Our Favorite Embroidery Tools

Hey there, folks, Nick here from Colortex and today, we're going to talk about our favorite embroidery tools. If you ever make a mistake with your embroidery, consider visiting our tips for removing embroidery!

Scissors

So to start off, pretty basic tool, scissors. We use these scissors for a variety of different things, but most oftentimes, employees use them to open box when they're not supposed to. But, the real thing that we actually use these for is actually to cut the cutaway backing in the back of garments in order to keep the backing clean once the product is finished. So, this is an important tool for us. Followed up with little snips. These little snips are actually used for a variety of different things. When the embroidery is not perfectly trimmed, we actually cut them out, and then make sure that your embroidery comes out nice and clean. Then, there's often this little piece of thread that's left there, so what we do is we use the lighter. So, essentially what the lighter does is it actually burns or makes that loose thread actually shrink back down. So we kind of just run that on there, and then that embroidery comes out nice and clean. So, basic tool, everyone knows what it is, but we use it in embroidery as a little secret tool.

Small scissors for a thread break

Following that is another scissor, but this one's kind of just a little scissor. It's not a snip. This one here, what we use it for is actually, on the machine when a thread breaks, something needs to be cut on the machine, on the threads, we actually use these ones and cut the threads, cut the stuff back. Following that is actually some nice little tools that has made for us. What this does is actually, it's a little screwdriver. But instead of having that long shaft on there as the needle plates on the embroidery machine, we have the capabilities of taking the screws off like that without having that shaft in the way. So it's a nice little tool the has provided to us. And you'll notice, I always got a couple extras for me from Industries.

Following that is another nice little tool. This one here, it just left middle custom, This one here, what it does is actually helps us to remove the needle plates and the needle nipple on the machine. So from flats to universal to cap, these little nipples are different. So these two little prongs allow us to take them out and take and replace them. So they're great little tool. Without it, we can't change the needle nipple.

Standard Allen Key for the ZSK Machine

Following that is another little tool that we use for on the ZSK machine. Just a standard Allen key that comes in with the machine, but it's got this nice little handle and it's a nice and small. This little thing that kind of goes co-aligned with it is actually a nice little tool that is a magnet that ZSK has made for us to align needles.

And from Trigger Industries is one of her friends. And he's always happy to give me a couple extra ones because as you can see, these things are pretty freaking tiny and we kind of happen to lose them, sadly. So I got a couple extra ones. I keep them in my secret stash. So what this does is this is the Allen key that takes the little screw off so that it loosens the screw in order for us to put the needle in.

Magnets

And then this little magnet, actually, you put it on the flat edge at an angle and it shows us that light little angle on the needle that we need to make sure that everything's perfectly running fine. So this is a nice tool. Thank you again for ZSK and my good friend, Elnor for mastering this little... and giving me some extra ones at ease.

The Needle Ease

Following that with the needle ease. So this little tool here is not a must have, but it's a nice tool to have. You actually place the needle in there and in order to line it up in the machine, you pop that in there, you've got your needle here and then kind of similar to what ZSK's tool does in terms of the magnetic little piece is it actually shows up the line and it holds everything together while we use that Allen key screwdriver to kind of tighten everything back together. So not a must have but it's a nice little tool made in the USA. That again, a good friend Elnor from Trigger Industries provides to us.

3D puff pro tool

Following that is essentially another nice little tool that Elnor's got for us. This 3D puff pro tool. So we used to make some Jimmy rig tools in order to push the puff foam back into the embroidery. When you remove that layer of embroidery and keep it all nice and clean.

We used scissors, corners, flat screw drivers and stuff. But this little tool here has got a nice little pointy edge here. Another little flat edge on the side here that allows us to put all that foam back in before we reuse the heat gun to kind of heat that puff and keep everything shrinking and tie it back together. So this is a must have if you ask me. It's fairly inexpensive, super nice to have. Make sure you have one of these in your kit. And then the one we all take to use just because it means you fucked something up. So essentially this is a stitchery. So that again, Trigger Industry provides to us replacement top blades. You can actually take these off and replace them once you've used them too much. Sadly, it's a bad thing when you need to replace them because we've used them too much.

That's not a good sign. But again, hey, you're happy to have them when you need it. Essentially it allows you to shave that back from the back end, shave the bobbin in order for you to remove the embroidery. Let's say you were running a jump stitch and you ran the wrong color. You've got to shave it off, there's something wrong. They didn't take up nice. Turn it on, you shave that on. And from the front side of the product, you can shave it off. It doesn't work all the time. It doesn't work on all the stitch types. It doesn't work on all the garments, but essentially it's nice to have in when it's an expensive product or something like that. It's always nice to have in your pocket in order to save a garment.

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If ever, if you want to geek out on some of this stuff, even though if you're not an embroidery and you'd love to chat, please do feel free to reach out. I love to geek out about this stuff. Otherwise, visit our blog archive if you feel the need to learn more about how you can custom some apparel.