3d Puff Embroidery
What is 3D puff embroidery?
3D puff embroidery is a type of embroidery that uses dense foam material under the embroidery stitches to help raise the design. This specialty embroidery technique is often used to add dimension and interest to logos, patches, and other designs.
3D puff embroidery can be used to create a variety of effects, from simple shapes and letters to complex images and logos. It’s a popular choice for company uniforms, sports team jerseys, hats, bags, and other garments that need a strong visual impact.
When business requests embroidered hats, the very first thing we highly recommend is to add 3d puff foam embroidery to their design. Any embroidery company near you can do regular embroidery, but there are only a handful of embroidery companies that understand the techniques of how to embroider properly for 3D puff. It sets your custom hats or apparel apart from the rest and makes your product stand out!
The 3D puff embroidery process is complex and requires a high level of skill to execute correctly, but we’re here to make ordering custom 3d embroidered hats and accessories easy for you. Zome Design has the experience and expertise to produce 3D puff embroidery designs that meet the highest quality standards. If you are looking for a unique way to promote your brand or show your support for your favorite team, 3D puff embroidery may be the perfect solution.
CUSTOM 3D PUFF EMBROIDERY ORDER PROCESS OVERVIEW
1. Pick A Hat or Product
Our swag experts can guide you to find the perfect hat product for your project.
We offer great hat brands like Richardson, Pacific Headwear, New Era, Flexfit & More.
2. Create 3D Puff Embroidery Mockup
Send us your logo or design. Within 2-3 business days, we’ll send you a virtual mockup of your design on the product.
3. Begin 3d Embroidery Production
Once your artwork has been approved, and your quote has been paid, we’ll begin processing your order. Embroidery orders typically ship within 7-10 business days.
What sets our 3d Puff Embroidery apart?
Commercial Embroidery Machines
Zome design uses Tajima embroidery machines, the latest state-of-the-art in embroidery machine technology.
Our 3d puff embroidery is sewn with a digitally controlled presser foot (DCP) that ensures an accurate and consistent stitch. This is important as 3d puff can be challenging to sew, and a misstep can ruin the entire design.
The video to the left shows this DCP in slow motion. You can see how the DCP prevents the fabric from fluttering up and down. This makes a huge difference in the stitch quality of a 3d puff embroidery design.
3D Puff Embroidery Digitizing
It is essential that your logo or design is digitized properly for raised 3d foam. Zome Design uses the embroidery industry’s finest digitizing software, Pulse & Wilcom. From correct stitch underlay settings to the right needle used and even the specific type of thread, there are many factors that only the top leaders in the embroidery industry understand.
3d puff embroidery slo-motion
Highest Quality Supplies
Embroidery Needle Selection:
We use the highest quality German Groz-Bekert sharp embroidery needles. Larger 80/12 needles perforate the puffy foam, ensuring a clean cut when removing the excess foam.
3d Puff Foam
Not all foam is created equal. At Zome Design, we use specially sourced 3d foam that gives our 3d embroidery that crisp, clean-cut edge.
Thicknesses of 3d foam :
3d foam comes in 2-millimeter, 3-millimeter, 4-millimeter, and 6-millimeter sizes and in several different densities. We recommend using the 3-mm dense foam product for most designs. Part of our secret sauce is using a highly dense foam that we specifically source overseas. Many in the embroidery industry use foam from craft stores that are nowhere near the same quality as the foam we import. This is one of the same secret ingredients other cap embroidery companies use, like Richardson Caps and Pacific Headwear, to achieve fantastic results when embroidering their hats.
Layering 3d foam:
Extra dimension can be achieved by layering multiple pieces or thicknesses of 3d foam.
3D Puff Embroidery Design Tips
3D puff embroidery design & size limitations
Our designers and embroidery digitizers can quickly modify your logo or artwork to make them 3d puff friendly.
Below are some things we could modify. Letter shapes are sometimes altered — block letter forms are usually preferred due to their lack of serifs or tiny font details. The 3d embroidery should have an average width of 1/8 inch maximum and 1/8 inch minimum. Larger areas can be broken down – the team will step it up in two stitches to make it wider.
In the example to the right, we made the main text “Post Falls” in 3d puff, and then we made “Brewing Company” standard flat embroidery so that it embroiders cleaner.
When designing for 3d embroidery, consider which elements of your design would be best for puff and which elements may embroider better flat.
Recommended 3D embroidery design size guidelines for hats
Low-profile & Unstructured hats:
- Max design size: 4.5″w x 2.125″h
- Popular examples:
- Richardson Low Profile Trucker 115
- Richardson Garment Washed Twill Hat R55
- Richardson Premium Cotton Dad Hat 252
- Port & Company Brushed Twill Low Profile Cap CP77
- Sportsman Valucap Bio-Washed Classic Dad Hat VC300A
- Popular examples:
Mid-profile hats:
- Max design size:4.5x”w x 2.25″h (2.5″ absolute max select designs)
- Popular examples:
- Port Authority Snapback Trucker Cap C112
- Yupoong Trucker Cap 6606
- Richardson Snapback Trucker Cap 112
- Flexfit Cotton Blend Cap 6277
- Flexfit 110 Cap
- Popular examples:
High-profile hats:
- Max design size:4.5″w x 2.5″h
- Popular examples:
- Yupoong Flat Bill Trucker Cap 6006
- Yupoong Flat Bill Snapback Cap 6089M
- Richardson Wool Flatbill Snapback 510
- Richardson Wool Blend Flatbill Trucker 511
- Popular examples:
The Post Falls Brewing 3d Embroidered Hat shows an example of a Richardson 112 Snapback Mid-Profile Hat embroidered with a 4.09″w x 2.5″h. This design works because the peak parts of the water tower do not go over the center seam of the cap.
Once the top of the hat starts to curve back at the top, threads and even needles can start to break. If the tallest point of your design will go over the seam, it is recommended not to go above 2.25″h.
Advanced Design & Digitizing Tips for 3d puff embroidery lines and fonts:
The minimum line weight should be 3mm (.12″).
Maximum width should be no more than 11.9mm (.47″)
Small Embroidery Text recommendations:
For smaller embroidery text, we recommend using flat embroidery. An example of when to use 3d puff embroidery vs. flat embroidery for small fonts would be using the company or sports team name in a bold 3d puff font and then the tagline or subject in flat embroidery.
An industry-wide suggested minimum font size for embroidery lettering is 1/4″, anything less, and you may run into quality consistency issues. The absolute minimum embroidery font size is 0.175″h. It is best to use all caps and san-serif fonts.
Our embroidery machine operators are experts at making small embroidered text look as good as possible on baseball caps.
Zome Design has been featured in training videos, demonstrating to other embroidery businesses the appropriate techniques and best tips for how to embroider small lettering and text.
3D Puff Embroidery Detailed Steps
3D Embroidery Step-by-Step Process
- All flat embroidery is typically stitched first.
- A piece of dense puff foam is placed over the area that is to have 3d puff foam.
- The embroidery machine stitches the area that will be raised with 3d puff.
- The excess foam piece is removed, and any remaining part of the design continues to embroider
- After the design is stitched, our quality control team inspects the embroidery threads to ensure that no 3d foam is sticking out of the stitching. We utilize a heat gun to shrink back the foam. The heat gun also helps give the design a nice tight look. A specific 3d puff tool is used to poke back or pull out any remaining excess foam.
As you can see, 3d puff embroidery is labor-intensive and requires additional embroidery supplies.
Contract Wholesale 3D Puff Embroidery
Wholesale 3d embroidery pricing is available for approved promotional product ASI/PPAI distributors.
Free inbound shipping on all orders from SanMar (PSST), S&S (Freight Advantage), and AlphaBroder (MPACT).
If you’re looking for a leader in the embroidery industry for your business, Zome Design is your trusted source for regular embroidery work and more complex 3d puff hat orders.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
No, we have a 12-piece minimum. However, we will embroider 1 sample piece first for you to approve the quality. For better pricing, we recommend at least a 24-piece order.
Yes, embroidery thread color changes are allowed on every 12 pieces. It is a lot of work to re-thread the embroidery machine between embroidery runs, so we just ask that you do it every 12 pieces at the minimum. You will still maintain your overall price break.
Yes, we offer embroidery price breaks at 12, 24, 72, 144, 288+
For larger orders, we can outsource overseas.
3D puff embroidery is more difficult than regular flat embroidery. The stitch consistency and settings are important, as are the type of foam used and the needle selection.
If you’re interested in adding 3D puff embroidery to your next project, contact us today! We’ll be happy to provide a free quote and help you choose the right design for your needs.
Yes, embroidery with 3D puff typically costs around $2.00-5.00 more per design than regular embroidery due to the increased density of stitches needed for the foam and added materials like the foam and taping. Furthermore, clean-up work, such as using a heat gun, a 3D puff pro tool, and removing any loose pieces of foam is labor intensive. It requires slowing down the embroidery machines by 25-40% to help prevent thread breaks as well as keep the details of the design sharp.
The whole process of puffy foam embroidery from start to finish can be complex, but we try to make it as easy as possible for you! You can expect an order to take anywhere from 7-14 days, depending on the order size.
1/4″ Embroidery industry standard recommended.
.17h” absolute minimum.
Best to use all caps and san-serif fonts for small letter embroidery.
3D PUFF EMBROIDERY PORTFOLIO
