Creating High Quality Embroidery VIII Embroidery Project

Another one of those obvious quality issues. The operator must take special care to ensure that the embroidery is in the correct location and straight. Crooked is not acceptable. This means taking the time to make a precise measurement. Never assume that the lines in the fabric are straight. It’s tempting to use them as a reference point, but many times the fabric itself is crooked. Use a device such as a measuring angle, which looks like a capital “L”. Use safe reference points such as where the shoulder seam meets the neck and then measure from there. In the case of a placket shirt, use the placket as a reference point, assuming it’s straight.

But what happens when key reference points such as the placket, or maybe a pocket, are crooked? Take a look at the visual perspective of these key components. If you are embroidering above a pocket, then you will need to sew parallel to it’s top edge, even if it’s crooked. The same goes for sewing perpendicular to the placket. These landmarks are too prominent, so the embroidery must conform to their positioning. But don’t be afraid to reject the shirt if the pocket or placket is too crooked. You have that right, in fact it’s your duty! Inspect the garment closely before hooping. If it has obvious flaws, then put it aside for return to the customer or the supplier. Once you sew on it, it’s non-returnable!

So there you have it, a guide to what constitutes good quality embroidery. Of course there is the issue of quality digitizing which is an extremely important factor. But, if you are contracting out your digitizing, you won’t have much control over this aspect except to change digitizers when the designs don’t look good and/or sew well. Unless you can edit, it’s almost impossible to overcome poor digitizing.

Using the information in this article, as well as any other important quality details that you come up with, create a checklist for your shop. As each item moves through the production process, stop and analyze it for problems or potential problems. Now when it’s your product on the rack being picked over by nosy embroiderers looking for flaws, you can rest assured they will walk away disappointed.