# 1st few months embroidering. Tips & Suggestions needed



## gapipkin (May 29, 2011)

After 3 months, I think i'm on the right track. I purchased a ZSK after looking at a few other single head machines. I've outsourced my digitizing for the most part, including the attached pictures. Just need your help to see if i'm on the right track. This was my first big order, 100 beanies, and I think they came out ok. The client was happy, but just wondering if they could be better. I used standard Madeira thread and cutaway backing. 

For those of you looking to take the plunge into embroidery. Here are my thoughts after a few months. Random order.
1. Single heads are SLOW. 15k stitch designs will take 20 minutes after you figure in trims, thread breaks, and everything. For my 100 hats I averaged 15-18 hats per day. 
2. Invest in a good machine. My ZSK has been great for the most part. Still learning though. Had a few mechanical user errors but so far so good.
3. Digitizing software is EXPENSIVE! 
4. Explaining the digitizing expense to clients is difficult. 
5. Learning to digitize on your own is hard. I was a graphic design teacher before learning to screen print and the digitizing software is more difficult than learning photoshop. 
6. Hats are tricky. Lots of registration issues if trying to do fine overlapping colors. Hooping is really important, but tricky to do it right.
7. Mighty hoops are AWESOME! Well worth it.
8. Hoopmaster is just as important. More necessary than the mighty hoops.
9. You'll need lots of different backing to work on different fabric types and colors. Sometimes 2 or 3 pieces of backing will make a difference.
10. Depending on your setup, clients will want to bring their own garments and items to be embroidered. Usually its brands we can't get like Nike or UnderArmor. 
11. You CAN make money on a single head, but you CANNOT price match large embroidery houses. Stick to your prices, find your niche market and go from there. 
12. Find another small shop or sewing place to get emergency supplies from when you can't wait for shipping.


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

No offense, but I would not have let those out of my shop...

The amount of red showing through the white means you need to use a topping like solvy or you need to add underlay and top density. You should not be able to see that much red showing through...

Digitizing is an art unto itself. At the same time, there are a lot of people out there selling digitizing services who are just using auto-digitizing and you can tell the minute it stitches out. I've been digitizing my own logos for 10 years now and I still outsource some of the more complicated ones.


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## Wildgoose (Mar 5, 2013)

Hello fellow ZSK owner! I'm pretty much a newb also. I got into embroidery around thanksgiving time last fall. Started with a used SWF machine, had some mechanical/computer issues and ended up giving it back and purchasing the sprint 6. Very happy with the machine but I totally hear you on the learning curve. It helped a lot to have used a different make and model to have things to compare to. I find myself wishing I was a young man and could go intern at some embroidery shop for a while to learn the ropes. It's almost a clandestine operation and hard to get good tips and even then nothing can compare to hands on learning. I have let a few orders out my door that I wasn't 100% happy with but I have a great client base established through my vinyl and HTV business so offering embroidery made sense. I have been trying to learn to digitize and like you have found it very daunting. I'm real handy with Illustrator but in the end that doesn't carry over much. I end up doing a lot of one-off work and am getting to the point I can create passable work. I get a lot of walk in please put my daughters name on this bag kind of thing so I've felt the need to be able to produce passable sewouts in house as much as possible and the auto-digitize just doesn't look great without some tweaks. 

I set up a three tier set-up fee based on how much they want to spend vs being picky with the results and it has worked awesome. If it's my regular clients I tell them there is no set up fee for the first year while I learn but they get whatever comes out at the end of the day. The second tier is about $45 (I hire the digitizing) but if it's their garment there is no replacement if things go south and the third tier is $145 which does come with a full satisfaction guarantee. So far no one has worried about tier three. Sometimes I have to explain that there is no way to protect myself from a mistake when doing $10-$12 worth of work on a $90 jacket and they then have an Ah-ha moment and we're good. For my huge clients I don't charge them anyway because they spend thousands with me so a digitizer and some sew outs are a drop in the bucket compared to what they spend. I usually give them the test runs as freebies even though they are often imperfect and they love it and appreciate the care and attention to their company. This is a service industry and I feel it's more about taking care of the client that brings them back and using this strategy I have accumulated a lot of loyal fans who just keep coming back and are willing to spend just a little more to get the service that comes with it. 

I totally agree with the single head pricing needing to be higher. It's slow going on big orders fortunately my wife is home more often than not and she loads and sews throughout the day while she is doing other things and it's surprising how many she can get done when I'm off playing. (Ours is a side business)


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## gapipkin (May 29, 2011)

tfalk said:


> No offense, but I would not have let those out of my shop...
> 
> The amount of red showing through the white means you need to use a topping like solvy or you need to add underlay and top density. You should not be able to see that much red showing through...
> 
> Digitizing is an art unto itself. At the same time, there are a lot of people out there selling digitizing services who are just using auto-digitizing and you can tell the minute it stitches out. I've been digitizing my own logos for 10 years now and I still outsource some of the more complicated ones.


No offense taken! I'm here to learn. I posted the pics hoping to get feedback to improve. The problem with first starting out is that I have no point of reference to compare the good with the bad. It seems that a lot of this comes with trial and error and experience. I'll try topping for sure. For the underlay and top density, how do I convey that to my digitizer? Or do I need to find another digitizer? Is this just for knit beanies, or just in general?

Thanks again!


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## oldstunt (Mar 22, 2008)

Greg
You will learn as we all have. We have been using ZSK machines for the past 12 years. Have had great luck with them, started with a sprint then latter added a couple of 2 heads. When you decide to add on keep you single head you will find it very valuable for sew outs, short runs, and names drops.
Now to your knit hats. Digitizing is everything. Always use a good digitizer cheaper is not always better. Always tell the digitizer what kind of garment it is going on and the type of material it will be sewing on.I agree with Ted the digitizing was not set up correctly for knit hats you needed better under lay and better top fill. We do a lot of knit hats and very seldom use topping on them. If the design is digitized properly it will cover well. It will add a few more stitches to the design but the end result is worth it.
If you have no luck finding a good digitizer PM me and I will send you a couple that we use. Keep in mind most digitizing is done off shore and most for them really have no experience running an embroidery machine. Former embroidery operators make the best digitizers.


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

I agree about the show through. Add underlay and use solvy to keep the knit down. It looks you have too much bobbin on the underside. Using text with a double outline look can be hard. Nice hats for that design!


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## lalove (Aug 16, 2007)

just agreeing with the comments above. Remember that you digitize according to the material you will be stitching on. Towels, knits etc should be digitized differently. For these you definately need proper underlay and topping

Lalove


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## LTPEMB (Jul 10, 2015)

lalove said:


> just agreeing with the comments above. Remember that you digitize according to the material you will be stitching on. Towels, knits etc should be digitized differently. For these you definately need proper underlay and topping
> 
> Lalove


This is one of the most important things i have learned and one of the most truly powerful and profitable tips that you can ever have! So many companies businesses and people think all you need is 1 dst for a file and you can run anything... you will have poor quality files and constantly wreck your machine doing that. 

Family bought an embroidery/apparel/promo business 3 years ago from original owner. I started 2 years ago and rebuilt the processes, policies and essentially everything from the ground up and literally threw out 8 years of someone else's experience when i realized they didn't know anything and wrecked the machines. And, I still consider myself a Noobie when it comes to embroidery. Here is a summary of the sum of my knowledge over the past 2 years.

Direct things I've learned about the machine!
1. If you buy into a preexisting business or embroidery setup including employees, assume they know nothing!
2. Magnetic bobbins!!!!!!!!
3. Sit down with your technician when he visits. Watch what he does, learn how to adjust hook timing and look for issues, scratches, or worn needles. And any other advanced trick (many machines have additional features that a technician can unlock if the operator is smart enough to use them without breaking the machine) 
4. LEVEL YOUR MACHINES AND KEEP THEM OFF THEIR WHEELS. Vibration and movement is the devil!
5. Read your manuals. ALL OF THEM. Parts manuals, Maintenance manuals, Operator manuals... Re skim over them every 6 months. There are 1001 ways that you can leverage your machine to work for you not you fighting it! 
6. Slower is not always better but and the reverse is true in that faster is not always more efficient!
7. Raising the tables or putting the tables on for flats and especially heavy flats make things better!
8. always trim your bobbin tails to hang out no more than 2 inches. any more wraps behind the hook and causes heat and friction. 
9. 75/11 ball point needles work on 99% of everything. 
10. You need 6 other types of needles for that last 1%. 
11. THINNER THREAD THINNER NEEDLES... TINY details and 4mm tall text logos are possible... but digitizing and heavy backing is key, but not always the better result. 
12. 260 degree hat frames will make your thumbs angry
13. Make sure where the bill of the hat meets the rest of it is held down by the teeth. 
14. Thread breaks, missed stitches, and needle breaks damage the machine. each thread break or needle break ads vibration which can add scratches to a hook, and damage upper sensors when it wraps around springs. 
15. 95% of thread breaks, missed stitches, and needle breaks are caused by BAD DIGITIZING, or un-optimized files! 
16. 1mm stitches or smaller slow the machine down to avoid missed stitches thread breaks and exposed underlay. 1mm or higher you can crank up the speed and get a better result. 
17. Buy precut hat, & Precut polyester left chest mesh backing. Buy Rolls for everything else.
18. Seriously machine stops are 95% about the file. A near perfect file can be 12,000-20,000 stitches and you should have only have to stop to change bobbins. 
19. The other 5% is usually damage to the machine from worn parts bad files and just minute differences from needle to needle in machine alignment. But you can tell the difference between file and machine easily especially on a multi head. 

DIGITIZING
1. You don't have to digitize in house but you HAVE to have digitizing or paid editing software. 
2. Wilcom embroidery studio is the my favorite and works better and has a much better learning curve, deco studio is... useful but not quite enough. Pulse has powerful and valuable features but has a less forgiving nearly vertical learning curve.
3. Underlay is 1 key to smaller stitches (the other is going up to 3 layers of heavier backing but on poly polos it is best not to do that for the best feel). Manualy creating underlay is even more key to 1mm-.75mm satin stitches. 
4. Stitch shortening is key to satin stitches 2mm wide or more. Turing stitch shortening off is key to reducing thread breaks on stitches of 1mm wide or less. 
5. ZOOM in and look at it in regular stitch view. overlapping or really close stitches on turning satin and text are thread-breaks waiting to happen. Adjust the stitch angles just enough so that the points are farther apart and you can fix it without adjusting density. 
6. Always Always Always REMOVE SMALL STITCHES with the software! The software is smarter than machine stitch remover and will try to remove the stitches without ruining the outline, your machine will literally just delete penetrations. 
7. Use metric for everything Literally all the time. do not use imperial/us. Most software holds only 2 decimal places and 2 decimal in metric is much smaller than 2 decimal in us, and .05mm can be the difference between a perfect run and thread breaks. 
8. Make sure to look at all minimum lengths in underlay.
9. Don't be afraid to make minute adjustments to a file on long runs. You learn more by fixing thread breaks caused by the wrong setting. This is easiest to see on multihead/long runs of 24 or more as you can't always tell if it is a bad file till you see patterns in the thread breaks. But 1 hour of adjusting a file can save you 10 hours of thread breaks. 
10. Auto digitizing is the worst... But can be useful, just remeber heavy editing is required. 
11. Hide your "crimes". every single trim/color change between the slowdown and the start of the next object/sequence can take anywhere from 6-20 seconds. Trims after every object add up fast and cost you money. manually creating running stitch that gets hidden under another object will save you time in the short term and in the long term with less risk of threads being pulled out of the needle. You can also hide a small running stitch between the stitch angle of a Tatami stitch if your careful. 
12. Less is often more. 
13. Get your hands on any piece of free software available... it is worth the time. Truesizer, My Editor, and If you can find an old version of ambassador (web based is kinda crap) 
14. Read Read Read Read Read, re-watch videos on the software every few months. you may learn something new every time or reinforce something you meant to work on. 

Business as a whole. 
1. Know your hourly overhead cost then add a little bit. Build an excel calculator for calculating an embroidery file's running time against your hourly cost. 
2. If you can do that than you know where you need to be to make money/to keep the lights on. Then Calculate what profit margin you can make off of whatever apparel you are selling. and B ACTUALLY MARK UP APPAREL don't sell it at cost, you are a business selling goods and services. Make money on what you sell and price the embroidery to cover the time cost and a bit of profit off of making it, The real world expects you to make 30-50% off of what you sell can you honestly say you make that? 
3. Unless you work from home or have a soulless warehouse of 100 heads just don't do contract or BYO items. It is genuinely easier to say no, there will always be someone else who will do it for $5. 
4. Do not remove embroidery. *points to hourly overhead cost* I cannot stress this enough. Your time is more valuable. 
5. If you can get machine knowledge and digitizing down you can have 1 person capable of running a single head a multi-head and digitizing software all at once. (i am that person) 
6. You always want 2 machines. A single head and a multi head. Single heads are great for specialty/easily adaptable/names/ect. Multi heads are what will keep you in business. 
7. If you are planning on doing lots of jacket backs get a 4 or 6 -head stretch otherwise just get a 6 head. I guarantee that you will not need the stretch function as much as you think if your not specialized. 
8. Don't feel pressured to meet someone's price/deadline/ect. I felt sorry for another business in december and let them do contract work for next day... i have a single and a 4 head... and a prime location visible on a major road (high rent)... I agreed to bail them out as a favor not because it made money, and agreed to an order, they named the price, site unseen... litterally 100 items of varying quantities accross 30 different files all of witch were 10000 to 35000 stitches and trims in the 20s to 75s. Litterally 20 hours of the most efficiant staging and setup litterally running the machines as fast as humanly possible... OVERNIGHT, last minute, only got paid $500 in the end... needless to say i will never do contract work again.


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## pjmom60 (Mar 31, 2013)

Wow, this is great information! Thanks for your thoughtful comments and for saying it so that we can all understand it!


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## A1WHITES (Nov 19, 2011)

Ok here my two cents
1 if you have a large order you do a sew out first. 
2 after the sew out look for mistakes 
Now always use what file ext goes with your machine 
Just because it may run any file ext doesn't mean it will run right
And last but not least just because someone may have more years of do embroidery doesn't mean they are always right


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## Wildgoose (Mar 5, 2013)

WOW! Awesome tips people! I'm sure you know how much that helps us newbies out but just in case your have forgotten what it's like on the ground floor looking up at the skyscraper it helps A LOT!


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## wrkalot (Mar 2, 2011)

This a great thread!

Others have covered everything very very well but I would like to expand on digitizing.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of digitizing companies offering the best quality at the lowest price. $1 per 1k, or $10-$15 flat rate for caps or left chests. In my experience 99% plus of these companies will kill your profit and machine in short order. They claim that they do not auto digitize and have a highly skilled team but constant thread breaks, large jump stitches and the like quickly tell the real story. While there are a few gems with this low price fast turn around model but it will take a lot of time and frustration to find them. There are a couple on this forum that are worth trying. One person operations that care and do quality work.

We have found that the difference between a flat rate $15 left chest vs a $25 left chest is light years in most cases. That $10 you save could cost you tons more in time, money, and sanity by the end of the run.


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