Embroidered baseball caps

By Anonymous (not verified) on Jan 29, 2006

Hey everyone. Hopefully someone with more experience can give me a tip or two. Just so you know that i consider myself a newbie when it comes to embroidery so if you think I should already know something however basic it is, i probably don't. Any tips would be great!

Okay here is my situation. I'm supposed to do 40 tshirts and 40 accompanying baseball caps. The design is a team mascot that is 9,000 stitches and has 7 colors.

The tshirts all look fine but with 3 of the hats I embroidered after the tshirts, the embroidered design looks horribly "rougher" on the baseball caps compared to the ones on the tshirts. The small fonts on bottom can't even be read!

The puzzling thing is after I embroidered the first cap I stopped to try to figure what went wrong because the design didn't look good. So I did a test run on a piece of backing and that turned out really well (like the shirts). So I load the second cap and again it turned out horrible. So I continue to figure out what happened. This time I cleaned up the bobbin area, checked the thread tensions, etc. I then did another test run on a backing and the embroidered design looked great again. So I load the third cap, once again it turned ugly.

Right now Im just puzzled! Help!! :confused:

By Marc on Jan 30, 2006 - 8:14 AM EST

Welcome to the forums, reggie.

It looks like you're using the same embroidery file for both the t-shirts and baseball caps. Since you're new to embroidery, I'm assuming you didn't digitize the design and you probably did not mention to your digitizer that the design will also be embroidered on baseball caps.

Basically, you should have a separate file for the caps. All you have to do is tell your digitizer that you need the design edited for caps and be sure to say what kind of caps it will be embroidered on (e.g. 5 or 6-panel, unstructured or structured, low-profile or high-profile).

Editing a design for caps involves rearranging the sequence in which design elements are embroidered. The rule of thumb is "bottom-up" and "center-out." If you have 6-panel baseball caps, the center seam is also taken into consideration and solved with generous underlay in that region.

Hooping or framing caps properly makes a huge difference on how the embroidered design will turnout. Make sure you frame caps tightly.

If you're embroidering unstructured caps, there is specialty backing you should consider called "cap backing." Cap backing is much thicker and stiffer than your everyday backing. These properties preserve the cap's shape while providing stability in the stitching process. Be sure to cut it long enough so that it is included when you clip the cap. Cap backing is also a tearway, an added bonus.

Hope that helps. Let us know how things turn out :)

By Anonymous (not verified) on Jan 30, 2006 - 9:07 AM EST

Thank you!!! I'll contact my digitizer asap and I'll update you on what happens.

By Anonymous (not verified) on Feb 2, 2006 - 12:58 PM EST

Hi Marc. You were right! Just letting ya know that everything is all good now :) Thanx a bunch.

By Sue on May 16, 2006 - 10:46 AM EDT

Marc wrote:

Hooping or framing caps properly makes a huge difference on how the embroidered design will turnout. Make sure you frame caps tightly.

Hi Marc,
I realize this is an older post, but found it interesting. I am new in the Embroidery business, but after spending many years running a screenprinting business, I know that I will have plenty of opportunities to embroider on baseball caps and other hats. I own (3) Home embroidery machines, but will soon be purchasing a Commercial Embroidery machine for my growing Embroidery business. I was wondering if you could advise me on which Brands of Commercial Embroidery machines have the best cap frame and driver and produce the best results. There is a SWF Dealer in my area and also a Happy Dealer and I am considering both of those machines. I may even purchase a used machine. Tajima seems very good, but not sure yet if any Tajima Dealers in my area. I am in Washington State, Snohomish County. If I purchase a used machine, I'd prefer some type of Warranty at least during the first year that I own a Commercial machine. Can't afford any down time if anything goes wrong.
Thanks for any advice you can give!
Sue

By Marc on May 18, 2006 - 7:59 PM EDT

Welcome to the forums Sue :)

Quote:
...Brands of Commercial Embroidery machines have the best cap frame and driver and produce the best results.

Believe it or not, best results are not achieved by simply having a popular machine alone (Tajima, Barudan, ZSK, Melco, SWF, etc.). Best results are achieved by having a design professionally digitized specifically for caps/hats and having knowledgeable embroidery operator with a machine in good working order. Which machine has "the best cap frame and driver" really depends on the person hooping so it's debatable. What's best for one person might not be to another. SWF has a "Quick Change Cap System" that you might want to check out.

The only advice I can give is to demo all the machines in your price range around your area. See which company will provide the best support and fair price. Don't be taken by sales people who will claim that their machines are the fastest. In reality, you will not be embroidering at maximum speed--especially for caps.

Here are some other threads/posts that you may find useful: