What Is Puff Embroidery and When Does It Work Best?
Puff embroidery is a type of embroidery where the stitched design is raised off of the garment (typically raised about 1/8”).
Standard/Flat Embroidery vs. Puff Embroidery
Standard or flat embroidery is the most common type of embroidery and likely what you think of when you think of an embroidered logo. Standard embroidery is created by stitching a design directly on a garment. While standard embroidery does give a multidimensional look (especially when compared to screen printing), the design is not significantly raised off of the garment. Puff embroidery utilizes the same process, but has a dense piece of foam placed between the garment and the stitching that raises the stitching up off of the garment, creating the puff/three dimensional look.
How Is Puff Embroidery Created?
To create puff embroidery, the first step is to convert the design into a digital file that will tell the embroidery machine where to place each stitch in a process know as digitizing. The design must be digitized specifically for puff embroidery since the stitch density must be higher than for standard embroidery. Once the design is digitized, the process is the same as for standard embroidery except that a dense piece of foam is placed on the garment where the design will be stitched. Once the embroidery is competed, the excess foam is removed, leaving the raised stitched design with none of the foam showing through the stitching.
What Designs Work Best for Puff Embroidery?
Puff embroidery is a great effect but it is definitely not a good fit for all designs. Typically, puff embroidery works best for simple, bold shapes and text. Ideally, text should be rounded and have a minimum thickness of 0.15” and a maximum thickness of 0.5”. One way to get around these limitations is to do a combination of puff embroidery and standard embroidery (see the image below for an example of this), where the smaller details in the design are embroidered without foam and the larger text/shapes are embroidered with foam.
What Garments Work Best for Puff Embroidery?
Puff embroidery can work on a variety of items, including hats, beanies, sweatshirts, and bags. With that said, here at Whitefish we primarily offer puff embroidery on hats. Check out some of our favorite hat styles on our apparel page.
Does Puff Embroidery Cost More than Standard Embroidery?
Yes. Due to the added labor and supply costs, we charge an additional ~$3/hat for puff embroidery compared to standard embroidery.
Ready to Get Your Own Custom hats with Puff Embroidery?
We would love to make awesome puff embroidered hats for you! We specifically chose our embroidery equipment because it is the best in the industry for puff embroidery on hats, we use the highest quality foam and embroidery thread, and we take a hands on approach to make sure that each hat that goes out our door meets our high quality standards. To get started, tell us what you’re looking for here and send your design to info@whitefishprinting.com.