Impressions - March 2011 - (Page 44)

EMBROIDERY >> HANDS ON Production EMBROIDERY HANDS ON DIGITAL DECORATING HANDS ON ITAL DECORATING >> HANDS ON CREEN PRINTING >> HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON How to Calculate the Real Cost of Embroidery Supplies >> SCREEN PRINTING HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON While you need several items on hand in your shop, the overall cost of goods isn’t so high that you should skimp on quality supplies. While prices vary depending on what type of thread your embroidery design calls for, the most fundamental part of embroidery is probably the leastexpensive overall supply you need. cost, it starts to become measurable. If I have a large jacket-back design — where metallic thread tends to be used more — requiring 20,000 metallic stitches, it will add $1.20 to my design. The cost can be even more signiﬁcant for other types of specialty thread. Glowin-the-dark thread can cost more than $0.10 per thousand stitches. As a result, I charge a little extra when using specialty threads, particularly on large designs. BOBBINS When I talk with people about embroidery expenses, supply costs are always part of the discussion. And while they should be, I’ve noticed that people tend to overestimate how much these costs factor into the overall picture. As a result, many embroiderers — in an attempt to save money — use cheaper supplies. I am a cheapskate by nature. (If you don’t believe me, ask my wife.) Even so, I’ve found that I can buy the best, most expensive supplies and it affects my bottom line very little. I prefer those kinds of deals. Let’s explore the expenses involved with a few of the most basic embroidery supplies and examine the real cost of doing embroidery. around $0.01 per thousand stitches. Even if you use the smaller, 1,100-yard cones, the cost doesn’t really register. I sometimes go to a local fabric store and pick up a cone of thread in an emergency. The 1,100-yard cones are about $5 to $6 each. Using the same point of reference, I should be able to get about 200,000 stitches from a cone that size. By going to a retail store to buy my thread, it costs me a whopping $0.03 per thousand stitches. At that rate, I don’t know if I could stay in business. I do ﬁnd, however, that using metallic or other specialty threads affects my cost of doing business. These thread types can cost signiﬁcantly more that regular thread, but the cost still isn’t staggering. I use metallic thread that costs about $20 for a 3,000-meter cone. In this case, the cone costs more than twice as much as a normal one, but I am getting only twothirds of the amount of thread. So in this scenario, my cost per thousand stitches is around $0.06. While this still isn’t a huge The most expensive bobbin I found in my research cost less than $60 per gross. So let’s do the math on this worst-case scenario. Each bobbin costs less than $0.42 each. Considering that you generally can get about 40,000 stitches off one bobbin, the cost per thousand stitches is about a penny. This is with the most expensive bobbins I could ﬁnd. STABILIZERS Stabilizer is the most expensive embroidery supply. Still, once you consider the cost in a big-picture context, it’s less of a factor. To calculate the cost of using pre-cut stabilizer squares, simply divide the cost by the number of pieces. For example, if I buy a 250-sheet pack of 8" x 8" pre-cut cutaway squares for doing left-chest embroidery, I may pay between $20 and $50, depending on the type and brand. Using the highest price, I’d pay $0.20 per sheet for that 250-piece pack. Even the most expensive stabilizer I buy, which is a 14" x 20" cutaway, costs about $75 for 250 pieces. That means it impressionsmag.com THREAD The most fundamental part of embroidery is probably the least expensive. A 5,500yard cone of thread can cost $7 to $9 a cone. Yet, that cone will yield between 800,000 and 1 million stitches of embroidery. According to my calculations, that is 44 Impressions >> March 2011 http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - March 2011

Impressions - March 2011
Contents
First Impressions
From the Show Director
FYI
Product Gallery
Mainstream Fashion Drives a Womenswear Evolution
Styled for Her
QR Codes: Mobile Marketing Technology
Production
Design & Digitizing
Production
For Screen Printers Only
Perfecting Sublimation on Pre-Sewn Garments
Online Directory
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - March 2011