Hey Everyone, I have a question about embroidery on caps.
I have a clothing line that I'm getting off the ground and I am looking into embroidery on flex fit caps and beanies... I can get the caps pretty cheap, but outsourcing embroidery is pretty pricey. My girlfriend is pushing me to get a Viking machine and she says he knows how to do embroidery, however Ive been looking into it and everyone is saying that its a very difficult processes without getting a commercial machine.
Should I spring for the home machine? Anyone have suggestions for models?
The design on the hats are pretty simple, just a clover on the front, with small logo on back.
in my opinion you would be better off getting a 6 needle machine with a good hat attachment rather then trying to do any number of hats on a regular home machine.
I have 2 Brother PR-600 6 needle machines with a cap attachment, we do hats all the time. I think I broke 2-3 needles when we first got the machines. Once we got used to how the hat jig works, I haven't had a problem since.
Ah, so basically the hats that I would want embroidered should be outsourced... unless i fork over a good 6-10 grand on a commercial embroidery machine?
I can see in the future this would be a good investment, but for now...outsourcing sounds the best..even though it is pricey in its own right.
If all you want to do is some caps once in a while - outsource them I also have 2 Pr 600's and they are workhorses- but I do full line embroidery also.
I do commercial embroidery with a 15 needle Barudan. If you are using quality hats like Flex-Fit then make sure the embroideryis quality also. Either contract it out or buy an SWF (lower price but good quality) machine. Quality always pays off. Go to an upcoming ISS show and look at machines and ask for demonstrantions.
Sincerely,
susan
We embroider 50 to 100 caps per month, about 1/3 of them Flex-Fits. Almost all are single items. More than half of the time, we do two or three color designs, so a multi needle machine is a must. We do our caps on a 15 needle, single head Tajima machine. The cap attachment is necessary for the front of the cap. Trying to distort the cap into a flat profile on a home machine will give you unacceptable embroidery quality. We have a few home machine embroiderers who use on on a contract basis to do their caps because of this problem.
Be sure to digitize designs for a cap. You'll get better results from a design that sews from the center out rather than left to right like most left chest designs.
Slow the machines down. We rarely break needles at 500 stiches per minute. Puching it up to 650 or 700 results in more broken needles.
The Flex-Fit constructed caps have embroidered very nicely for us.
I'd contract out to a good embroiderer for a few months until the volume builds up enough to justify a new machine. Look at the Tajima Neo. Expensive, but very reliable and excellent support and quality.
Don't try to use a home machine for caps. You will be very disappointed. So will your customers.
We use a PR-600II for most of our cap needs. A little slower than the Brother 12 needle single and 4 head machines, but a true workhorse for caps. We haven't used it to sew flats in over 2 years!
We only convert over the 4 head machine when running quantities of big designs - or running on visors.
Embroidery with Flex-Fit Caps 
