Learn how fringe embroidery can elevate your promotional clothing designs
Introducing the Disco Cowgirl hoodie! This design draws inspiration from the top Summer 2024 fashion trends, including disco vibes, silver metallics, and western fringe. At Screenworks, we continuously explore new techniques to push the boundaries of garment decoration. This past month, we experimented with fringe embroidery to bring you this striking festival-ready look!
In this blog, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to achieve this special effect, along with insider tips on fringe embroidery and how to incorporate it into your next project.
After watching the Pinterest ad below, our in-house artwork team drew inspiration to create this unique Disco Cowgirl look—and if you keep up with trends, you’ll see exactly why.
How it’s done:
To achieve a memorable special effect, start by brainstorming techniques that reflect the nature of the artwork. Conceptualizing the design with a chosen technique in mind is what leads to an impactful result. Sure, adding fringe embroidery to text is easy. The challenge lies in incorporating the special effect in the right context—like a western disco hat!
Our team is trained for this, so if you want to incorporate special effects into your merchandise but aren’t sure where to start, we’re here to help. We’d be delighted to offer advice and guide you through the process.
For this mixed media special effect, we created the artwork in two parts: first, the embroidered hat outline with the fringe, and second, the mirror transfer. We hand-drew the mirror transfer before converting it into a vector file using Adobe Illustrator. It’s crucial to ensure the artwork is clean and precise as transfers are lasered with exact accuracy.
How do I incorporate fringe embroidery into my designs?
Fringe embroidery is a highly versatile decoration technique. You can choose to use it traditionally, as we did with the cowboy hat or, you can let your imagination run wild by taking inspiration from the swatches below. Fringe is the perfect effect to add fluffy textures to a design, making it ideal for adding depth to flowers, animal motifs, or to add a soft touch 3D element to an otherwise flat embroidery design.
As you can see, fringe can be used to elevate text and can also be layered in multiple colours to achieve your desired look. Below, you’ll find examples of what you can achieve with fringe embroidery; however it doesn’t stop there. For more inspiration, check out Pinterest—it’s a fantastic resource for creative ideas!
A few things to consider before diving in:
- Fringe embroidery is suitable for multiple fabric types!
- The effect is ideal to decorate garments, bags, hats & accessories.
- It’s ideal for designs including; hair, fringe & tassels, feathering or any soft features.
- The fringe stitch is maximum 20mm in length – it’s an accent piece.
Curious to know how you can combine special effects for your design? There are so many to choose from; and it can be tricky to know how & when to use them. Luckily, our team are here to walk you through the process!
Article references:
Image 1: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/815573814561452289/ accessed 29.08.2024
Image 2: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/680606562456387258/ accessed 29.08.2024
Image 3: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/815573814572286242/ accessed 29.08.2024
