The screen is lifted and voila, we have a design on the shirt. If it is a multi-color design, there is a screen created for each color, and each color is applied separately. Embroidery uses a needle and thread to sew a design into the fabric of a shirt. The design is first digitized, which is a process by which the artwork is changed into a series of instructions that tells the embroidery machine where each stitch begins and ends. Transferring a design from paper to embroidered logo is an art.
Many embroiderers use computers to scan a design and convert it to embroidery instructions.
This method, while quick, produces flat, amateurish logos. Our digitizer produces the design by hand, actually drawing each individual stitch so that it is perfect. The embroidery itself is done on multi-head embroidery machines capable of producing twelve shirts simultaneously. Most of the actual embroidery is automatic, however care must be taken that the machines don't jam, run out of thread, break a needle, etc. Both screenprinting and embroidery have strengths and weaknesses.