Tips for creating the best Kid's Artwork Hat

A backwords letter, a blob shaped heart, there is nothing quite like our kid's artwork and handwriting at different stages of childhood. That is why we made this product, it is more than just hat, it is a way to capture a moment in time. We adore making this product and want to share our top tips to get the best possible result.

1. Size: Scaling down from a drawing to embroidery

Your original artwork can be any size but the final embroidery design will be maximum size of 5cm x 5cm to fit nicely on a hat. Keep this size in mind when choosing your artwork- if a drawing has been done on an A4 size paper and has multiple lines and details, then finer details will be omitted when shrinking it down to 5cm- otherwise those details would end up as a overlapping clump of thread that looks messy. Simple, clear designs translate the most beautifully to embroidery.

2. Thread Colours

Choosing thread colour can be tricky, but we will make sure all products look great. From our experience, light, neutral colours like Ivory and Champagne look great on all hat colours except Bone, in which case we reccomend Natural Bronze or darker.

If you are after a single colour for your design, just select it under the Thread Colours section. If you would like multiple colours in your design, select Multi Colour and write your request in the text box like "Stars in Champagne and text in Burgundy" or "Each word in a different colour" or "Please use a mix of colours close to the drawing". We will use several colours but will reduce it down if necessary as too many colours can, again, get bunched up in a small design. Usually between 1-4 colours works best so the final design stays clean and legible.

3. What works best and what doesn't

You can't go wrong with adorable handwriting — "Best Grandad," "I ❤️ mama." For drawings, get creative and think about the person you are making it for- maybe they would like a flower, a fish, a dog! For littler kids, colourful scribbles turn out surprisingly sweet.

The frist image with the hats shows you how simple artworks turn out clear and great on the final product. The second image shows what doesn't work in complicated artworks and how they can be simplified.

 

4. Get Inspired!

Have a look at @namesake.embroidery for examples that we've made in the past. And if you've got a piece of artwork in mind and want a second opinion, feel free to send it over to orders@namesakestore.com — we're always happy to give feedback before you place an order.