Embroidered patches are a great way to identify your club or group in a way that looks professional while still being relatively inexpensive. You can make your own patches if you're adventurous, though you'll have to invest in an embroidery machine or a sewing machine that does embroidery. If that's not an expense you want to undertake you can always order customized patches from a dealer like The Cheap Place. All you need to do is submit an original design in digital format and they can make it happen.
If you want to make your own using a sewing machine you'll need a design and some blank patches (The Cheap Place sells those too). Then, depending on whether the embroidery feature on your sewing machine is automatic or manual, you line up the blank patch, put the guide down, and off you go. With an automatic machine you should be able to load a digital image using a flash drive or a microSD disc then can sit back and watch it work its magic all by itself.
The advantage of using an automatic sewing machine or embroidery machine is the fact that you can make a large number of patches quickly and easily. The disadvantage is obviously the upfront money which can be substantial.
If you just need a few stock patches or custom club patches in small volume, it's probably not worth your investment in a machine. Most patch dealers are very reasonable in terms of pricing; shipping is also fairly cheap given the fact that embroidered patches don't weigh much.
With all the available options there's no reason why you can't have some custom patches made for your group. All you need is a little imagination and a great patch dealer like The Cheap Place.
