Old School High Tech

This patch looks pretty simple, lettering on a simple shape. For me it represents a significant advancement in what I can do with my embroidery machine. If you have ever looked into digitizing software, or embroidery software of just about any kind, you know that it is crazy expensive. Thousands of dollars for the digitizing programs. Hundreds of dollars for simple visualizing software. Most places sell their designs for crazy amounts of money. Actually I understand the expensive designs as a way to cover some of the costs of the intellectual property along with the time and expense for digitizing.

However, it is all way beyond what I am willing to spend. I've looked around for functional freeware versions that allow some level of digitizing or even basic editing functions. There isn't a lot out there. I've only tried the ones that don't have a huge trail of complaints about system crashes and other bad things. The biggest problem is the user interface. Many of the functions seem to be present but figuring out how to make them work is painful.

So, that little patch represents hours of trying to understand how to make the software work. Those little letters are all added to the basic badge file in the software, using a font unavailable on my machine. This old school name patch adds in a few more hours of learning: resizing, adjusting spacing, adding in cuts. Again, it doesn't look all that impressive from a digitizing standpoint, but it is a pretty big step for me.

Both badges are made of upcycled denim using polyester embroidery thread.