If you want your embroidery designs to look a little more like this [beautiful embroidery
broll] and a little less like this [bad embroidery examples], keep watching.
In this video, you’ll learn how to create embroidery designs with Printful’s Design
Maker.
Before you start creating embroidery designs, there are a few things you should keep in
mind, especially if you’re just starting out with print-on-demand or embroidery.
Embroidery basics for beginners 1.
With embroidery, the sky is the limit At Printful, we are constantly working to
improve our catalog and technical capabilities, and we already offer many ways you can use
embroidery.
You can embroider hats, apparel, accessories, and home & living products, and you can choose
from multiple placement options for your embroidery designs.
To make your products even more awesome, you can create embroidered apparel with printed
labels, just like you see here.
2.
Standard and unlimited color embroidery
Once you start designing your embroidered products, you might notice that there are
two color options for some of our products—standard embroidery and unlimited color embroidery.
Here’s the difference between the two.
Standard embroidery looks like this.
It works best for designs that have solid shapes with clear details and colors.
You can choose from 15 colors and have 6 colors per design.
It’s available for all embroidery products.
Unlimited color embroidery looks like this.
It’s a limited availability color option, which is only accessible to a select number
of customers for now.
With unlimited color embroidery, you can create multi-color, gradient, or simple designs with
a diverse color palette.
It’s available for two of our products for now—the Bella+Canvas 3001 t-shirt and the
Yupoong dad hat.
You might have noticed that not all stitching looks the same.
And that’s exactly right because we work with different types of embroidery stitching.
3.
Flat and 3D puff embroidery With flat embroidery, stitches are embroidered
flat on the surface, just like in these examples.
This works great for smaller, more detailed designs and solid shapes.
This type of stitching looks smooth and is very durable, making the product look amazing
even after countless times of wearing and washing.
3D puff embroidery means that the embroidery is raised.
Used mostly for big shapes, just like in these examples.
If you’re not a fan of intricate, detailed designs, this will be the perfect technique
for you to make a statement with your design.
Keep in mind that 3D puff embroidery is only available for hats.
4.
Standard embroidery limitations
The main thing to remember is that standard embroidery is not printing, so gradients,
drop shadows, distressed textures, and shading are not possible, you can only use solid colors
and shapes in your designs.
This means you can’t use photographic imagery for your embroidery designs and you're limited
to a 6-thread color limit per design.
Alright, now that you’re all caught up with embroidery 101, let's proceed to the most
exciting part—creating an embroidery design with the Design Maker.
How to create an embroidery design If you don’t have a Printful account, sign
up here.
Once that’s done, head over to your Printful Dashboard, then click on Product Templates.
I suggest you use the product templates feature to create product designs, as it allows you
to start designing even if you haven’t opened a store yet.
Once you’re ready to add these products to your store, you can easily do that by clicking
here.
Once you’ve found Product Templates, add a new template.
To see which products can be embroidered, head over to any of our product sections,
like Women’s clothing, then All women’s clothing, and filter for the embroidery technique
here.
You can create a design with the tools available in our Design Maker, or you can upload your
own file made on any other design software.
Let’s take a look at how you can create your own embroidered product using only Printful’s
Design Maker.
1.
Create an embroidery design with the Design Maker
For this example, I’m designing the unisex denim jacket.
I want to create a large center embroidery design on the back with the tools available
in the Design Maker.
The Design Maker is packed with design tools, and you can choose from a huge collection
of clipart, quick designs, and text.
I’m creating a jacket for my fall Halloween line, so I’m taking a look through the Magic
rituals collection in the clipart library.
I’ll pick this cute cat and adjust the color, size, and placement of the clipart here.
Alright, looks good.
I’d like to add some text as well.
I want to use “It’s just hocus pocus”, and I’d like the text to arch around the
cat from both sides.
So I’ll start by writing the top and bottom texts separately.
Now, I’m clicking on the layer of the top text and changing both the color and the font
here.
Okay, this looks good!
I’ll also change the color and font for the bottom text part.
To arch the text, click on the text layer and look at the toolbar above the design.
Click on “Arch” and move the slider.
To make the text arch to the other side, add a minus sign before numbers and there you
go!
Now you can play around with all of the illustrations, texts, and tools to create your own amazing
design.
You also have the option to upload your own design files to the Design Maker.
2.
Uploading your own designs to the Design Maker
When creating your own design file, keep in mind that there are certain file guidelines
you need to follow.
If your design doesn’t meet the requirements, it might not embroider the way you’ve envisioned.
To see the file guidelines, click here, then click on the Print file templates tab to download
the file guidelines for the necessary design placement.
This is what the guideline file looks like when you open it.
Make sure your design fits within the embroidery area, and that your design colors match the
embroidery color option you’re working with.
To see the available thread colors for standard embroidery, take a look at the file guidelines
on the product page.
To upload your design file to the Design Maker, click on the Upload button and upload your
design.
I’m using a design file with a colorful bouquet of flowers.
Here, on the left side of the screen, you can see each design layer, as well as the
file quality information.
You can also switch up thread colors for your design, if you want to dothat.If the file
you’ve uploaded doesn’t meet the minimum size requirements, you’ll see a warning
here.
Another thing to look out for is the embroidery area.
If a part of your design exceeds the embroidery area, it won’t be embroidered.
Once you’ve uploaded your design file to the Design Maker, you can add text, cliparts,
and quick designs as well.
Alright, let’s take a look at an embroidery type you can use if you want to spice up a
hat design—3D puff embroidery.
3.
How to create 3D puff embroidery
The 3D puff embroidery option is only available for hats, so I’m picking this bucket hat
from our product catalog.
One more thing to keep in mind is that if you want to use this embroidery type, you
should upload your own custom design.
To get started, upload your own design, and then click on the layer, click Color and design.
Here you can choose between flat and 3D puff embroidery.
4.
How to work with unlimited color embroidery
Use either one of these products to create your designs.
Once you click on the Embroidery technique, you’ll be able to use the unlimited color
embroidery option.
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when working with unlimited color embroidery:
Due to the unique thread coloring process, it’s impossible to switch to a new color
without a smooth transition.
When creating small embroidery designs, avoid complex designs with many colors and drastic
color changes, as the space might be too small to ensure the desired result.
For all designs, we suggest that the smallest color element is at least 2cm wide, so there
is enough room to plan the color sequence.
Avoid using run stitching, especially if your design has multiple colors.
The unlimited color technology can’t produce consistent quality for the run stitching,
and the color change will be noticeable.
We want to best possible outcome for your products, so our team makes sure to double-check
your product designs and suggest fixes if any problems arise.
When it comes to embroidery, all files need to be digitized to a format the embroidery
machines support.
Each embroidery type requires a separate digitized file.
There is a one-time fee for each new design, and the fee depends on the type and placement
of the design.
It’s important to note that, when you add new elements to an already digitized file,
it’s a new design that has to be digitized again.
Remember that we don't accept embroidery files that have been digitized elsewhere because
these files need to be adjusted to work with our embroidery machines.
If you’re wondering about digitization prices, take a look at this help center page to learn
more.
So, are you ready to create your own embroidery designs?
If so, let me know which embroidery type and technique you like the most.
Thank you for watching and see you in the next video.
Bye!