How Long Does It Take To Embroider?

Embroidery is a fabric art that needs time and patience, and this is applicable not only for beginners. It also applies to long term enthusiasts and professionals.

Aside from knowing the materials, you also need to know the basics. You need to familiarize the basics. It is essential so that you can estimate the time you need to finish your project. But the duration is not always the same. There are a lot of factors that affect the time it takes to embroider.

The factors are the type of embroidery, the design, and the number of stitches needed. These factors also affect professionals in finishing their projects.

But you can always make things easier. There are a lot of techniques that you can use to lessen your production time. As you progress in knitting, you will notice a lot of improvements.

The time you need to finish embroidery also depends on the item that you are knitting. More grandiose projects require more time and vice versa.

How long does it take to embroider a hat?

There are a lot of factors to consider when embroidering a hat. The time it takes to finish one hat depends on the number of stitches. It is also possible that the size of your design can delay production time.

Most of the time, you embroider hats by using a machine. Some of its parts are too hard to be hand-embroidered.

Running a 4000 stitch design at 500 stitches per minute will take about 4-5 minutes to finish. This time estimate includes trimming. It is only possible to achieve this time rate if you are using a machine.

Doing it through hand-made embroidery will take you more than five hours to finish.

How long does it take to embroider a shirt?

Shirts come in different sizes. There are small, medium, large, and even bigger ones. The time it takes to knit one shirt depends on its size.

If you wish to embroider on a baby’s shirt, it may take 5-6 hours to finish.

But if you are planning to embroider an adult shirt, it will take a longer time. The approximate time could be 10-12 hours of nonstop hand embroidery. If you want to take breaks between, it may take around 15 hours to finish.

For shirts that are bigger in sizes, the time it takes to embroider is a lot different. It is because you need to consider some factors when sewing.

You need to consider the size of the design and the materials to use. It might take 14-16 hours of continuous embroidery to finish large shirts.

Do take note that using machine embroidery takes a shorter time to finish.

It takes only half of the total time compared to hand embroidery.

Are you curious why the production time differs in each shirt size? Here’s the step-by-step process of shirt embroidery to give you an idea of how to do it.

1. Prepare all the materials needed: hoop, thread, scissors, and needle.
2. Cut out a stabilizer that is a bit larger than your hoop.
3. Iron the stabilizer into your fabric. Transfer your design to the stabilizer.
4. Put the fabric with a stabilizer in your hoop.
5. Start stitching. Make sure that your fabric remains taut. Place it in your hoop and make sure it does not go up and down.
6. Remove your hoop after stitching.
7. Start to peel all non-stitched stabilizers around your design. Make sure it is no longer connected to the fabric before tearing.
8. Make one straight tear inward to the edge of your design. Do this after you peeled all the excess stabilizers in the fabric.
9. Continue to remove excess stabilizers around the design until it is clean.
10. Remove the stabilizer by stretching out the area around it. Pull and stretch the fabric and stabilizer in different directions as this will help in removing the stabilizer faster. It also brings less strain on the stitches. Use tweezers to help you remove the stabilizer.
11. Once you remove the stabilizer, iron your fabric to make sure that the design will flatten on the shirt and that there are no loose threads.

These are the steps to embroidering a shirt. The time it takes to finish the whole process depends on how fast you can do the stitches. You can always innovate in each step to meet your desired time.

How long does it take to embroider a jacket?

The time to finish an embroidery all depends on the number of stitches you need to run. Larger designs do not always need a lot of stitches. In contrast, smaller designs sometimes need more stitches than expected.

Embroidering a jacket may take 3-4 hours, depending on the complexity of the design. But if you use hand embroidery, the sewing time can reduce into half.

Professionals embroider jackets using a machine. It is because hand embroidery takes a lot of time and effort. If you run an 8000 stitch design at 400 stitches per minute, you can finish in 5-6 minutes.

That is the advantage of using machine embroidery in a jacket. You get to do more in a short period.

How long does it take to embroider a name?

Embroidering a name takes longer than other designs. It is because you have to sew it per letter. You can embroider different designs all at once but not names.

It can be either hand or machine embroidery. For hand embroidery, you can finish a five-letter name in 5-7 hours. That is if you embroider nonstop.

If you prefer machine embroidery, a five-letter name will only take you 1-2 hours. Doing it with a machine helps a lot to lessen your total work time.

If you are curious about how to embroider names, we prepared a guide for you. Here is the step-by-step process of how names are hand-embroidered. Know the reason why it takes a long time to embroider a name.

1. Prepare all the materials needed: fabric, hoops, thread, needle, and scissors. Gather them all together in your embroidery area.
2. Plan out what you will embroider. It is better to trace the name ahead of time. IF not with transfer iron, do it with a marker.
3. Put your fabric in the hoop. Make sure it is taut in the right place and does not move. You will have a difficult time adjusting if it moves up and down.
4. Start stitching the letters one by one. The first stitch that you need to do is the backstitch, and it is an excellent method for script fonts that have thick and thin outlines. You can start by stitching the shapes. For this stitch style, you will need about six strands of embroidery floss.
5. Continue stitching. Follow the pattern you traced with the marker. The good thing about it is that you can have a guide on what to sew next.
6. After stitching all the letters, tie the embroidery thread to make sure that the letters do not come undone.
7. Check the back of your fabric to see if everything is in place. Try to see if there are no loose threads left behind.
8. If everything is okay, wash your fabric to help you remove the markers of the letters. When your shirt dries, iron it to flatten the embroidery.

Those are the simple processes on how to embroider letters. You need to know how many stitches you are making. It is essential so that you will know how long you have to do the embroidery.

How long does it take to embroider a logo?

Logos are more challenging to embroider than letters. It has a lot of details that you have to be careful with. Aside from letters, it can also contain symbols and specific images.

Those characters make it challenging to embroider in a short period. But if you do it with a machine, it will take about 1-2 hours to finish.

I do not recommend hand embroidery when embroidering a logo. It is very detailed and will need a lot of time if done by hand.

Running a 3000 stitch design logo in 400 stitches per minute will only take you 3-4 minutes. It is possible when using a machine. But if you do it by hand, it will take you around 2-3 hours to finish.

Embroidering a logo by hand is possible only when you are not in a hurry. But if you are catering to bulk orders, it is not possible at all.

How long does it take to embroider a patch?

Patches and logos are the same when it comes to embroidery. Both of them are very detailed that it takes a lot of time to do it. But patches are more complicated.

It is because you have to embroider the details in a small-shaped fabric. You can see patches embroidered in circles or squares. There are times that you can see it embroidered in an irregular shape.

It all depends on how you want it to look. Most of the patches are machine-made like the ones for clubs and offices. Hand-made patches are only for personal use or as a gift for friends.

If you hand embroider one patch, it will take you one whole day to finish. That includes breaks between hours. But if you use a machine to embroider patches, it will take less than a day to complete.

You can run 400 stitches per minute and finish it in 4-5 hours of continuous work. Since patches are very detailed, machine embroidery also takes longer than the normal. It is because you have to be careful with the small details.

How long does it take to embroider a dress?

A dress is one of those items that are difficult to embroider. It needs a lot of work and time. Imagine embroidering a whole dress with a very detailed design. You will need days to finish that.

Some prefer to do it by hand to make it more personal. But it will take a very long time to finish. If you embroider it by hand, you can only run less than 100 stitches per minute.

To complete the full dress, you need to work on it for a week or more. It all depends on how fast you stitch and the time you allot to finish it.

Most professionals embroider a dress using a machine. They can finish ahead of time and can lessen the amount of work. If you embroider a dress using a machine, you can finish it in a day or two.

You can run 500 stitches per minute, and that helps a lot. Designs for an embroidered dress are often complicated and elegant, which is why professionals recommend to do it with a machine rather than by hand.

Related: 

How long does it take to knit a blanket?

How long does it take to embroider 10000 stitches?

The number of stitches you run per minute matters a lot. It is the basis of how long you can finish embroidering an item. If you are using a machine, you can embroider 10,000 stitches in 20 minutes.

To do that, you need to run 500 stitches per minute. If you prefer to use hand embroidery, 10,000 stitches will take hours to finish. Running less than 500 stitches per minute can result in longer embroidery time. But when you run more stitches per minute, it can lessen the embroidery time.

Embroidering an item takes a lot of time and effort. Like other fabric crafts, it is also a tiring but fun activity. You can master running stitches in shorter hours. Either by hand or by using a machine. Both processes have advantages and disadvantages but are both fun.

There is an importance of knowing how long you can finish a certain number of stitches. It allows you to expect how many hours or days you need to complete a project.

With that, you can plan ahead of time. You can also plan on how to lessen the time of work. Also, you can think ahead what are the techniques that you can use in stitching.