Which Embroidery Machine is the Best for Designing Hats & Caps in 2024?

Review Are Collected From Professional Embroiders & Established Hat Business Owners. We also included Embroidery Tips & a Buying Guide That is Quite Useful For Any Hat Embroidery Startups. Enjoy!

A teen feels a little superior in his peer group wearing the entire outfit of his favorite basketball team. This evergrowing custom of fans wearing hats and shirts with the embroidered name or logo of their favorite team increases players’ morale. These fine embroidered caps and shirts are sold at huge bucks to millions of fans of baseball and basketball teams.

An ordinary sewing machine cannot do all these personalized embroidered stuff, from hoodies to hats. Specially designed hat embroidery machines are used for this purpose.

Best Hat Embroidery Machine Review - Home Sewing Expert

In a hat embroidery machine, besides a hat hoop and ample workspace, they are designed specifically to handle heavy and thick fabric which is usually used in denim jeans and customized hats. Our partners are in this business for quite some time and with their help, we are sharing their sacred knowledge of hat embroidery machines with our readers today.

There is a considerable influx of hat embroidery machines in the market. It is all due to the excessive demand for hats and shirts in various sports. Various companies saw this demand and launched numerous models of embroidery machines for hats. Seeing large saturation in this market we decided to also give a descriptive buying guide at the end.

What to Look in an Embroidery Machine for Hats

Before you select a machine, please have a look at some features which can help you to mature your decision about the hat embroidery machine.

Number of Needles (Optional): If you are an established business owner you should know that when you are dealing with bulk manufacturing, changing bobbins or thread can greatly reduce your production time. Usually, designs aren’t too complex in Hat Embroidery, but once a while you might get an order of complex design. Having a machine with the support of a multi-needle would act as a charm in that case.

This ain’t recommended for non-established business owners as multi-needle machines would cost you a fortune. Still, if you are interested, you can article about multi-needle embroidery machines.

Inclusion of Hat Hoop (Optional): It is a must to have Hat Hoop for hat embroidery as Hats come in various sizes and shapes. You might destroy or damage their original shape if you try to embroider using a standard hoop. Some machines come with hat hoops others don’t. Few of them sell hat hoops separately but most of them use universal Hat Hoops. So it’s not a big issue if it doesn’t come with a hat hoop.

Large Embroidery Area: You would defiantly need a large area for hat embroidery. any machine that comes with a 4” by 4” embroidery area is clearly a no-go.

Computerized Setup: You won’t be able to manually create designs on hats. as it would cost you a lot in manual labor, plus the risk of B Pair embroidered hats just increases. so buying a non-computerized machine is again, not suggested

5 Best Embroidery Machines for Cap in 2022

To create a list that can justify and fit the requirements of every user from beginners to pro made us study and test the several machines ourselves. We put our research and experience in one channel to evaluate every possible key feature to devise the perfect result. in writing this article, we kept taking suitable suggestions from our experienced partners too. In the end, we were able to enlist industry top-notch embroidery machines that are suitable for caps, jeans, shirts, and jackets.

If you are in a hurry, you can take a quick look at our winner

Brother Pe800- best embroidery machine for hats

Based on its advanced specs, ease of use, durability, and reliable customer support we approve that Brother PE800 has once again beaten every machine and built its name in the field of hard fabric embroidery. Hence we declare Brother PE800 as the Best Embroidery Machine for hats.

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Continuing Our Reviews

If you have reached this part of the article, hopefully, you really want to know more about our research and get more suggestions from us. Now you only need to sit back and enjoy our best picks from the market that is stuffed with embroidery and sewing machines.

No. 1

Brother PE800 -  best hat embroidery machine

4.9/5 Our Score

Key Attributes:

  • Gives Hoop Area of 5’’x7″
  • Can speed up to 650 Stitches
  • Comes with 138 Built-in Designs & 11 Fonts
  • Weight: 6 kgs
  • Extensive Design Editing (resize, rotate, mirroring etc.) via Built in Touch Screen
  • Supports PES Format With 2.0 USB Port 
  • Built In Guide and Tutorials
  • Bilingual Manual

When it comes to performance and quality work, Brother Pe800 is the best choice for hat embroidery. If we talk about caps, they do not need much space but hats might do. Brother keeping all of these major and minor aspects for caps provides its customers with 5″ x 7″ of the workspace.

Hats come in different shapes like fitted or buckets. We obviously need something to preserve the bend of the hat. For this purpose, this brother manufacturer provides specially designed hat hoops (completely compatible with PE800) for their customers. For other shapes, this machine comes with a  5″ x 7″ inch embroidery hoop that can be used for embroidered winter knitted caps.

There are about 138 Built-in customizable designs that increase the span of creating killer designs, considerably. These include various types of quilts and floral patterns. It also includes fancy scrollwork designs that add more to your customization power.

This machine adds 11 varieties of fonts that enrich the designer’s performance in many ways. These fonts allow the embroiderer to achieve versatility in creating new monograms for the hats. These different styles of fonts can be mixed with your downloaded letters to generate super exciting designs.

Working on the embroidery machine needs stability and composure. The 10 taut frames that come with this machine help to make a tight bond of cloth that helps to generate quality output on automated stitching.

Everybody wants a design of their own choice or a monogram of their favorite team on the hat, and to achieve this, one must be able to add more designs for customizing. for this, you can use a USB port to transfer a hell of designs into it. Wide-ranging editing features are also available with preloaded brother software. They can be used by a large LCD touch screen to create the sense of a realistic atmosphere.

After buying a new machine, one is always very curious to know how it works. For that, people do experiments on their new machines and often ruin or break something. This machine solves this issue by providing built-in tutorials and detailed instructions to help its consumers to process everything smoothly.

Embroidery Tip #1: In embroidering the hat, using an exemplary backing (we prefer Tearaway Stabilizer) helps in creating better design or monogram with increased durability.
Pros
  • This machine is beginner-friendly due to its ease of use.
  • On-screen editing allows customizations of any pattern real quick.
  • An automatic needle threading system makes embroidering uninterrupted
  • The vast number of tutorials can help to learn every necessary detail.
Cons
  • The plastic lever can cause problems when working hours increase and work becomes hefty.

Who Should Buy It: This machine is perfectly designed for both beginners and experts. But arguably, beginners are more persuaded to buy this due to its easy-to-use quality and tutorials. The experts are also recommended to purchase this machine, due to its on-screen editing and ability to load new designs.



No. 2

Brother SE600 - Cheapest Hat Embroidery machine

4.8/5 Our Score

Key Attributes:

  • 2-in-1 (Embroidery and Sewing) Feature
  • Gives Standard Hoop Area of Size 4”x4”
  • Give Emroidery speed of 400 SPM
  • Comes with Built-in 80 Designs, 103 Stitch patterns & 6 Fonts
  • Weight: 12 kgs
  • Large Needle-to-Arm Space for Bulkier Sewing Projects
  • Automatic Needle Threader

Brother SE600 is the machine referred to as the double doer. Why does it get this unique name? It is because of its versatility to do both sewing and embroidery at unbelievable affording rates. Any home embroiders or a hobbyist who can afford only one machine but want to do sewing with it too, This should be its get to go choice.

This machine comes with the ideal hoop size, that is required by most of the caps. With a specially designed hat hoop, one can embroider on almost all kinds of hats and caps. Luckily, it comes with a 4″ x 4″ standard-sized hoop. wich is more productive and suitable for embroidering other than hats.

To enhance the quality and creativity of this machine’s users. It comes preloaded with exciting 80 different built-in designs. Thye can be used for different patterns which enormous impression on the buyers. Furthermore, it has 3.2 inches touch LED screen that enables its users to edit design before embroidering. This computerized embroidery machine gives the user an edge to merge or change the designs to complete on-demand customized tasks swiftly.

Many people want everything to be perfect, and a perfectionist always wants to create their own designed hat. In this machine, there is a USB port that lets you transfer the self-made designs into this machine.

While working with 103 built-in stitches that heighten the sewing ability of the ongoing embroidering projects, these programmed stitches help create distinct patterns with the help of needles elaborate its multitasking as the dual doer.

When there are assignments that take extra space that make the user uneasy about managing clothes or quilts for these kinds of needs, there is an extra-large 6.4″ x 4.1″ needle-to-arm workspace (also referred to as throat of the machine). if you need more space, you can always use an extension table for embroidery purposes.

The embroidery machine that generates noise, a buyer, usually does not go for that machine.  The more peaceful the atmosphere is, the more productive is one’s embroidery. For this reason, it is equipped with a noiseless motor that creates less noise while sewing. My siblings weren’t disturbed ever with its sound either. Based on these personal experiences it is recommended to use this machine for daily home tasks.

Being a two-in-one option, a stater can sew and embroider the hats in the same place. This allows them to save a lot of bucks that would be spent otherwise. That’s why it serves as the first choice for users who are beginners or experts with low budgets.

Embroidery Tip #2: The hat embroiderer should know the well use of the software. Many Embroiders ruins hats due to misconfiguration of the machine. so if you aren;t confirtable with these software, you can get stuck with an a simple error and wate hell of a time in figuring it out.
Pros
  • This machine is 2 in 1 that makes it the top pick beginners.
  • The preview feature lets people view what will be the end product.
  • Suitable for beginners as it covers all the details and features they need in the starting phase.
  • A color screen makes the atmosphere more realistic and lively.
Cons
  • Bunching thread sometimes makes clustering that can cause a mess but can be solved.

Who Should Buy It: This machine is equipped with many features that are pretty helpful in creating the required output. These features are usually asked and demanded by a lot of beginners. in short, people who are in the adolescence of learning this art can get tons of features at the lowest price.



No. 3

Singer - legacy SE300 - best cap embroidery machine

4.7/5 Our Score

Key Attributes:

  • Large 7.8” Sewing Space With Built in extension table 
  • Comes with preloaded 200 desings, 250 stitch patterns & 6 fonts.
  • Weight: 8 KG
  • Automaic detetcion of optimal length, width, balance, pressure and tension
  • Independent Bobbin Winding with  Programmable Needle
  • Heavy Duty Metal Frame
  • Sew Sticthing in reverse manner

The classic trademark SINGER always brings the masterworks like this product, SINGER Legacy SE300. Its also a hybrid (embroidery combines with sewing) Machine. It’s a genius machine that comes with an inspiring 200 integrated designs that give it a huge edge over others. An additional 250 stitch pattern enables users to fulfill numerous sewing and embroidery projects.

The 2 included hoops fulfill two different purposes (larger hoops for huge patterns & smaller ones for custom logos). This flexibility cuts the huge effort required for flexing clothes manually, hence adding to its ease of use. This hoop variety makes this machine an ideal pick for professional cap embroiders. Although you might need some extra hoops for snapbacks, other hats can be easily embroidered.

The time in which we are living is fast and agile. People want their orders to be fulfilled quickly, but often things get messed up in the speedy completion of projects. That’s why they demand quality and efficiency beforehand. This machine solves this issue by providing preloaded 250 sewing stitches that can be stitched at a speed of 800 SPM. This doesn’t affect embroidering tasks, as any of its 200 embroidery designs can be sewed at an amazing speed of 700 SPM.

This large collection of designs are all loaded in memory. 69 designs are held permanently in the storage area of the machines, while the remaining 131 designs come in a USB stick, that is complementary added in the box. the details of designs and their customizations instructions are all included in that same USB stick. To view all of these things, simply insert USB in Computer and open the PDF file labeled as “Individual Design Information”.

Embroidery Tip #3: New technology is getting more complex and it buying needs more focus and attention. Embroidery machine is one of these technology, one needs to read manuals and watch tutorials before buying it. That can help you select the machine that fits your need.
Pros
  • It is quite advacnce & automates many embroiery tasks like threading the needle and winding the bobin.
  • It becomes more versatile with added designs.
  • It light, compact & comes with a universal power supply, so you can use it in any state or country. Ideal for any traveller
  • its highly durable due to its sleek design and a stable body built.
Cons
  • Advance computerized control can be tricky for a non-technical users. Most customers breaks their machines in figuring out this machine. 

Who should buy it: Those people who admire technology and love to do advanced embroidering. These people are usually looking for long-term upgradeable business structures related to embroidery. So It is an ideal machine for any modern experts or entrepreneurs that wants to cope with new challenges and trends.



No. 4

Janome Memory Craft 400E - best custom hat embroidery machine

4.8/5 Our Score

Key Attributes:

  • Gives Hoop Area of 7.9″ x 7.9″
  • Comes with 160 Built-in Designs & 6 fonts for monograming
  • Can Embroider up to 860 SPM
  • Automatically return to time when thread broke
  • Weight: 11 Kg
  • Supports JEF Format With 2.0 USB Port 
  • Built In Guide and Tutorials

Janome Memory Craft 400E is the name of precision. This machine serves as a powerful device encapsulated with top-notch technology. Most of the hats and caps are readily used and customized for specific events and some might require large embroidery space. This machine has 7.9″ x 7.9″ large embroidery space that makes it more valuable for customizing the caps. Whether you are working with fitted hats or baseball caps, this machine won’t disappoint you in terms of speed, durability & versatility.

Being an embroider, you might get orders for bulk designing & customization of a flat hat or driving cap. To fulfill their needs of different shapes, styles, and sizes of designs on a large variety of hats, Janome has launched different hat hoops. This is a primary reason, why it comes with a large workspace.

There are a variety of hats of different shapes and styles. some are straight, or some are round. You’ll be needing a large number of customized design options for these caps. To full fill those needs, it comes with 160 built-in designs including floral, holiday, children’s designs, and cross-stitch. These designs help this machine to reach the next level of versatility for hats.

Embroidery is the art of showing your creativity in many forms and charms. To mend these forms and shapes into the different reasonable fonts on the hats, JM 400E brings 6 fonts for processing the monograms teens like. Many Machines lack the ability to import fonts but with it, you can just load your desired font directly into this machine too. So the limit is really endless.

When editing the specific designs, one looks for the right tools or specific software for his machine. This machine also breaks these shackles by giving you the freedom to do on-screen editing. It also provides various editing tools that allow a user to create the design that he likes.

All user-friendly operations are supported in this machine. it behaves just like your smartphone screen. You can achieve a lot with just the help of its drag and drop feature. Just like fonts, a lot of different designs for the hat embroidery can be imported and transferred through the USB port, which makes life easy by refraining from using a computer with machines.

As a hat embroiderer, one always wants a machine that works up acute precision and accuracy. This machine provides the speed and accuracy altogether at the speed of 860 stitches per minute; that is a hell of a powerful machine.

Embroidery Tip #4: Eembroidery machines for hats demands learning the on-screen editing features that can be helpful in customization. Learning computerized features can let you excel in using this machine efficiently.
Pros
  • Adjustable speed for embroidery and stitching.
  • The on-screen editing can let you make your design and is the key feature to improve productivity and customization.
  • The automatic needle threading system keeps the flow of embroidering.
Cons
  • It is complicated to process without software knowledge.
  • There ain’t a easy reverse button unlike other janome models.

Who should buy it: Any expert digital embroider can go and buy this machine blindly. The vast embroidery space and on-screen editing are the most beloved features of any digital cap embroiders.



No. 5

SINGER Futura XL400 - best for hat designing

4.7/5 Our Score

Key Attributes:

  • Extensive Design Editing (resize, rotate, mirroring etc.) Via Built in Touch Screen
  • Gives Hoop Area upto 18.5″ x 11″
  • Give Sticthing speed of 850 SPM
  • Weight: 11 kgs
  • Comes with 125 Built-in Designs, 30 Stitches & 5 Beautiful Fonts
  • Supports PES Format With 2.0 USB Port 
  • Comes With Large Number of Accessories
  • Built In Guide and Tutorials
  • SwiftSmart Threading System (for easy threading)

A signature brand singer has already produced many beautiful machines. This Singer Futura XL400 entails that list with the classic look and finest technology. Our article for the best Hat Embroidery Machine has a list of requirements that need to be fulfilled. Instantly this is the machine that serves as the nearer one so far.

Imagine embroidering the hats with a machine that doesn’t need much to do while using a hoop. Yes, it is possible with the multi-hoop capability of this machine. You can pick a large logo (about 4 times larger than the largest hoop that comes with the machine), the machine will automatically split the logo into 4 equal parts. Voila, you can embroider up to 18 by 11 inches of large design by just unhooking and changing the position of the fabric.

Many reasons are there which make this brand commanding and withstanding to the market. One of the reasons is the quality, and they don’t take chances and risks on the quality of the products. You can take a brief idea of their quality for assisting users is by their 6 bright LED lights that illuminated the sewing area which Is quite large (around 8 ¼”), Software support for a large number of designs (FHE, XXX, JEF, CHE, HUS, PES, DST, SHV, PEC, EXP, VIP, PCS, PSW & SEW) & their smart threading system (which saved tons of my time personally)

With our experience, we can say that this machine takes everything to a new level as it is embedded with the speed control phenomenon that helps in precision and accuracy. in addition to that, it is being sold at an amazing price.

Not all the people who go for embroidery are rich and live in a luxurious manner. Some people also want to start a small business without heavy investment. This machine relieves this burden by turning it into a budget-friendly multipurpose machine (sewing and embroidery).

Many features like built-in designs with such low cost are massive plus points of this machine. With these designs, one can run a handsome business by utilizing advanced built-in editing tools to make and customize the design on the fly. If you are;t satisfied with its current capability, have an investment, and want something bigger then we must suggest you buy singer Futura xl 580.

Embroidery Tip #5: Embroidery machine needles come in many size varieties and finding the best needle for your embroidery project is important. When selecting needles it is crucial to consider the fabric type of the project, as well as the thread weight and thickness of your embroidery thread choice. The wrong needle can cause fabric puckering, skipped
Pros
  • This machine can do sewing and embroidery altogether.
  • This machine is budget-friendly which makes the right pick for startups and small business owners.
  • A Swift-smart system tends the user to work better and resourcefully.
Cons
  • During embroidery, the tension issues of threads can sometimes lead to disruptions and disorder.

Who should buy it: For those people who want technology and variety at one reasonable price, this is your go. Small businesses and startups with a bit low budget can utilize this machine to do a fine start.



What Makes The Embroidery Machine Best for Hats

There are obviously a lot of things that one needs to consider before spending his money on something, but for the hat embroidery machine, this consideration gets spiked as you are spending a lot of money on your business and don’t want it to fail due to some bad decision.

We would be discussing a few of the features that a good hat embroidery machine should have. People usually get confused when they see a variety and aren’t able to pick the best, but we assure you that once you read our buying guide, you’ll definitely have a clear idea about the features that make a hat embroidery machine the best.

Speed

In any business time is the essence. It’s another form of money. Almost all commercial firms or embroiderers think about reducing the time that takes in completing their design. So more work (more money) could be achieved.

The optimum speed of the embroidery machine for embroidering hats is at least 700 SPM. The coordination of other parts of the machine and complexity of design can increase or decrease to stated performance. Keep your machine properly tuned so, its speed remains unaffected with the usage.

As a tip, always know the complexity of purposed design and quite a price w.r.t to time consumed int making that design and before buying a machine, one needs to be careful about the speed of the embroidery machine.

Hat hoop

In particular, the hat loop is an essential feature for any good hat embroidery machine. When you see different hats and caps with numerous styles and avatars with classic and modern style names and pictures, all are done by hat hoops. As discussed earlier, using standard hoop limits the customization.

As an advice, see if there are compatible hat hoops available for your embroidery machine. A good Hat embroidery machine would either give hat hoops with the machine or sell them separately. they don’t rely on universal hat hoops. One needs to be vigilant enough to see the price of a separate hat hoop. as some companies try to rip off their user by charging a lot for machine-specific hat hoops.

Built-in designs and Editing tools

Machines that have built-in designs, allow you to create various combinations by combining different patterns. Moreover, the editing tools help the user to edit and create logos and customized designs on the go from the machine. Not having this feature will create a lot of fuss and designs need to be resized, rotated, and reposition manually by using 3rd party software.

So buy a machine that at least have a built-in design customization digital module.

USB Connectivity & Support For Various File Formats:

The transferability of all the details and designs can only be possible when you connect to the machine with a USB. Being a hat embroider, a lot of custom designs would be needed to get imported into the machine. so pick a machine that has a USB port.

You might find tons of machines with this feature, but the main thing you should look for is its support for a maximum number of file formats, especially PES format (almost 90% of available designs are in this format). So pick a machine that at least supports the PES format.

Embroidery Tip #6: Resizing your desing is always an easy, yet a complx task, TrueSizer is usally used for that. This sofwtare is compatable with almost every image format for embroidery machines. You can also use Embrilliance Essentials Embroidery Machine Software for resizing.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion

There are plenty of options available for hat embroidering machines. Finding the right one can be a tedious task as “one can not find pearls in the shallow waters.” Ample Research time is required for the beneficial suggestion. We tried our best to put our experience into words.

For this article, we tried to sum up every machine in a concise manner by inspecting over all the necessary features one needs for embroidering a hat & how does that machine fulfill these needs. We have discussed the pros and cons that can make you select the right piece of equipment. In addition, there were Embroidery tips, which should be beneficial to all hat embroiders. I hope you liked our review.

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