Quality Logo Embroidery – Where does it all begin?
Have you ever thought about quality logo embroidery and what it takes to make your brand shine on branded clothing? Neither had I, and it simply hadn’t crossed my mind until I began working for Streamline.
When I started my role at the company’s Exeter hub, I didn’t know much about embroidery techniques or quality logo embroidery in general, but I quickly learned so much from the experts here. So many words come to mind, digitalising, USBs, running sheets, and frames, to name a few terms that were new to me.
The first time I walked into the embroidery room was like stepping into a magical chamber. The machines’ steady rhythm and relaxing cadence are almost like a mantra. Our busy team are like magicians, bringing garments to life with their brilliant technical skills.
The creativity and care that goes into every garment are evident. With the touch of a button, the machines begin, and as you watch, the embroidered logo appears like magic, stitch by stitch, and the garment is transformed into a wonderful way of promoting your business or making your staff feel valued. All are small considerations, but they’re a part of the big machine that makes a company successful.
All this got me thinking, what exactly makes for high-quality logo embroidery? In this blog, I’ll talk you through the essential steps Streamline takes to guarantee perfect embroidery, every time.
Needle
Imagine trying to draw a detailed portrait with a blunt, heavy-weighted pencil. There’s no way you’ll be able to capture the intricate details. Similarly, replicating the finer details of your brand’s logo in stitching requires a high-quality, sharp needle that’s the right gauge for the job.
Backing Paper
If you’ve ever written in a notebook without padding, you’ll know your handwriting usually suffers. But when you place a few sheets of paper behind as padding, your writing looks much better.
It’s the same with embroidery. Maximising the quality of your embroidered logo requires the right type of backing paper, with an adequate thickness, to ensure the fabric doesn’t pulsate and harm the quality of your logo.
Thread Quality
There are two key reasons to choose high-quality embroidery threads. First, lower-quality threads are more likely to break during production, which can cause imperfections in the detail of the logo. Second, lower-quality threads are also more unpredictable in the dyeing process, which can cause inconsistencies in Pantone colour and cause your logo to look off-brand.
Upper Thread Tension
When it comes to thread tension, it’s all about finding the right balance. If the tension is too tight with upper threads, there will be multiple thread breakages. If it’s too loose, on the other hand, your custom embroidered logo will be plagued with loops across the surface.
Bobbin (Lower Thread) Tension
The right balance of lower thread tension ensures the embroidery stays locked together. When it’s too loose, it’ll impact the upper thread tension and cause loops. When it’s too tight, it’ll pull the logo into the fabric, making the logo look sunken (a bit like an inside-out umbrella!) and potentially damaging the fabric.
Framing
As with thread tension, it’s also important to get the tightness of the framing right. If it’s wrong, it can lead to puckering, negatively impacting the quality of the embroidery’s detail. If you’ve ever seen the effects of pulling a loose thread from a pair of trousers, you’ll know what this looks like. We ensure your logo is on-brand and instantly recognisable by getting the balance right.
Artwork Digitisation
It’s also important to use state-of-the-art technology as part of the logo embroidery process. This is because the software allows us to replicate your logo and brand artwork to a much higher degree of accuracy—the better the technology, the better the final outcome.
Machine Quality
Logo embroidery is ultimately a mechanical process. Therefore, using subpar machinery to do the job will lead to subpar results. For this reason, it’s important to use high-quality machines, constantly tweak the settings to optimise for superior results, and ensure qualified engineers regularly service machines.
It’s certainly not easy to ensure a perfect finish every time. However, we employ the most talented embroiderers so that we can guarantee your brand is on point every time. Never again will I put on a branded shirt or hoody without a moment of gratitude, almost reverence, for what went into making this branding happen.
Contact our experts today if you want to work with a team that will get your brand right and maintains your brand’s excellent image. They’ll be more than happy to help.