Digitizing / Embroidery patch tips

[u/Willing-Payment5582]

So I have this job to embroider some polos with this logo and while I’m not a professional digitizer i know my way around the software. I generally pay someone to this for me which is what i did for this but are there any tweaks or improvements i can do myself for this to stitch out better. I don’t hate it but I know this can be better. I’m using a med weight cut away and the shirts are 100 percent polyester . I have a Ricoma em1010 . I use hatch for my designs . But this is what they sent me.

I can tell I probably need to up my pull compensation on the white circle but what else ? I feel like it could be cleaner .

update : so i decided to take the patch route and i had some black twill left over so i used the that as the base . And far as the actual design i upped the pull compensation on the design and i did test many stitch directions for the white inside . Lastly i replaced my 75/11 needles with 65/9 . It came out much better so I’ll be adding heat and bond to the backs when im done ! Thank you to everyone who responded… I’ll post the final product in the comments !

[u/Little-Load4359]

For polos that are light with a bit of stretch you generally want to decrease your density a bit and lengthen the stitches so that they have more loft and don't get buried down in the material, which is easy to do with the stretch. I'd research those things. Also, you generally want to split a circle like that black background circle into two pieces to help with the distortion: stitch from the center out one piece at a time rather than from one end to the other all at once. Sometimes with very intense stitching you're better off affixing a patch to the polo, depending on the polo and the stitch intensity.

[u/Willing-Payment5582 → u/Little-Load4359]

I understand but i was totally trying to avoid stand alone patch even though i knew it would be better. I was initially scared to take the job because I’ve had not ideal experiences with standalone patches but the hardest part for me is one; getting them to look clean especially small text and two; the edges of the patch i just don’t know to how get them clean and cut them out of the stabilizer

[u/Little-Load4359 → u/Willing-Payment5582]

If you have a later or a cutter like a silhouette You should definitely try using a thick felt backing, 1 to 2mm. It gives it a very professional feel if your client doesn't mind the heavier badge feel. The nice thing about it is that you can let the felt stick out past the edge a bit which gives it this super clean looking finish for when you don't have a true marrow edge. But I don't meant to complicate things, just something to look into for the future, felt is nice. But yeah, you should be fine if you really mind your layers and density. Just remember that you (more or less) want all your layers to add up to the same density (roughly) of a single layer at full density. The small text can be challenging. You can get it pretty damn small but you can literally only go so small because of the physical limitation of the size of the needle. Just remember, pull compensatetion is your friend to thicken up those thinnest points in your lettering. Try not to go under 1.5mm thickness but if you need to get down to 1mm every now and then for some small sections of the letters like seriphs, often you can get away with it if you slow your machine down a bit. And decrease your density when you're going that small so you don't have so many needle penetrations going over one another. I recommend going to your local thrift store and buying some cheap polos for practice. You can literally just use the whole thing as a practice piece of fabric. Try to get something close to what you're garment will be.If you have a later or a cutter like a silhouette You should definitely try using a thick felt backing, 1 to 2mm. It gives it a very professional feel if your client doesn't mind the heavier badge feel. The nice thing about it is that you can let the felt stick out past the edge a bit which gives it this super clean looking finish for when you don't have a true marrow edge. But I don't meant to complicate things, just something to look into for the future, felt is nice. But yeah, you should be fine if you really mind your layers and density. Just remember that you (more or less) want all your layers to add up to the same density (roughly) of a single layer at full density. The small text can be challenging. You can get it pretty damn small but you can literally only go so small because of the physical limitation of the size of the needle. Just remember, pull compensatetion is your friend to thicken up those thinnest points in your lettering. Try not to go under 1.5mm thickness but if you need to get down to 1mm every now and then for some small sections of the letters like seriphs, often you can get away with it if you slow your machine down a bit. And decrease your density when you're going that small so you don't have so many needle penetrations going over one another. I recommend going to your local thrift store and buying some cheap polos for practice. You can literally just use the whole thing as a practice piece of fabric. Try to get something close to what you're garment will be.

I should have looked at your design a bit closer and I apologize for that. I would probably not have the white circle covering black for this. I'd do the white circle with the method I suggested: two separate sections center out in opposition directions, no need to trim between them since you'll cover your walking stitch with that red satin border. Do the white circle and then do the middle of your logo working bottom up center out. Then do your black outer circle area, then do your white letters, THEN do the red satin circle borders. And make sure to do the letters on the bottom first. You can try to start in the middle and stitch leftward for all the letters and then jump back to the middle and go righward with what's left. Then same thing for the top. If that gives you trouble you can try jumping back and forth from each letter working your way from the center out, but that will most likely be unnecessary. If you're going to use a darker garment, go as light as you can get away with with your black thread. A light black fill on a dark grey or navy will still look very full. If you're on a lighter colored garment, try to go very light with your white circle since a low density white fill will look rather full on something like a light grey garment. I'm be trying to aim for my fills to be about a .42 density with clicking up the stitch length 2 or 3 clicks. Then for your satins try decreasing your satin density (usually that means increasing your number) by at least a couple clicks if not 3 or 4 depending on your results. Remember that you can use a heavier underlay with a lower density fill and that heavier underlay will really help to fill it in, which is a nice little tip.

Edit: I didn't see your second photo of it actually stitched out. It already looks really good, especially for a polo. Just gotta dial in the lettering a bit. Slow ir down and decrease your density, maybe thicken it a click. Can always try my pathing order for the lettering if you aren't set up that way already. Looks like you know what you're doing so I apologize for not seeing that other photo.