Custom Embroidery: Our Process, Our Machines, and What We've Produced

Garment Decor is a custom embroidery shop based in Montclair, California (35 miles east of Los Angeles) offering full-service embroidery on garments, headwear, bags, and accessories. We operate commercial-grade multi-head Barudan embroidery machines, run every order in-house, and assign a dedicated account rep to each project from intake through delivery.

We serve clothing brands, corporate programs, sports teams, entertainment clients, and wholesale buyers — with a minimum of 50 pieces and tiered pricing that scales through 1,000 and beyond.

What We Offer

Our embroidery service covers:

• Flat embroidery — thread stitched flush to the fabric, clean and professional, the standard choice for logos, wordmarks, and structured apparel
• 3D puff embroidery — foam insert beneath the stitching causes the design to rise 6–9mm off the surface, creating a bold, dimensional logo effect
• Tonal embroidery — thread matched to the garment color, producing a subtle texture-on-texture effect favored by premium lifestyle brands
• Multi-placement embroidery — left chest, right chest, sleeve, back, and hat placements handled in the same production run

We use Madeira Polyneon thread across all embroidery production — selected for colorfastness, tensile strength, and consistency across large runs on both light and dark substrates.

Our Process

1. Quote. Send us your project details — garment, design, quantity, placement, and timeline. We respond with an itemized quote within two hours during business hours.
2. Artwork review. Before digitizing begins, we review your file for elements that won't translate cleanly to thread: text below ¼ inch tall, line weights under 0.05 inches, gradients that need to be converted to solid fills. We flag these before the stitch file is built — not after production.
3. Digitizing. Your artwork is converted into a machine-readable stitch file — a precise map of every thread placement, stitch type (fill, satin, or run), and stitch density. This file is what actually runs on the machine. Its quality determines the quality of the output.
4. Stitch-out sample. We produce a physical stitch-out on the actual garment or item you selected before the full run begins. You approve thread colors, placement, and stitch density. Nothing goes into production until that approval is confirmed.
5. Production. Your order runs on our commercial Barudan multi-head machines. Multiple pieces stitch simultaneously, which is what makes large-volume orders viable on turnaround windows that single-head operations can't match.
6. Delivery. Standard turnaround is two weeks from stitch-out approval. Rush production is available for time-sensitive orders.

Four Projects That Show What We Produce

San Juan LA — Custom Trucker Hat Embroidery

• Blank: OttoCap 2-Tone Cotton/Poly Blend Trucker Hat
• Design: "LA" wordmark logo, flat embroidery on structured front panel
• Client: San Juan LA clothing brand

The OttoCap 2-tone blank has a cotton front panel and poly mesh back — a construction that works well for flat embroidery on a stable, structured surface. The "LA" wordmark required clean registration to read correctly at the size constraints of a trucker hat front panel. This is what a straightforward brand hat embroidery project looks like when the setup is correct.

Goat Fuel — 3D Puff Embroidered Flexfit 6089M Snapbacks

• Blank: Flexfit 6089M Premium Snapback
• Design: Bold wordmark, white 3D puff embroidery
• Quantity: 500 units
• Turnaround: 4 business days

500 Flexfit 6089M snapbacks with 3D puff embroidery, delivered in 4 business days on our 30-head Barudan setup. The Flexfit 6089M's structured mid-profile crown provided the front panel stability that puff embroidery requires to activate evenly across the full design area. For a brand-forward hat program where visual impact is the brief, 3D puff on a structured snapback is the right combination — and this project is the clearest example of what that looks like at production scale.

Adventure Seeker — Embroidered Duffle Bag

• Blank: Independent Trading Co. INDDUFBAG Duffle Bag
• Design: "Adventure Seeker" script wordmark, flat embroidery on front panel
• Decoration: Flat embroidery on structured duffel exterior

Embroidery on bags is technically different from garment embroidery — the hooping setup has to account for the bag's rigid structure, internal compartments, and seam placement. The Independent INDDUFBAG has a canvas-like exterior panel that provides a clean embroidery surface, but it requires hooping that holds the material flat without compressing the bag body. This project demonstrates our embroidery capability across hard-goods substrates, not just soft garments.

Chris Jacoub: Gravity — Tonal Embroidery + Jumbo Screen Printing on IND420XD Hoodie

• Blank: Independent Trading Co. IND420XD Premium Hoodie
• Design: Black-on-black tonal logo embroidery (front) + jumbo simulated process screen print (back)
• Equipment: Barudan embroidery machines + M&R Challenger 3 presses

A dual-decoration project that combined tonal embroidery on the front chest with a full-scale simulated process screen print on the back — both run in-house. The tonal embroidery uses black Madeira Polyneon thread on a black hoodie, creating a logo that reads as texture and dimension rather than color contrast. Coordinating embroidery and screen printing on the same garment in a single production run, with a sample approval step before each technique goes to production, is what full in-house decoration capability looks like in practice.

Who This Is For

Custom embroidery at Garment Decor is the right fit for:

• Clothing brands building premium hat, hoodie, or apparel programs
• Corporate clients outfitting staff in polos, caps, or branded accessories
• Sports teams needing consistent logo embroidery across headwear and uniforms
• Entertainment and creative clients with tight timelines and high quality expectations
• Wholesale buyers who need volume pricing and production reliability across large runs

If you're ready to place an order or still working through which technique and blank fits your project, our account reps are the fastest path to clarity.

Request a quote and hear back within two hours. Or explore our full embroidery service to see capabilities, pricing, and FAQs.