Dress Shirt Embroidery

DRESS SHIRT TIPS Successful digitizing and embroidery

WHEN TO CHOOSE EMBROIDERY

The ?business casual? environment that led to relaxed dress codes for the workplace starting in the 90?s has changed the way America shows up for work. Jeans and sweatshirts are not unusual. However, the pendulum appears to be swinging back toward a more polished, upscale appearance in business apparel, especially since confidence in corporations has slipped recently with the trade scandals and folding dot-coms. With this change, the dress shirt, a traditional ?dress for success? item in a man?s closet, is enjoying a resurgence of popularity. It tops the charts when a professional image is important. The addition of an embroidered logo provides upscale corporate identity and with a little forethought can add style and interest as well.

The classic dress shirt is a long-sleeved, front-button shirt with tails. It is available in some luxurious fabrics and fun colors today. However, it is best to think ?conservative? when a shirt is to include an embroidered logo or design. Collar styles include: Straight, Spread or British Spread, Button-down, Curved, Tab and Banded. Your choice of style may depend on your customer?s preferences, but the best bet is to stick with a straight collar (the standard for business today) and a solid, basic color. Long sleeves with button cuffs complete the look and provide more creative opportunities for embroidery. For hotel uniforms or other functional work wear that will be worn in hot, humid climates, short sleeves, of course, are the logical choice.

LOCATION

Left and Right Chest - A company logo is normally embroidered on the left chest pocket of a dress shirt. Personalization, such as an employee name, is embroidered on the right. Keep designs small enough to fit comfortably in the space provided. Smaller is better, especially on a shirt pocket. (Be aware that as the logo or design is reduced in size, text size will be reduced and may become too small to digitize properly. Re-designing the logo may be necessary to keep text no less than 3/16? or ?? in height.)

Collar ? The left front of the collar presents a stylish opportunity to add a unique design or message on a dress shirt. It is being used by private schools today to embellish children?s uniforms when sweaters and vests can potentially conceal a left chest application.

Back ? Beneath the collar (in the yoke area) can add variety to design placement. One consideration for this area is to avoid designs that could be irritating for the wearer due to backing included on the inside of the garment. Certain designs that require heavy backing may not be advisable.

Cuff ? A tone-on-tone logo or stylized initials on a shirt cuff can provide another subtle, classy form of corporate identity.

FABRIC

When we think of a dress shirt fabric, we generally think of woven cotton (such as that found in an oxford shirt) or a cotton polyester blend. However, dress shirts also come in blends of polyester and cotton twill (common for industrial and commercial work wear), silk, the newer micro fiber fabrics and a polyester/rayon that looks and drapes like silk (this fabric was introduced in women?s shirts and has recently been incorporated into men?s shirts). Some dress shirts worn by industrial and commercial work staff are being produced in wickable fabrics with a high synthetic fabric content. Wickable fabrics originated in clothing designed for extreme sporting events like mountain climbing and has moved into the shirts designed for work wear. The fabric transfers moisture from the skin to the outside of the cloth where it can evaporate. This feature helps the wearer to maintain a more even body temperature, thus reducing discomfort and improving performance. The key here is to select fabric that will support the function and image your customer is looking for. Thinner fabrics may cost less, but they don?t maintain their fit and shape as well as higher quality fabrics You will pay a bit more for a quality fabric, but it will also last longer and provide a polished, professional appearance that keeps your customers coming back for more.

THREAD

With its vibrant colors and high sheen, the preferred choice of thread for dress shirts that will make their appearance in the boardroom or sales office is rayon. Keep in mind that a cooler temperature with color-safe bleach will be needed to safeguard its color and sheen.

When shirts will be washed frequently in hot water or with large amounts of chlorine bleach (as for staff at a restaurant or hotel), the best choice, with its strength and resistance to fading, is polyester.

DESIGN ELEMENTS

For industrial or commercial uniforms, the trend is moving away from the use of name tags and patches toward embroidering direct on the fabric. The result is a less clinical, more personalized, professional image. One thing to keep in mind, however, is when shirts are acquired offshore, they may have pocket placements angled incorrectly or offset to left or right. Lining up a logo is difficult in such a case. We suggest ordering a shirt sample from an offshore vendor prior to placing your order. Hold off showing a catalog image of the shirt to your customer, if at all possible, until you receive an actual sample. If you find yourself in a situation where shirts have been delivered with pockets misaligned or offset, find an embroiderer who will work with you to compensate for the misalignment by modifying the angle or placement of the embroidery.

Letter size is always an important consideration when creating a design for the embroidery process. Script or serif fonts are not advisable for small text. For best results, use capitalized letters in a sans serif font such as Arial. The minimum letter heights listed below are for sans serif, block letters, sewn in a satin stitch.

Suggested minimum Letter Height by Fabric:

Pique, Terry cloth, Fleece .?. 1/ 4?

Twill, Most other fabrics ?? 3/16?

MARKETING IDEAS

When the protocol for business attire relaxed, the door opened for new and creative ways to embellish promotional business apparel. Take advantage of that opportunity by thinking outside the box with creative solutions to a company?s identification challenges. In cooler temperatures where sweaters and vests are a mainstay during the winter months, you could suggest a coordinating shirt and sweater or vest combination. A stylish version of the company logo can be added to the left front collar of a dress shirt and a standard left chest version embroidered on the sweater or vest. This ensures a visual display of the corporate logo with or without the sweater or vest.

Another idea is to add a vendor logo to a secondary location, such as beneath the back collar, on the cuff or upper sleeve (on a short-sleeved shirt). A company may be able to attain coop dollars to help fund the cost of a company shirt with this arrangement. A shirt retailer, for example, could have the logo of a primary shirt provider embroidered on their staff?s sleeve or cuff and their own logo embroidered on the left chest pocket.

Fast Embroidery Tapes http://www.fastembroiderytapes.com

Machine Embroidery Designs

General information

Machine embroidery is a special type of embroidery, performed by special automatic machines, functioning according to the man's adjusted program.

This man is designer, constructor. He creates the embroidery program (design) - the machine operation algorithm, which can be in consequence repeated unlimited number of times. The machine following the given program, automatically executes the embroidery on material. In this way, the main features of machine embroidery are the absence of manual labor at the stage of outright embroidery, and the possibility of embroidery samples duplication.

The machine embroidery is a recent kind of activity, in contrast to manual embroidery, existing for thousands of years. The machine embroidery began its existence nearly 50 years ago and in 1980-ies the demand of the profession of machine embroidery designer began to grow. Nowadays the demand is actually as well. During the period of machine embroidery existence, its creation technology has changed beyond recognition.

The machines that once used as source of information the punched card, limited in speed and quality of embroidery, were replaced by microprocessor-based, highly productive, multihead machines with advanced technology equipment, optimizing the embroidery process.

The process of machine embroidery technologically consists of two closely associated stages:

The embroidery designing stage, or the construction stage of machine embroidery-represents the process of creation of embroidery machine program. At this stage are developed the construction components of machine embroidery.
The technical stage represents the direct embroidery manufacture by means of machine. At this stage are developed the technical components of machine embroidery.

Both this stages are at the same time quite independent from the point of view of manufacture, which helps to differentiate them and to mark out two different basic types of industrial activity accordingly. It is a question of enterprises that are specialized directly in program creation, or in materially embroidery creation. Each of these manufacture branches develops round itself a branching infrastructure system.

For example, nowadays there are a great number of producers of special program maintenance for machine embroidery, of embroidery machines and special concomitant equipment producers, of outlay materials producers, used for embroidery manufacture. Many companies, in accordance with machine embroidery branch needs are adjusting the directions of its activity. For example, the producers of textile dye stuff make special adjustments of qualities and spectrum, the clothing producers change the construction, adjusting it to the technology of machine embroidery manufacture.

Field of machine embroidery use

Historically the embroidery had, first of all, a decorative character. Nowadays this essential property favorable affected its use in advertising branch. We frequently see the embroidery bearing advertising-informational character, on clothing objects and other ready-made garments.

Machine embroidery as advertising; informational bearer

Embroidery can be an effective advertising-informational means, at the same time without loosing its artistic expressiveness. It is frequently used at trade marks plotting on the cloth, leather, felt, as well as on complete products, clothes etc. At embroidery it is possible the reproduction of trade mark of all color combination. The trade mark, plotted on by this method, frequently turns into fashionable attribute of article and becomes an organic element of its composition. It is possible to embroider on different types of clothes, including uniform, working clothes. The embroidery as characteristic index to any current of activity is widely used in many countries. Very often the firm workers bear the differential sign of their company. It can be a logotype on the head gear, on the front side of the sweater or on the back side of the jacket.

The cloth embroidery, on many indexes passes ahead of its ?rivals?, like serigraphy or decal decoration (transfer seal). The embroidery is more lasting, the steadiness of threads color is higher, the volumetric texture of embroidery confers more expensive and spectacular shape to the logotype. That is why most of the firms, dealing with advertising campaigns development, recommend to their clients the very embroidery. The embroidery can be performed on different parts of clothes and on different articles. On head gears (caps, knitted caps), sport shirts, shirts, tolstovkas, even on footwear.

Technical constituent of machine embroidery

During the cycle of machine embroidery manufacturing is applied different means and tools. However, starting from the availability of two basic stages of manufacture, it can be market two fundamental corresponding tools of machine embroidery.

They are:

The computer with appropriate program maintenance and peripherals on the construction stage of manufacture. Automatic embroidery machine with concomitant supplementary equipment on the technological stage of manufacture.

Let us list the fundamental information of industrial automatic embroidery machines and some supplementary special concomitant equipment. Industrial automatic embroidery machines according to fulfilled activity and principle of operation can be divided in two groups:

Universal automatic embroidery machines.
Special automatic embroidery machines.

To special automatic embroidery machines can be attributed the machines using not quite standard embroidery methods, machines that are able to perform embroidery on out-of-the-way places of complete products and on materials that are difficult for embroidery. To one of the most commonly used type of special automatic embroidery machines can be attributed the so called Schiffli, machines that allow making embroidery with the utilization of decorative cord, to cut through material and at the same time to process the cut by embroidery. These machines are mostly used for finishing of light and thin, translucent, fashioned and other smart cloth and articles made out of it. For instance, Schiffli machines are often used at wedding dresses decoration.

Quite recently it appeared a new interesting kind of automatic special embroidery-the so called no-thread-embroidery and automatic no-thread embroidery machines. The principle of operation of such machines has a remote conformity with principle of producing of needle-punched fabrics. It consists in the fact that the machine with a set of needles (24 needles) runs through the structure of the main (working) material the locks of fibers of special auxiliary material. The auxiliary material is laid under the main material. After the auxiliary material removing on the main material remains an effective, specific pattern (picture).

Nowadays the leader in production of no-thread embroidery machines is the Japan Company Tanaka. In 2001 fashion show in Berlin and Paris were presented impressive collections made with the help of no-thread embroidery on "Vari-O-Matic" machine of this company. To universal automatic embroidery machines are related the machines of lock-stitch with coordinate displaced frame holder which is meant for manufacture of embroidery with threads on classical and most widespread materials and articles. The use of such machines supposes some limitations in properties of used materials and constructions of complete products.

But these limitations are constantly growing narrower due to constant modernization and improvement of universal automatic embroidery machines and due to use of manifold auxiliary facilities and special devices. All known universal automatic embroidery machines are of lock-stitch type of machines and the structure of many parts of the mechanism has many similarities with lock-stitch embroidery machines.

The main parts of single-head universal automatic embroidery machine are column, case, frame holder and head. The case is fixed on column and consists of pole and cantilevered arm. Inside the upper part of column is installed the stitch mechanism. Inside the case is installed the main shaft mechanism. On the head is disposed a set of needle mechanisms with thread takeup and thread guide mechanisms. The head is able to shift from case in the horizontal position, engaging with the main shaft stirring up the needed needle mechanism.

This enables the machine to make the shift of the thread color at one embroidery run. The frame holder mechanism is able to shift the frame holder in a horizontal level in four directions from the active needle. The shift is made in step-type on coordinate according to given embroidery program. In this way the machine can make loch-stitches on material of different length and in any given order and direction, executing if needed the shift of working needle with the thread of the definite color. The industrial automatic embroidery machines can be both single-headed and with few heads and with corresponding number of necessary working mechanisms. The last are called many headed or multihead automatic embroidery machines.

Under normal conditions of embroidery all the heads and frame holders mechanisms works synchronously.

The basic indexes of industrial embroidery machines

Speed of embroidery.

It is expressed through quantity of stitches per minute. The embroidery speed can be adjusted both manually and automatically while embroidering. The optimal embroidery speed of modern machines oscillates between 700-900 stitches per minute. Maximum speed reaches 1200-1400 stitches per minute.

Number of working heads.

In modern multihead machines the head numbers come to 2-4 heads.

The size of working area or the maximum size of used frame.

This index is concerned with possible size of performed embroidery. It is expressed through correlation of length and width of the working area in millimeters and is regulated for flat and cylindrical frame (used for caps, sleeves, etc). There are spread the correlations 800x600, 500x400 and other-for flat frame; 360x75, 400x350 and other for cylindrical frame.

Needle quantity.

It is equal to the number of needles on one head. It is defined by maximal possible number of thread colors used at one run of embroidery. The possible needle number in modern machines is from 1 to 12. The most spread are the machines with 9 needles. Other important indexes are the noise and vibration level, the compatibility of machine with different standard embroidery programs, the presence of accessories, error of linear measurements of embroidery elements.

The accessories can be presented through different additional hinged device for automatic let-off of decorative cord or ribbon, broadened control terminal, systems of laser and video navigation of working area, additional laser trimers (device for thread cutting) and other.

The concomitant equipment can be presented through devices of embroidery evaporation, various press equipment for adhesive chevron and braid production, special cloth-cutting machine in the form of laser cutter-machines, that can automatically cut of or drift on markings on cloth, which is widely used at combined with embroidery applique?works production.

Resouces
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Quilt, Embroidery Design, Embroidered Quilts

Embroidered quilts have been called the expression of the person making the quilt. There have been a lot of styles in which the quilts can be embroidered. Kantha is a traditional Indian quilt embroidery technique and a rather exquisite one. Crazy quilts involve patchwork quilting. Applique is another embroidery commonly used for quilting. Redwork embroidery is quite common on quilts.

Quilting involves filling up fiber or layers of cloth between two to cloth layers and sealing with evenly spread stitches. These are used as bed covers, quilts and for other covering purposes. The technique used for quilt embroidery can be handwork or machine work though traditionally handwork is perferred.Used also in Baby Embroidered Quilts.

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The Art of Embroidery

Embroidery has survived history in different forms. It has existed in one form or the other for many years. Embroidery is a fulfilling art form which has become an interesting pass time for people from all segments of society. In the recent past, this has made advancements in a lot of aspects, and many of those who are not fully involved with embroidery are unaware of the immense developments.

Basic embroidery means creating a pattern on fabric by using multi-colored threads. Chances are if you buy something already embroidered, it was done by machine. Hand embroidery is time consuming and doesn't lend itself to mass marketing. Most who embroider use a pattern, although some can create as they go.

The patters are as inexpensive as the thread and needles. So without much investment on equipment, anyone can craft fascinating art work on tablecloths, napkins, blankets, dress- materials etc. Internet offers many embroidery related material on the web. You can easily find a lot of embroidery patterns on the web and print it at home or get it sent to you and use it in your embroidery.

Advanced sewing machines are available today which can do embroidery with little assistance from you. Some are even software powered, which enables you to specify where to point the needle to craft a design to suit your requirement. But embroidery by hand still remains the first option of many people for whom it is a hobby. For them embroidery by hand provides a more fulfilling experience compared to embroidery by machine.

If you interested in getting into embroidery but aren't sure where to start, you may be able to find a class at your local community college that can help you understand the basics. They will probably take you through a few simple designs and patterns. Once you understand how to read the pattern and do the stitching, you can pretty much tackle any design you're interested in.

Many craft fairs and embroidery conventions are organized in the country for exposure on embroidery. Apart from that, you can get a lot of information on embroidery from various other sources such as the internet. Many websites are available on the net which are purely dedicated to the cause of embroidery. These sites offer free embroidery patterns for you to download or patterns for discounted prices for you to buy.

You can subscribe to many embroidery magazines to enrich your knowledge and get started. These magazines offer lessons and tips on embroidery. They also give you a lot of free patterns on embroidery apart from other useful information. These magazines concentrate on the most important aspect of the needles and thread that you will need to finely craft a pattern. These magazines also keep you up-to-date with the current developments in embroidery and activate your imagination for your next embroidery project.

Embroidery is a hobby that many people have enjoyed for hundreds of years. You can create some beautiful designs and it is a very fulfilling past time. You don't have to be partially creative to start embroidery. As long as you can follow instructions and have a little patience, you can be creating interesting and unique designs in no time. Pearl Mertens is the chief writer at RC Embroidery, visit there today for the latest Embroidery advice, and why not sign up for the free Embroidery newsletter. If you want to read more Embroidery articles go to: http://www.rcembroidery.com/articles

History Of Embroidery

Embroidery is an age old art form that has decorated clothing, bedding, and household goods for hundreds of years. Using colored threads to create patterns has dated back to the time of ancient Egypt, when women sewed metallic threads into clothing for decoration. The trend caught on with Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews, who all began incorporating embroidered pieces into their clothing.

The oldest embroidered piece in existence is the world famous Bayeux Tapestry, dating from approximately 1066. Although the piece is called a tapestry, it is actually as embroidered composition reaching an astounding 231 feet long. Recalling the Battle of Hastings, the piece still hangs in the town of Bayeux in the province of Normandy in France. This beautiful embroidered piece is though to have been created by over 100 noble women in the town and is speculated to take several years to complete.

European embroidery changed a great deal over the years, but became a highlight of fashion during the 18th Century in France. These elaborate embroidery designs?often made with metallic and silk threads?decorated everything from women?s dresses to men?s breeches. This style soon caught on in popularity with the rest of the continent and soon men, women, and children were wearing heavily embroidered fashion. The decoration also served as a symbol of status and wealth in addition to simply adding glitz and glamour to the garments.

Embroidery continued in popularity and soon became a right of passage for girls to be taught by their mothers the time tested stitches and often completed a lovely sampler to showcase the different stitches and techniques. These samplers were passed down for generations and have been sold at auction for phenomenal amounts. Another popular use of embroidery was to dress up homely clothing. Often, homespun cloth or poor quality purchased cloth was the most a family could afford to outfit the members, so the matron of the house embroidered the clothing to make the outfits look fancier.

The end of the 19th Century saw founding of embroidery shops where scores of women completed the delicate stitches by hand. The year 1880 saw the advent of the first embroidery machine, which further mechanized the embroidery shops and produced even more products. Switzerland soon became the forerunner in embroidery designs and technology, with the United States in second, as shops popped up in New York City and Chicago.

Although the times have changed, the embroidery stitches and techniques have remained the same. Technology has greatly advanced and left the 1880s embroidery machine in the dust. Today?s machines can replicate thousands of pattern by just a simple push of a button. Donna Somerkin specialized in embroidery machines. http://www.embroidery-machines-1.com