Overcoming Cap Anxiety: Part I Embroidery Project

The single leading cause of cap problems is trying to sew a design that is too large for the given cap. This can be attributed to the issue of crown height. As the machine sews higher on the crown, the cap driver moves in closer to the machine, which forces the machine arm deeper inside the cap. Once it makes contact with the cap fabric, it will push on it and distort the logo. The result can be outlines that don’t line up, distorted lettering and even circles sewing as ovals.

Even if the sewing arm does not make contact, the larger the design, the more it tries to flatten out the curvature(s) of the cap. This can lead to straight lines not being straight, uneven text, and puckering of the cap material.

Caps are not created equally, and some can handle larger designs than others. In general, limit your design size to 2.0” H X 4.5”W, and you should be able to sew on just about any style of cap. In actuality, you can go larger for some caps, but if you make it a standard practice to work with tighter parameters, you will be better off in the long run. Also, having the customer focus on the smaller size helps get an order started on the right foot. It’s much easier to increase the size for a larger cap, than to decrease it for a smaller cap. TIP – Use a standard business card as a reference for maximum (cap) logo dimensions.

Figure 1   The toughest aspect of adhering to this rule, is having to tell the customer that something won’t work. There is always the underlying fear of losing the customer, so many Embroiderers ignore this rule and plunge full speed ahead with the ordering process, by saying YES to everything the customer wants. (The details can always wait until later.) Being that the primary goal of the sales process is to close the deal, this is a natural, but dangerous tendency. Unfortunately, when it comes time to sew, the Embroiderer encounters problems and struggles through the job with lots of quality issues and hundreds of thread breaks. It’s much more effective to discuss the limitations with the customer (upfront) and create a workable solution for everyone. Figure 1 is an example of trying to put too much embroidery on the front of a cap.

The correct approach would be to limit the front design to the fish, Joe’s Tackle Shop and Wilmington, NC. The phone number is a waste, as most people don’t remember phone numbers from caps. The website could go on one side and the slogan on the back of the cap. The customer gets what he wants, the quality will be much better and you can charge more money for the additional locations.