Monday, February 26, 2007
Embroidery Help!
I have a lame question only an Air Force guy could ask, but it's for a good cause.
Is anyone out there familiar with embroidery? I have an illustration I need to get embroidered, but some of the stores I've talked to have informed me that the image needs to be 'digitized', or converted into the format their embroidery machines use. Easy enough, except they all want about $50 bones per image just to convert the damn things.
Questions:
1) Does anyone know which format embroidery machines use?
2) Is that format easy to convert to using other imaging programs?
Now, the reason I'm asking is because for years now I've been trying to find 'girly' pilot clothing and gear for my daughters. I live next to an Air Force base, yet all the pilot stuff is for boys. I want my girls to wear patches and cool shirts as well, and to always know that they too can fly if they want. Flying isn't just for boys. (Look at the Navy)
So, I finally gave up and had MauserGirl design some outstanding girl wings, patches, and images fitting for two little girls to wear. She did an amazing job by the way. Send her an email if you ever need something. My next step is to have these images embroidered onto some cool shirts and jackets for the girls, but now I'm hitting a wall. How do you get images embroidered onto clothing without spending a fortune?
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated, and possibly rewarded! Not to mention there are two little girls who'd be very happy to get their own set of wings some time this century if I ever get off my arse and get this done.
Thanks!
posted by El Capitan at 4:18 PM
8 Comments:
said...
EC-
I'm assuming you know about CFPA? www.fighterchicks.com
These are the ladies that a lad like me simply hopes to talk to some day. They are the Prom Queens to my freshman Band practice. Gurgle.
-SV
said...
Never heard of the CFPA before. I just have one issue with the content of that page. It's in the FAQ section:
Q. How can I become a fighter pilot? A. Get a college degree, get a commission, don't suck in pilot training. (Kick butt.)
It's not quite that easy or simple. It's even harder when you have an unsupportive chain of command. I actually had a squadron commander who told me that it wasn't worth going for aviation because the Air Force really existed for our AFSC. Uh huh, sure. And finally, that flight physical is a lot harder than it looks....and there's nothing you can do about it.
Tumbleweed.
said...
Look for shops in your area that do custom embroidery - often the same businesses also offer custom screen printing and such.
Most commercial embroidery places have a machine that can scan the designs and digitize them to be embroidered.
There are many websites online that you can email your design to and they will digitize and embroider it for you. I recently had some decals done for my SUV based on a design I did, and it's pretty much the same process.
El Capitan said...
So far the best info I found was through Wikipedia. Under Machine Embroidery, it lists all the different formats, and then offers links to some of those programs for free.
I thought the local shops would be cheap, but they wanted anywhere from 40-80$ just to convert the file into their own little format for their machines.
Barbara Streisand! No way in hell I'm spending that much money PER IMAGE to convert a file. I'll just walk in with as many different formats as I can to see if one of them works.
Thanks for the info! Also, MG, a huge thanks again for doing what you do, and doing it well.
Southern (in)Sanity said...
I think mauser girl is right. The best thing to do is check with the place that is going to do the embroidery for you.
They can tell you exactly what format they need.
My sister-in-law has done that several times for custom embroidery she's done.
said...
and what´s wrong with the boys pilot suits?
can´t be any worse than the new ABU´s.
or go TDY to songtan ville
said...
Capi!
You probably need a vector (line art) file versus a raster (picture) file... Instead of a .jpg, it might need to be a .eps file.... I would have commented DAYS ago, but for whatever reason, blogspot was recognizing me for the spammer that I am.... Look and see but no touchy.
If you send me the image at work, I might be able to hook you up (depending on the level of difficulty).... I am working for a new Capt, actually.... New bossman. Life's getting more and more interesting.
-Allicadem
El Capitan said...
Sweet! I'll contact you when I get back into the office. For now I'm on my death bed.
5:29 PM