Guides
These guides are written from running a small machine embroidery shop. They cover equipment and startup costs, taking custom orders without losing half the details in a message thread, and the questions that keep a piece from being stitched twice.
, 13 minute read
Sending out a left-chest logo runs about $10 to $25 from services that publish their rates. Learning to digitize costs $0 to $1,199 in software plus months of practice. Here is how to decide which side of that trade you belong on.
, 12 minute read
Most 'free embroidery software' lists count 30-day trials as free. This one doesn't. Here is what Ink/Stitch, Embrilliance Express, MyEditor, Bernina ARTlink, and the machine-brand tools genuinely do at zero dollars, and the one thing you still can't get free.
, 3 minute read
A folder system is free, a desktop thumbnailer is a one-time cost, a cloud organizer starts at $9.99 a month, and shop software puts the library where the orders happen. Here is what each one actually solves, and what it honestly does not.
, 16 minute read
A working list of everything a one-person embroidery shop touches besides the machine, organized by the job each tool does. For each job: the free way, the cheap way, and when paying actually pays.
, 13 minute read
Machine embroidery software is not one product. It is four separate categories, and most beginners only need one or two of them. Here is what each category does, real current prices, and what owners complain about.
, 6 minute read
The standard policy for custom embroidery is payment in full before stitching, with one exception: established business accounts, where a 50% deposit with the balance on delivery is the trade norm. Here is why the policy exists, how to state it, and how to handle the customer who pushes back.
, 5 minute read
A turnaround time is a promise about your whole pipeline, not about one machine run. Here is how to set a window you can keep, when the clock should start, what to publish, and how to charge for rushes instead of absorbing them.
, 6 minute read
The standard method is a rate per 1,000 stitches, and the working range is $1 to $3 per thousand. Here is how that formula actually works, what it leaves out, where new embroiderers underprice themselves, and a free calculator that does the math.
, 5 minute read
Four systems cover every embroidery shop: paper, a spreadsheet, a general project tool, or purpose-built order management software. Each one is right for somebody. Here is what an order record has to hold, where each system breaks, and how to tell which one your shop needs.
, 6 minute read
The whole invoice, published on this page with nothing to sign up for. Every section a machine embroidery invoice needs, line-item wording that justifies your price without a negotiation, a terms block, and the handful of habits that get invoices paid on time.
, 6 minute read
Cutaway is the safe answer on knits and nobody argues with that. The article is what comes with it: scratchy backs, the badge effect on thin fabric, show-through, hooping stretch, trimming labor nobody agrees on, and a wrinkling problem that one seller has thrown six different fixes at without solving.
, 9 minute read
The honest version. What the equipment costs, what digitizing is and whether you should buy the software, the stabilizer and thread you actually need, what to sell first, where customers come from, and the business paperwork nobody warns you about.
, 5 minute read
Ask whether no-show mesh can replace cutaway everywhere and you get four different answers from five people, all of whom sound like they know what they are doing. Here is that disagreement laid out, what is genuinely settled, and the complaints that come from using it.
, 5 minute read
Sticky backing solves a real problem on unhoopable items and caps, and there it is uncontroversial. The warnings worth knowing are about adhesive inside the machine and one seller's report of designs wrinkling after washing. The evidence here is thinner than for cutaway or tearaway, and this article says so.
, 7 minute read
An order that arrives as a conversation is not an order yet. Here is every detail an embroidered apparel order needs answered, how to collect all of it in one message instead of six, and why a paid order with an unanswered question is still open.
, 6 minute read
The list of jobs where working embroiderers genuinely endorse tearaway is shorter than most guides suggest. Here is that list, the complaints that come up over and over, the bits between letters that nobody has a clean answer for, and the real argument about substituting two layers of tearaway for one cutaway.
, 8 minute read
We make one of these products, so read this with that in mind. Here is what each piece of embroidery business software costs, what problem it solves, and the kind of shop it was built around, organized by situation rather than by rank.
, 13 minute read
The whole form, published on this page, with nothing to sign up for. Every field a machine embroidery order needs, the helper text that stops customers guessing, a terms block covering payment and turnaround, and how to adapt it for hats, blankets, and customer-supplied garments.
, 6 minute read
The split on water-soluble topping runs roughly along hobbyist versus commercial shop lines, and both sides are blunt about it. Where it is genuinely agreed, what it does not fix, and the separate argument about using water-soluble as a full backing.
, 8 minute read
Most remakes are not machine problems. They come from a question that was answered, but not the question that needed answering. Here are the specific ones worth asking before the needle moves, and how to get approval in writing.
, 8 minute read
Almost every stabilizer chart online says the same thing, and people who run machines every day pick those charts apart line by line. Here is what the rule is actually for, the two things veterans repeat that beginners never hear, and the questions nobody has answered.
Broidry tracks every order, quote, and payment in one place. Broidry is free until your first sale, with no credit card to start.
The embroidery pricing calculator works out what to charge for a job from its stitch count, blank cost, hooping, and digitizing. Tracking orders on a spreadsheet covers where a sheet holds up for an embroidery shop and where it breaks. The help center is the step-by-step documentation for running a shop on Broidry.