Puffy style embroidery is pretty expensive to have done with custom designs. Some places online or in meatspace quoted me around 80 bucks for a single hat! (setup fees and whatnot). So I decided to embroider my own hat in the style of New Era caps and the like. I also don't have the ability to make a machine do any of the work, so I did it all by hand. The end result is pretty neat, and I think the effort for a completely original hat is worth it.
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials
You don't need a whole to get this project going, and everything but the hat can be found at Joann's or a similar place for less than 10 bucks.
You will need:
- A Hat. Flat Brimmed, a solid color, and some stickers is what I went for. I found some from a store in Florida on E-Bay which shipped super super quick and were 12 bucks including shipping.
- Embroidery Thread. The kind I used was in the hand embroidery section, and it comes a thick thread composed of 6 strands.
- A Needle. I used one which had the skinniest eye I wanted to try and put 3 strands of the thread through.
- Craft Foam. This is what makes the embroidery puff out. I picked the same color as my thread, so any gaps in coverage wouldn't be too noticable. I used foam that was 3 mm thick. It comes by the sheet.
- Thread Locker. This was recommended to me as a way to secure the loose threads on the inside of the cap. The bottle is called Fray Check. If you want to tie all the loose ends together, don't worry about this, I just need it because I didn't pay attention to doing it in a more proper way (See the fifth step for more on this).
- Time. I didn't use a timer, but fidgeting the image, and doing a test piece for the complicated areas put this project around 15 hours. My second hat took around 6.
You will need:
- A Hat. Flat Brimmed, a solid color, and some stickers is what I went for. I found some from a store in Florida on E-Bay which shipped super super quick and were 12 bucks including shipping.
- Embroidery Thread. The kind I used was in the hand embroidery section, and it comes a thick thread composed of 6 strands.
- A Needle. I used one which had the skinniest eye I wanted to try and put 3 strands of the thread through.
- Craft Foam. This is what makes the embroidery puff out. I picked the same color as my thread, so any gaps in coverage wouldn't be too noticable. I used foam that was 3 mm thick. It comes by the sheet.
- Thread Locker. This was recommended to me as a way to secure the loose threads on the inside of the cap. The bottle is called Fray Check. If you want to tie all the loose ends together, don't worry about this, I just need it because I didn't pay attention to doing it in a more proper way (See the fifth step for more on this).
- Time. I didn't use a timer, but fidgeting the image, and doing a test piece for the complicated areas put this project around 15 hours. My second hat took around 6.
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And by "recombine" do you just mean group them or twist it in some way?
I'm looking to make my own hat too. Lids wants to charge $50 per image on top of the Image fee of about $10 on top of a $16 hat. So yeah, same as your $80 quote (if I only do one spot)