25 Embroidery Ideas for Your eCommerce Store
Get your print-on-demand business off to a flying start, or spice up your existing store with fresh listings using our embroidery ideas.
Custom embroidery lets you stitch your designs onto the fabric, providing a unique and original look to clothing and accessories. Embroidered products are high-quality, durable, eco-friendly, and look professional.
We’ve got everything you need to sell custom embroidery. Let’s get right to it!
Reasons to Sell Embroidered Products
As custom embroidery becomes more available and consumers opt for apparel of higher quality, these products can be an excellent option for growing your profits. In fact, the global embroidery market is forecast to grow from $1.6 billion in 2018 to $2.2 billion by 2030.
Print On Demand lets you sell beautiful embroidered products without any hassle. Forget about hand embroidery or using a sewing machine. All you need to do is develop a design, and Printify will produce a one-of-a-kind embroidered product for you.
Since embroidery designs are more durable and eco-friendly than regular printed products, you can sell them for more. Many consumers are looking to purchase quality pieces for their wardrobes that will last a lifetime, and they’re also willing to spend more.
Last but not least – embroidered products look outstanding. The designs pop right off the fabric and add an extra dimension and a great overall feeling to the final product.
Where to Get Embroidery Design Ideas
Before you scour the internet for cool embroidery ideas, try to narrow down your search. If you’ve already got a niche you’re focusing on, keep that in mind when looking for designs. Try targeting a specific theme or piece of apparel to find your next big embroidery idea.
Start with sites where people actually buy and sell products similar to yours. You can check out what the hottest Etsy and Shopify stores are selling and use online marketplace search engines to see the most popular keywords buyers look for.
Check out Pinterest boards to find design inspiration – you’ll get tons of examples, and there ought to be at least a couple of stunning designs matching your search. Fashion blogs can also be a great outlet for unique ideas; start googling and pick the ones you like.
To get your creative juices flowing right away, we’ve prepared a list of some great embroidery ideas you can use for your store. Check them out below.
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Creative Embroidery Ideas for Your Designs
There are numerous creative ways to add a personal touch to your custom embroidered products. You can go for a nature-themed design, embroider text on apparel, create a more minimalistic design, or whatever else you think would work best.
Check out the list of ideas we’ve compiled below, and try them out on your designs.
Embroidery Ideas From Nature
- Flowers and plants
- Mushrooms
- Bees, beetles, and other insects
- Celestial objects
- Rainbows
Nature has always been a key theme in embroidered art and embroidery patterns; the same goes for embroidered clothing and accessories. Natural elements bring color and fun to any design.
Try using flowers and plants in your design. Colorful wildflowers can bring a breath of fresh air into any wardrobe, and monstera leaves seem to be the new embroidery trend. You can also go with colorful mushrooms to create a forest-inspired or psychedelic design.
Beetles and other insects come in different shapes and sizes, making them a great design element to embroider on fabric. They’ll provide a unique and exciting look.
You can also gaze up at the sky for design inspiration. Use planets, stars, rainbows, clouds, the moon, the sun, etc., in your next embroidery project.
Product suggestion: Unisex Twill Hat
Your nature embroidery patterns will look great on our 100% cotton Unisex Twill Hat. It comes in nine colors and has an adjustable Velcro® closure and reinforced stitching for added durability.
Cute Embroidery Ideas
- Adorable animals
- Silly smiley faces
- Cute puns
Cute embroidery designs offer a great way to grow your customer base. Buyers often look for something cute and cheeky when purchasing gifts, and many people like bringing a bit of fun and delight into their wardrobe.
Try using animals in your embroidery designs. It can be puppies, cats, and other domesticated animals or wild animals like lions, monkeys, elephants, etc. Whatever you decide to go with, make sure you know who you’re selling for.
Smiley faces can also look great on embroidery designs. They usually don’t have many tiny details, which is crucial when embroidering custom products. Try creating a set of smiley faces for different moods.
Puns are another great option to use. If the embroidered area allows it, you can combine your pun with a visual element for a better effect.
Product suggestion: Pom Pom Beanie
Our cute 100% acrylic wool Pom Pom Beanie will match perfectly with your most adorable designs. Available in nine colors, including several two-tone variations, it’ll look wonderful with your embroidering.
Embroidery Designs With Text
- Quotes, mottos, and slogans
- Names and initials
- Jokes
Text designs are ideal for creating embroidered products and don’t require special design skills. Machine embroidery gives depth to the letters and words, and the design lasts for a very long time. Just make sure not to make the text too tiny – go for larger letters for the design to look good.
You can use anything from quotes, sayings, and mottos to embroider your products. If the embroidery area does not have a lot of space, go for something short and sweet. Remember not to use any text that might be copyrighted.
Create embroidery designs with names and initials to give your customers a personal touch. If you can, offer the option to add them at the request of your buyers. People love personalization.
Jokes are also perfect for simple embroidery designs. Pick a friendly dad joke or something more sarcastic to embroider on a hat or t-shirt and it can become your next bestseller.
Minimalistic and Simple Embroidery Ideas
- Line art
- Silly doodles
- Cartoons
- Origami designs
It’s always a good idea to keep the design simple when working with machine embroidery and thread. Here are some minimalistic design ideas to try out.
Try line art. It consists of distinct straight lines and curves placed on a plain background. In other words, it’s perfect for embroidery designs. You can create your own visuals or offer personalization options to your customers, for example, by turning their images into embroidered line art.
Cartoons and doodles can also become a big hit when applied to a piece of apparel with embroidery. Try creating holiday-specific doodles and drawings if you can’t think of any embroidery clothing ideas.
If you’re up to trying something a bit different, add origami designs to your product offering. Embroidered origami animals and plants will look gorgeous on any piece of clothing.
Cool Embroidery Ideas for Hats
- Food items
- Vehicles and boats
- Flags
- Map shapes
- Symbols
- Music notes
Hats can provide the perfect canvas for an embroidery project. The stitching looks great on them, and the design is easy to spot on the wearer. Try out some of the creative ideas described below.
Everyone has that one food they can’t live without, so why not wear it? Create embroidery designs with food items. On your custom hats, you can embroider fruit, veggies, pizzas, burgers, etc., and sell them to food enthusiasts worldwide.
Speaking of enthusiasts, try creating designs for car and boat lovers. For example, come up with a line of hats for fans of a specific car manufacturer or car model. Just remember to avoid copyright infringement.
Using flags and map shapes from around the world is another great idea to explore. Add country flags and country outlines to your hat designs for people who feel patriotic about their nation or who have traveled there.
Last but not least, try out various symbols and music notes on your embroidered hats. Sure, the peace sign might be a bit overused on apparel, but there are a lot of other ideas you can go with. And a beautiful hat with notes will be a steal for anyone inspired by music.
Product suggestion: Knit Beanie
Use our 100% acrylic wool Knit Beanie to make all your hat embroidery ideas come true. Combine your visuals with a wide variety of colors. Your customers will love the comfortable fit of the beanie.
T-Shirt Embroidery Ideas
- Company logos
- Sports team logos
- Monograms
- Holiday themes
Let’s not forget about t-shirts. There’s a wide variety of fun and creative t-shirt embroidery design ideas to explore.
For example, try making business shirts for companies that want their logo placed on their apparel. The same goes for sports teams – offer the service of adding their embroidered logos on shirts for brand growth.
Monograms present another embroidery idea that can earn you some extra profits. Create a set of monogram designs yourself, or ask your customers what they’d like to see on their shirts for a more personalized feel.
If you’re still looking for a source of inspiration, try out holiday themes. People love buying clothes and accessories with festive Christmas designs, spooky Halloween visuals, and cute Easter graphics.
Product suggestion: Men’s Polo Shirt
For your embroidery designs, you can’t go wrong with this high-quality, 100% polyester polo shirt. It provides the perfect mix of business and casual and can serve as the go-to shirt for any company.
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How to Make the Perfect Embroidery Apparel With Print On Demand
A well-thought-out embroidery design is the most important thing when creating embroidered jackets, t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, etc. If you get it wrong, the apparel won’t look good.
Here are some of the main aspects to keep in mind when working on your embroidery design:
- Keep the design simple. Use clean lines, and don’t use multiple layers.
- Don’t use tiny details in your design.
- Use large lettering. Small text will be increased or omitted from the graphic.
- Avoid leaving small areas of negative space – they’ll be automatically filled.
Check out our embroidery design guide for a more in-depth description of embroidery dos and don’ts.
Once your design is ready, pick an item from the Printify product catalog and add your visuals. You’ll get a preview of the final product right away.
Order a sample to make sure everything looks and feels great in real life. This will make you more confident in your product, and you’ll be sure of the quality your customers are getting.
To learn more about designing embroidered clothes and accessories with print on demand, read our article on making embroidery designs and patterns.
Summing Up
Whether you’re an eCommerce beginner or a seasoned pro, embroidery patterns and art can significantly boost your online sales.
Forget about hand embroidery and amateur crafts. Modern embroidery machines will do the stitching for you and create any pattern or design you want. All you need to do is come up with the visuals to be used on the final product.
Use the list of free embroidery ideas compiled on this page to get going. Experiment with the designs and see what looks best on any given product.
Printify’s print-on-demand model doesn’t require you to do anything else but promote your products. Once you list your designs online, we’ll handle the production and shipping. Sign up and start earning today!
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Written by
Jānis Bute
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