carefuly inspected. Cleaning up does not affect design's integrity.

Trimming

This step of the order is optional. Trimming is different from post-embroidery clean-up and is pretty much limited for embroidering of dye-cut patches. Patches are trimmed with scissors and are quoted at $0.25/ea for simple shapes (squares, circles, etc) and $0.50/ea for more comples shapes (like shields with ribbons, etc.)