Embroidery Design: DIY Military Patch 23

“Our Legacy is firmly rooted in the mass production of patches/emblems. Our original company name was “Dress Crest Embroidery” (Crest is another word for patches), and since 1958, we have created millions of patches for hundreds of companies across North America. So, I think it’s safe to say we know a thing or two about the Patch making process.

Traditionally the unique finished edges on Patches have been produced for well over the last 100 years using a specialized machine. I remember as a child hearing a dozen of these machines roaring out patches. These machines were lightning quick; a well-trained operator could whip out a 3-inch circular patch in a matter of seconds!

Knowing most embroiderers would never consider purchasing a machine so specific to a single purpose, we’ve replicated the beautiful classic edges patches are famous for with design files that allow you to use only your embroidery machine.

Our new Embroidery Legacy patch border vs. An authentic 1950s Disney patch created in our family’s embroidery factory

Many decades ago, I learned to operate one of the old-school patch edge machines (my grandfather wanted me to learn every job in our factory).

Although I never came close to the speed and precision of our operators, I did learn the process of how it created its border and how to ease into curves and precisely navigate right angles. Never dreaming that decades later, I would be recreating production-friendly embroidery files that so closely resemble a traditional patch border, a trained eye would need to look twice to tell which is which!

I was so excited about my results in completing the classic-looking patch files shown above in various popular sizes. Please keep in mind that all these files are only available in “machine file” formats (such as art, dst, emb, exp, hus, jef, pes, shv, vip, vp3 & xxx) and not object-based EMB files.

The reason why is that I had a huge amount of “old-school” tweaking that needed to be done for each shape and each size so they would be perfect. These designs are NOT meant to be resized or edited in any way as this is guaranteed to have a negative effect.

Keeping in mind that our objective was to create a truly professional result, I have included the stitch files to “manually precut” your twill for perfect results, as well as an SVG file that will “automatically cut” your twill using your own Cameo, Scan-N-Cut, or Silhouette cutters.

Enjoy our new design files that make custom embroidery patches easy and remember… It’s no mystery; quality embroidery is our history!”