How to Embroider Caps

Follow these tips from an industry veteran who has devoted decades to helping embroiderers get it right when they're sewing on caps.
March 1, 2009

By Jimmy Lamb, Contributing Writer

I have seen many changes in my two decades in embroidery, but there's one constant I can rely on: complaints from embroiderers about sewing on caps. In fact, cap aggravation consistently ranks as the top reason for embarrassing displays of emotion by shop owners.

Why is it that digitizing has evolved from a painstaking, stitch-by-stitch process into a quick process that takes less than an hour, yet cap production remains just as distressing as ever? Can't someone come up with a simple solution that makes all the cap problems go away?

Problems rarely start with the equipment (though it is true that some machines sew caps better than others). Rather, it's usually the design of the caps that causes problems. And with literally thousands of headwear styles in the marketplace, it's rare to find any two styles just alike in shape, size and construction.

Each style and brand of cap has its own characteristics that can get in the way of achieving high-quality embroidery. In fact, some caps simply can't be sewn on your machine.

Now for the good news: You can conquer the challenge of sewing on caps if you understand what causes the headaches in the first place and then apply some reasonable and simple solutions.

Because of their physical design, caps are an entirely different beast from almost any other product through which you will ever push a needle. To begin with, embroidered logos are designed to be flat, while caps are, without a doubt, curved. The sewing process tries to flatten the curvature of the cap, which can cause distortion in the cap fabric, as well as the embroidery. This is further complicated by the fact that most popular cap crowns have compound curves, both horizontal and vertical.

Another potential problem is reduced crown height on low-profile caps, which allows less room to accommodate the protrusion of the machine sewing arm (where the bobbin resides). If the end of the arm comes into contact with the inside of the crown during sewing, it "pushes" on the fabric, which distorts the cap and leads to quality problems.

Solutions
Now that you have an idea about the limitations of cap design, you can start to examine solutions for the cap problems. A long time ago, I developed two basic rules for cap embroidery that have served me well. If applied correctly, they will eliminate the majority of cap problems. While the rules are quite simple and easy to understand, they can be hard to stick with because they sometimes impose limitations on what you can offer the customer. However, in the long run, your quality will improve, your headaches will subside and everyone will be happier.

Rule No. 1: The Design Must Fit The Cap. The leading cause of cap problems is a design that is too large for the given cap. This goes back to the crown height issue. As the sewing moves higher up the crown, the cap driver moves the cap in closer to the main body of the machine, which forces the sewing arm deeper inside the cap. Once the sewing arm makes contact with the cap fabric, it will push on it and distort the surface, which will affect the embroidery. The result can be outlines that don't line up, distorted lettering and even circles that end up as ovals.

Figure 1

Take a look at Figure 1 and notice where (in the vertical plane) the crown starts to curve back sharply. It's at this point that the sewing arm will start pushing hard against the crown, resulting in cap distortion and poor embroidery.

As I mentioned above, caps are not created equally and some can handle larger designs than others. As a rule, limit your design size to 2" x 41/2" and you should be able to sew on just about any style of cap. You can go larger for some caps, especially with the resurgent five-panel trucker cap, but you will be better off in the long run to make it standard practice to work with tight parameters.

A good test of whether a design fits a cap properly is to place the hooped cap on the machine, load the design and activate the trace function. If you can see the sewing arm rubbing against the crown at any point during the trace, the design is too large.

The toughest aspect of adhering to Rule No. 1 is having to tell a customer his design won't sew right on the cap style he chose. Many embroiderers fear losing the sale and ignore this rule. They plunge full speed ahead with the ordering process, say "Yes" to everything the customer wants, and then struggle through the job with lots of quality issues and hundreds of thread breaks.

Figure 2

It's much more effective to discuss cap limitations with the customer up front and create a workable solution for everyone. Figure 2 illustrates the problem of trying to put too much embroidery on the front of a cap.

The correct approach would be to limit the front design to the fish and much less lettering — just "Joe's Tackle Shop" and "Wilmington, NC." would work. The phone number is a waste, as most people don't remember phone numbers from caps.

Suggest putting the Web site address on one side of the cap and the slogan on the back of the cap. The customer gets what he wants, the quality will be much better and you can charge more money for the additional locations.

Also, having the customer focus on the smaller size helps get an order started on the right foot. It's much easier to increase the size of a design for a larger cap than to decrease it for a smaller cap.

Rule No. 2: The Cap Must Fit The Frame. "One size fits all" does not apply to cap frames. It's imperative that the frame curvature matches the horizontal curve of the cap as closely as possible. If these two curves don't match, then the cap will have to be forced to fit the frame. That will cause distortion in the front panel, which will result in sewing problems.

Figure 3

In Figure 3, you can see a cap that is wider than the cap frame. To hoop it, you will have to push it in on the sides. But pushing in from the sides causes the front panel to push out, altering its natural shape and likely causing quality problems. In addition, if the front panel is pushed outward, it will not lie against the needle plate while sewing. That causes flagging, or bouncing, while sewing. Flagging causes thread and needle breaks. A properly framed cap will maintain its shape and the back inside of the front panel will lightly rest (not drag) on the needle plate of the embroidery machine.

Keep this in mind: If it's difficult to hoop, it will probably be difficult to sew. Therefore, that particular style and/or brand of cap is not an ideal choice.

Your goals when hooping hats are:

• Maintain the natural shape of the cap as much as possible.

• Ensure that the back inside of the front panel(s) of the cap are lightly touching the needle plate of the machine during sewing.

• No puckers or wrinkles in the cap fabric.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows two properly hooped caps. The design on the cap on the right ends before the abrupt curvature of the cap begins. Also notice how straight the front of the crown is in relation to the placement of the embroidery. The cap on the left has just a small amount of the top of the design going into the curve back area of the crown.

Because there are thousands of different templates used by headwear manufacturers, there is no guarantee that a particular cap will fit your frames. This means you must experiment with different styles and brands until you find what works well with your machine.

You also will have to limit what you offer to the customer. It's very tempting to give the customer a catalog of headwear to browse through and let him choose what he wants. But, it's not very practical if you haven't tested all of the caps in that catalog. Therefore, you should create a sample kit of the caps that you know work well for you and use these to show the customer his choices.

You also could create your own catalog using desktop publishing software, a scanner and a photo-quality inkjet printer. Simply scan pictures from various catalogs that you order from to create your own custom catalog. Be sure to check with each manufacturer or distributor to ensure that it is OK to use their catalog pictures. This will help you avoid copyright issues.

Thread & Needle Breaks
For the upper thread to mate with the bobbin thread, it's necessary for the needle to make a smooth transition through the fabric. When the needle encounters resistance, it may bend away from the vertical path of travel. In some cases, the slight needle deflection will cause the upper thread to miss the bobbin hook pickup point, which results in a thread break.

In other cases, there is enough needle deflection that the thread rubs against the inside edge of the hole in the needle plate, which generally causes the thread to start shredding. In more severe cases, the needle deflects so much that the tip strikes the needle plate and breaks.

Proper cap selection and hooping will ensure that the needle has an unobstructed path for sewing. However, if there is any flagging during sewing, the needle will be forced out of its natural path, making thread breaks and needle breaks more likely.

Six-panel caps are more prone to flagging than any other cap style because they usually have a small air gap between the backside of the seam and the needle plate when hooped and installed on the machine. During sewing, the gap is forced to compress and release, which in turn leads to needle deflection.

So, does this make all six-panel caps difficult, or even impossible, to sew? No. Go back to Rules No. 1 and No. 2, as they will go a long way toward solving problems with cap production for all styles.

Once you are sure you have made all the right choices for design and cap setup, there are a few other things you can do to smooth the production process even more.

For one, make sure you use the best needle. The 75/11 ball point is the most commonly used needle in any shop and will work on most caps. However, you may switch to a sharp point when dealing with thick center seams and/or stiff caps. Since they cut the fabric, sharps have less of a tendency to deflect. Also, you may need to switch to a larger needle, such as the 80/12, to further reduce the tendency to deflect. Another option is to use a Teflon-coated needle, since it generally passes through fabric a little more smoothly than the traditional stainless steel needle.

The choice of backing also makes a difference. Not all caps need backing, but the unconstructed styles do. Heavy, stiff backing will reduce cap sewing problems by maintaining the cap shape during sewing. However, instead of using traditional non-woven backing, consider using a sheet of standard copy paper, folded three times, like a business letter. This size will fit almost any cap front and adds more stability than the heaviest fabric backing. And more importantly it will help to fill in the "air gap" that is so pervasive with six-panel styles. When finished, it tears out just like standard tear-away backing.

Don't let the customer talk you into something that's outside of the parameters for quality cap embroidery. Set your standards and stick to them; you and the customer will be happier.

Award-winning author and international speaker Jimmy Lamb is the director of training and education for Tajima USA Sales & Support by Hirsch. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and trade shows. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Jimmy at jlamb@tajima-hirsch.com.

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