So, my fiance's bands bassist found me sewing a bag about a week and a half ago...He asked me if I could try making some patches for them...Does anyone know how I would go about doing this? I figured I would just embroider it on something...but I have *never* embroidered...and I want it to look like the patches you buy of bands in stores...he said if I figure out a way to do it they would pay for all the equipment to do it...so anyone?

Screen print? That's how I'd do them. You can draw a b design and take it to the local screen printing shop and have them make the screen (it's not super cheap -- maybe around $20 -- but if you'll be doing a ton a patches, your cost-per patch will be really low), then you just squeegee your ink over the screen onto the patch, then you can seal the edges with an overlock stitch. Embroidery is cool, but takes a long time!

I was actually talking to some people here about that and I guess a lot of the bands use Red Onions (it's on E. 3rd in Ybor)...Anyway, you could probably get your design put on the screen several times so you could screen it once on the fabric, then cut out the patches:

.....................................................
.......XXXX..........XXXX..........XXXX.........
.......XXXX..........XXXX..........XXXX.........
.....................................................

Yea, that's where they go to get all their T-shirts made...I just wanted to make an example one and if they like it I'd make some more for them and I don't have the $20 to spend right now...but maybe I could suggest that to them...How long do you think it would take to embroider the picture seen here >http://pullingout.sphosting.com/topright.jpg ?
If it would take too long then I'll tell them about this company I found on the net that will make custom patches...but I think it would be a cool way for me to spend some free time.

*bump*

I would take this image and somehow transfer it to the material for the 'patch'. Basically I'd freehand it in some sort of fabric pencil, then I'd use back stitch or chain stitch for the letters, and outline the star in back stitch and fill it in with some sort of stitches. Back stitch is where you put the needle out past the sewing and sew back to the last stitch, I'll try to illustrate here
stitches <-
---------. . .
_________2_14_3
needle comes up 1 and goes to 2, up 3 and goes to 4

Chain stitch is a little harder to describe, but you start with a stitch and then come up like your going to do a back stitch but instead of pushing the needle down, you loop it through the previous stitch and make it go back down where you started.
I Hope this helps!
jt

I think it would take a long time to embroider these by hand--do you have an embroidery sewing machine? That wouldn't be too bad. Another option is to look at the Threads advertiser index for label making companies. These companies can machine embroider tons of patches for you (and they can send a sample, too), but in the long run, it's more exensive than screen printing. How many of these are you making? If you're only making enough for all the band members or something, embroidery is an option, but usually making band patches is a pretty big undertaking...

Definately my method would be solely for an example patch. If you want custom embroidery done, I remember going to this woman who had her own machine and she did names for about 4 dollars a name, and I bet you could get that design done for about 10 dollars b/c it's custom. That's 10 per patch, but maybe you'd get a discount if you did bulk. But as monkeyrocker said, sometimes they'll give you a sample of their work, which is nice :)
jt

This was years ago, and I never *saw* it done, by my ex's band made their own patches. One of the guys bought a little home silk screening kit, and did it on pieces of felt and wool and stuff. They turned out home made looking, but it was a really great look. You might look into getting one of those machines...???

i second the @ home silk screening.

i make all my patches w/ black acrylic paint. but that's me. draw it on a peice of canvas and paint it in.

mouse

trace design on patch
cover with buttonhole stitch
sell to all the fans

you can try using spray paint. i make patches like that, it's fun :) but you'd have to find good stencil material, cus the paint gets really sticky. an if you spray too much, it bleeds through the fabric :)
my website has a diy on it too. funstuff>http://www.xsnrg.tk