Impressions - February 2014 - 60

Embroidery Production

Try substituting a silver metallic thread
for a gray spoon that appears in a local restaurant's
logo. With metallic thread adding to the cost of your
production, you'll make it up in the price you pin on
this customized logo. Photo courtesy of Madeira
USA. Logo by Sarah Westﬁeld.

xxxxx

not fade when washed in water as hot
as 203˚F. Some threads will stand up to
washing in water that contains bleach, as
in home or commercial laundries. Others
are designed to maintain their color after
prolonged exposure to sunlight and its
harsh ultraviolet rays. And where safety
is an issue, some threads even contain the
ﬁre-resistant chemicals found in the uniforms worn by ﬁre ﬁghters, racing car drivers and oil rig workers.
When budgets are a concern, embroidery is still fairly ﬂexible. There are
no minimums, which may be offset by
a setup fee. Designs can be altered to
run fewer colors; density can be affected
by thread choice; or the size of the design itself can be reduced. Even choosing the item to be embroidered - the
fabric quality and content - can affect
the ﬁnal pricing of the project. When
your customer wants a quality appearance and budget is a concern, don't walk
away from embroidery until you have
explored the options for keeping its cost
under control.
In the interest of fairness and objectivity, I must now discuss the disadvantages (I
60

Impressions | February 2014

prefer to call them challenges) of choosing
embroidery over ink.
Here goes: Having invested in a machine, you'll need to purchase supplies
other than thread to perform embroidery
well. Proper backing, or stabilizer, is needed for the best results. Needles (chosen
according to the thread you are using) and
bobbins also are essential. Investing in a
good digitizer to run your customers' logos
or designs is money well spent.
Large designs requiring a high stitch
count and lots of colors can become costly,
but often can be adjusted to ﬁt a speciﬁc
budget. When working on lightweight fabric, a large, dense design also can become
heavy, but this often can be offset by combining appliqué with embroidery.
And speaking of combining, if you're
not in the mood to choose one decoration
process over the other, mixing embroidery with printing can provide a mixedmedia look that presents the best of both
worlds. Mixed media, a topic for another
time, is an impressive result of using
multiple decoration techniques - say,
embroidery to embellish over a printed
design - which can increase a ﬁnished

garment's interest, value and price point.
Embroidery, whether it appears solo or in
combination with printing, is guaranteed
to deliver a quality appearance to customized items for personal use, branded
goods and for establishing corporate
identity.
Alice Wolf is the marketing communications director for Madeira USA. She began
doing marketing and public relations for the
art industry in New York, then migrated
north to Madeira's headquarters in New
Hampshire. For more information or to comment on this article, email Alice at awolf@
madeirausa.com.

Suggested

Reading

Like this article? Read these other
embroidery articles at impressionsmag.com:
* "Appliqué the Easy Way"
* "Embroidering on Denim"
* "How to Fix Embroidery
Realignment Probems"

impressionsmag.com

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Impressions - February 2014

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