Here, your design is stitched rather than printed. It’s programmed into an embroidery machine, which then stitches straight onto the garment using different colours of thread.

Embroidery is popular because it gives a hardwearing finish and a premium look. While there are some limits – like the size of the design, or the amount of detail that can be reproduced – it’s a great way to get a high-quality result however many garments you need.

Embroidered designs are long-lasting, hardwearing and colourful. The threads have a slight sheen and the stitched texture adds a premium feel to your branding. A huge range of colours is available and we’ll be happy to recommend the closest matches to your artwork.

There’s plenty of other advantages, too. Embroidery is cost effective for large or small orders and can be used on a wide range of clothes and fabrics, even over seams. It can also be a good choice if your artwork isn’t of a high enough quality or resolution for printing.

It’s difficult to reproduce fine details and colour gradients with embroidery thread and, while we can usually match colours closely, you won’t be able to get an exact Pantone match.

There’s also a limit to the amount of different colours that can be used on each design. For these reasons, if your design is very exacting you might prefer a print technique such as direct to garment.

Due to the nature of embroidery, it’s often not suitable for large designs or blocks of solid colour. If you’re looking to embroider something like a jacket, we'd recommend applying a waterproof patch to the reverse of the embroidery, as the stitches will make tiny holes in the fabric.