How to Embroider Hat or Cap, Complete Guides

Choose your Hat or Cap for Embroidery

When you look in the catalog, there are hundreds and thousands of choices in terms of color combinations, back closures, crown styles, material selection, and more. There are a wide variety of caps available, but in general, there are three types.

a). OPF (one-piece front) hats

b). University / College Hats

c). Sports hats

a) OPF (one-piece front) caps

The OPF is generally classified for the hats of farmers and truck drivers. These hats are backed by laminated foam, and the rest of the hat is made of mesh material.

The mesh material is usually made of nylon or polyester. Mesh is also a water repellent, so it is classified as a hat for farmers and truck drivers.

b) University / College Hats

University hats are always focused on inventing the perfect hats. These hats are worn on the head, so it is important that the hopping is done properly. In addition, the front panel of these hats does not have laminated baking.

c) Sports hats

Sports hats are the most popularized hat design, specifically for embroidery. Sports caps are used for out-of-door and inner exercise. The baseball twisted provides shade to the face and protects it from sunshine. 

 The hat has a center confluence down the middle of the frontal panel and laminated backing. commonly, aches are made on the center confluence of the frontal panel. 

• You may also like: How to Embroider a 4-Sided Hat with 3D Puff Embroidery

4Embroidery Problems with Hats, thier Solution

Not enough space

Your client may have the coolest logo in the world, but if it can’t be shrunk to fit the world of hats, no one will appreciate it. Hats have a limited amount of embroidery space – usually only 2.25 inches more, but that number varies depending on the type of hat and how it is made.

Solution: Make sure your client knows exactly what kind of hat they want so that you can be clear about the artwork requirements. Better yet, know the limits and let them know in advance.

No Stability

Caps are a mess when it comes to stability. The bill is usually quite strong, but from there, there is nothing to stop the fabric from spinning during embroidery. This means that the designs can clump or move out of place.

Solution: Work from the bottom up. Make sure the embroidery starts at the strongest part of the hat (bill) and extends outward from the center. It pushes the fabric instead of pulling, which makes it stiffer and reduces the consequences of instability.

That Annoying Seam

The six-panel caps, the most common type, are a headache in their own right because of the seam that runs just below the front embroidery space. The difference in the thickness of the fabric in this seam (high on both sides and low in the middle) can cause major distortions in your client’s design.

Solution: This can be as simple as enlarging the logo or minimizing the detail, especially if the text is small. Thus the intricate aspects of letters or logos will not seem strange when they interact with seams. Also try to check the cap in advance, so that you can choose the one that has the least difference in height between the panel and the seam.

Distortion of artwork

Hats present a particular challenge when working with art, as the shape is not like a garment or product that can be flattened when embroidered. What ends up being a final image is distorted. This is especially true with circular logos that look like an oval or egg once on the hat.

Solution: Digitizing embroidery. You’ll want to make sure it’s designed for anyone who wants to wear a hat. A good digitizer, like Idea in Custom Solutions, will be able to modify the design to make sure it shows exactly how you want it on the finished product.

Types of Hat Embroidery

When you are going to embroider a hat, there are many things to consider about the right place and the size of the hoop. There are two different ways to embroider your hat. Either you can embroider it by hand, or you can use embroidery machines.

Many embroidery machines in the market bring ease, quality, and speed at the same time.

Hat embroidery with a machine takes less time and less effort. Most multi-needle embroidery machines can handle almost all sides of the cap from the front, back, and spaces.

Most embroidery is done on the front of the hat. Designed to face even the most basic frames. But now, for commercial use, wide-angle cap frames are designed to cover almost all sides of the cap, front, back, and both sides. Most caps or baseball caps are embroidered before sewing. However, once the hat is sewn, it is not easy to embroider.

Hat Embroidery with Embroidery Machine

1. Embroidering the Front and Center of the Hat with Machine

The front of the hat is a more important part of the embroidery, as mentioned earlier. Most frames are designed to cover the front. The most important type is whether the front part is made or not. Bikram is used to stabilize the front of the hat. Fused Bikram helps the crown to stand firmly. It gives shape and strength to the hat.

This is not the case with unmade hats and they are floppy. For non-woven caps, it is important to provide support. The back of the hat is tight and gives the hat strength and durability. You can also use soft buckram baking. When placing on structured caps, it is not necessary to place the back clip-on wide-angle frame.

Experts do not recommend using back clips for largely designed frames. This gives the hat a little flexibility and prevents distortion in the upper design of the hat.

2. Embroidering The Side Of Hats with Machine

Back clips are used for side placement. Back clips are designed for side placement. There are a variety of broad-angle frameworks. The only difference is the rear clip.

Some wide-angle frames have a large clip or one on each side of the back.

Some brands use multi-clips. When doing side placements on caps, side clips must be used. 

As back-capping may be optional for front placement, but back placement, it is necessary because there is no fused Bikram around the cap, so it should be stable. For mesh caps and single tortilla caps, a piece of backcaping will work well. 

The purpose of the backing is to provide the material needed to hold the stitches together. It is also possible to sew on a mesh cap with proper stability.

One problem with hopping a hat is keeping the baking in place. This is because the frame does not support baking, and it falls off when it is removed from the framing device. 

You can resolve this challenge by applying double-sided tape on the side of the framing device. To use the tape, peel off the baking paper and stick it on the tape. This will prevent the baking paper from falling out, and the cap can be freely blown off, after which it can be freely shelled off the frame. 

3. Embroidering The Back Of Hats with Machine

To fit the cap on the back, most machines come with a 12cm 0r 4.5 round hop, the perfect size to fit on the back of the cap. There are many attachments available in the market for back placement as the back placement is very straightforward.

You can use traditional round hoops for back placement, eliminating the need for special placement tools.

To determine the location, you must first align the cap. Use some symbols to align it. The seam between 6 and 12 o’clock should be attached to the clock. The edge should be attached to some other mark. The cape back should cover the entire hoop to provide the best stability.

You may interested: Best Embroidery Machine For Hats. If you’d like to learn more about different stabilizers, and when and where to use them, check out our Complete Guide to Machine Embroidery Stabilizers. 

Hat Embroidery with Hand

The cost of hand embroidery is significantly lower than that of machine embroidery. With just a little practice, one can easily master this skill. At first, it may take hours or more, but once you master it, you may be able to do it in a few sittings. Small designs can take about three hours, while complex designs can take about seven to ten hours. Just need a little patience.

The following is a list of the most important things to start with.

• Embroidery hoop, scissors, floss, needles, liquid seam sealant, and embroidery cloth.
• Hand embroidered thread should be 6 strands thick.
• A needle with a thin eye is required, through which a thread of 3 strands thickness can easily pass.
• Crafts of any color foam are required, even different from yarn. The thickness of the foam should be 3 mm.
• A thread locker is needed to secure the thread to the cap.

This process is now described step by step below.

Choose a design

Choose the design you want to change your hat. For starters, start with a simple design.

Draw design

Print the design or draw it yourself on sketch paper. Now, using a knife, drill a hole in the foam around the outline of the design. As a result, the design will now be available on foam. The extra bit of foam can be removed with a knife.

Start embroidery

To smooth and flatten the threads, you can separate the threads and reassemble them. However, this is not a necessary step. Start embroidering with the easiest part, then move on to the next part. Take a single stitch and pin around the design aesthetically. 

Sew clothes between different parts of the design to completely cover the foam. The design must be sewn in one direction, either from top to bottom or from right to left. Combining the design will make it look weird. As a beginner, you can leave space when embroidering. This can be avoided by using alternative textures.

Finalizing

As you approach completion, check out the areas where loose threads need to be trimmed and locked. Apply liquid suture sealant to the thread knots to prevent them from igniting and to make them stronger. The sealant will take about 30 minutes to dry. It still can’t smell good when wet. But once it dries, the threads will be strong and not loose, and they will endure anything.

• If foamy areas appear around the thread, use a hairdryer to melt them. But if you find it difficult at first, don’t try it.
• For hand embroidery of letters on the hat, the process is almost identical.
• After copying the letters on the fabric, start sewing it as described above. Apply a liquid sealant to seal it. 
• In all hand embroidery, make sure that the threads are not loose, and that the tension of the thread is maintained throughout the process.

Conclusion

Hat embroidery is both lucrative and fun. It becomes more accessible and convenient when you have a multi-needle machine and a hat frame. One thing that should be given more attention is hopping. 

Hopping should be done properly as wrong hopping leads to disaster. As mentioned earlier, if the hopping is not clear, the embroidery is also not clear. Many of us blame our embroidery machines for the flaws. But this is not an embroidery machine. This is hopping, which is a problem.

Don’t forget to make designs that cover the front and sides of the hat. This will help if you are waiting for the customer’s demands. Use designs that cover the front and back. Use the right software to make your dreams come true.