ImagesMagUK_September_2021

apes the patch style through contrasting filled background and border, to a twill appliqué bordered by an immaculate reproduction of the classic overlock- edge texture, the style of patches is one that any embroiderer can implement for almost any logotype or design. As easy as it has traditionally been to draw a border around an existing logo to make either patches or patch-styled designs, the recent advent of tools that create an inflated, contoured shape from a stitch file and add parameterised, patch-style borders makes the ‘digitising’ of such designs almost trivial. Whether you decide to offer your customers a true free-standing emblem The common ‘light fill over twill’ style is a fantastic way to save stitches while maintaining sheen and embroidered texture Stock templates may also include lettering guidelines and envelopes to let you type in your own text for patch- style designs reminiscent of classic layouts without having to style the text yourself or you employ design and digitising techniques to make your traditional embroidery more ‘emblematic’ of the patch style depends largely on your customers’ priorities and your ability to profitably price your product. That said, for those instances where you want to reduce your exposure and remove a step in your decoration process, understanding what makes patches attractive can let you leverage patch-making tools with standard embroidery efficiency to strike an efficient compromise without losing points for style. In this example, two clicks turned the standard cap design on the left into a custom contoured patch with a faux- Merrow border. With simple adjustments to the dynamic patch edge object, the central design was given a fill with coverage density sensible for a garment, with only a minor edit and processing required to remove excessive overlapped areas. The piece on the right was treated with the light fill technique in a colour made to match the substrate so as to create a contrasting stitched texture on the garment without the stitch count of full coverage; the same could be done with an added appliqué to render a contrasting colour from the background The background here makes use of a low-density fill to give the impression of a fully-stitched area, a technique often used to mock full-coverage stitching in patches All images on this page are courtesy of the author/Embrilliance KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 76 images SEPTEMBER 2021 Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator, with more than 20 years’ experience both in production and the management of ecommerce properties. He is the programme manager for the commercial division of BriTon Leap. www.erichcampbell.com