What Do I Do It When I Have To Special Order Embroidery Thread For A Customer?  How do I handle this type of situation?

If a customer is looking for a special color that you do not carry and know that you will not be using this thread for any other order, charge  an additional 20% and require that he pay the entire thread bill.  Figure out how much thread you will need for that order and charge accordingly. Do not forget to charge for the freight.

How Do I Know How Much Embroidery Thread I Will Need?

There are 7 yards of thread per 1,000 stitches of embroidery.  There are 5,000 yards of thread on a cone of embroidery thread. Figure what portion of your design you will be embroidering in that color. Figure approximately what the stitch count for that area or color will be.  This can be found in most of the software programs.

Figure out how many yards of thread you will need for that embroidery.  Multiply that by however many pieces or embroideries you will have finished.  This will give you the total yardage in thread in the color that you will need for the entire job.  Divice that figure by 5000 and this will give you the amount of cones you will need to purchase.

If you have an oder for 200 peices and your custom embroidery design is 10,000 stitches, but the special color that you need will be 30% of the logo, you will need enough  thread for 3,000 stitches times 200 pieces.  This is a total of 7 yards times 3 for 3,000 stitches.  This equals 21 yards of thread  per special color for each embroidery.  21 yards of thread times 200 pieces equals 4,200 yards of thread.

As you can see, this is not even one cone of thread, but it would be very impractical to order 1 cone of thread for your machine especially if you have a multi-head embroidery machine.   Not too many people would run an order of shirts on a single head machine.  This is definetley a multi-head embroidery machine order.

There are a couple of ways that you can handle this.  You can order smaller cones of thread, keeping in mind, they only hold 1,000 yards of thread each, or you could order enough cones of thread to fill at least 1/3 of the total of machine heads and wind the remainder on empty cones.  If you have a 6 head machine you could order 2 cones of thread and wind the other thread on 4 cones.  If you have a 12 head machine, you could order 4 cones and wind the remainder on empty cones.

There are cone winders and bobbin winders on the market today.  The cone winders are very expensive, but the bobbin winders are very reasonable.  I wind my cones on an old industrial machine that I have on the bobbin winder.  It you study the situation, you can rig up your own system to do this. It is not hard, but will save you a lot of money and time if you need some extra thread to finish filling in an order.

I hope that this tip has helped you. Let me know if you have you have had a similar situation and how you handled it.  I would really appreciate it and so would other embroiderers out there in embroidery land.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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This morning was one of those that really showed me the value of having great working embroidery tools.  I was faced with an issue that many embroiderers face. I created a huge embroidery error and I had to figure out how to fix it! It does not happen too often, thank goodness, but I just wanted to share a little bit about what goes on in the life of The Embroidery Coach when I am in a hurry and how I got myself out of this one!

I was in the process of making 2 sashes for a NY State DeMolay chapter and I did not program in enough colors for the design.  The phone rang, I left the machine and forget to finish the job when I went back!  I already had the lettering embroidered and it looked beautiful, but they have an emblem at the bottom and one at the top also.  I embroidered the first emblem on the bottom and of course I was off to the computer to do some more work!  When I went back to take it out of the machine, the last color was wrong!  I wanted to cry, but instead I got out my wonderful Peggy’s Stitch Eraser and went to work.  It only took me a few minutes and I had the entire design removed!  I was able to do so without removing it from the hoop so it made the resewing part go very well.

I layed new backing under the hoop on top of the needle plate, I reprogrammed the machine and increased my design by 3% and Wa La!!  It was perfect!  There was no sign of any error.  I was extremely happy!

Every now and then we all have a screw up!  Would you please share one of yours with me and let me know how you were able to solve your problem? I would really appreciate it and I know that many other embroiderers would also!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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What embroidery backing & needle do I use on a 100% Polyester Shell Jacket for my embroidery design  is a  question that I have received many times.  There are a lot of variations to these polyester shell jackets.  Some have a bonded interlining on the lining, some have a vinyl coating on the back of the jacket shell fabric, some have both the bonded interlining and the vinyl  on the shell fabric and some have a plain thin outside shell with a thin polyester lining.

On all of these jackets use a tearaway backing and a sharp needle.  I prefer to use the 70/10 sharp needle for this type of embroidery  application.

There are some new jackets on the market with a vinyl coating on the back of the very thin shell fabric that seem to be very troublesome when you try to embroider on them.  This fabric has a lot of Spandex in it and is very stretchy.  For these jackets I would use the same 70/10 sharp needle, but I would switch to cutaway backing even though it is a woven fabric.  It appears to be a very thin fabric before the vinyl coating was applied and the embroidery wants to eat up the fabric.  I had to come up with a solution to fix 12 very expensive jackets for a customer that ruined these jackets.  This was a very experienced embroiderer, but it was a fabric that was very new and on the surface, it did not appear to be any different than many other jackets that they had embroidered in the past.

Make Sure Each New Embroidery Order Is Tested And Is Approved On The First Garment

Be very careful when you are faced with a new type of fabric and make sure that you test out the embroidery first.  If you have nothing to test on, it would have been better to run one single jacket and check it before you put all 12 on a 12 head machine.  When I had my embroidery shop, this was a requirement for all of my embroiderers, when they started a new job.  Run one and get it approved before you run the entire job!  If this is not a rule in your shop, make sure that you start doing this immediately!  It will save you a lot of headaches, money and unhappy customers!

Have you ever been faced with a situation like this?  Comment below and let me know how  you solved it?

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Requirements For A Good Digitizer

How do I find a good  digitizer for my embroidery designs  and what do they charge?

First of all, what is a good digitizer?  A good digitizer is someone that will work with you and help to make you look good to your customer.  A good digitizer will know the embroidery process and know what it takes to make your design look the best that it can on your particular type of fabric.  A good digitizer will ask the following questions:

• What fabric is this design going to be sewn on?
• Will you be using this design for any other type of application?
• What format do you want the design to be finished in?
• Will you want to increase or decrease the size of the design from the original size?
• Can I make some modifications to the design to make it sew better such as increase the letter size or choose a different font style?

There can be many other questions, depending on the design and the information that you have given them. When you are looking for a good digitizer, look for one that uses the same software that you do and request that you have a copy of the outline file.  This will allow you to make changes such as resizing or removing lettering from the digitized file.  You may have to pay a little more for this privilege, but it is well worth it.

Digitizer must know embroidery production

Make sure that your digitizer knows production so that you have as few trims and color changes as possible.  Make sure that he or she sews out the designs before sending them to you.  This is a problem with a lot of digitizers, especially with Graphic Artists..  They get their software and think that since they can create any type of graphic art, they can digitize.  This is far from the truth.  They don’t usually know anything about the sewing process and have no idea about push and pull comps, underlay or density.

The best place to find a good digitizer is through the sales rep in your area that sold you your embroidery design software.  He or she should be able to direct you to someone that will be the type of digitizer that you are looking for.

Most good digitizers charge from $9.00 to $20.00 per thousand stitches.  Sometimes they charge by how long it takes and sometimes it is by how complicated the design is.  There are even good digitizers that will give you a choice and will create designs based on a scale.  If you want a lot of detail it will cost you more than if you want less detail.  If you want color blending this is an additional charge on top of the stitch count.  If you find someone that is charging less, then you had better try them out on a design that is for a customer that would not complain if it is not the kind of quality that you envision.  If the price is low, I would truly beware.

This brings me to the subject of going over seas for your designs.  Yes, their designs are very inexpensive; but can you communicate with this person or is it a company that employs a lot of digitizers?  You have no control over who you are going to get.  Sometimes the designs are OK and sometimes they are horrible and you cannot specify who you want to digitize your design.

This can also be true in this country if you are dealing with a large company.  They will send your design to the next person that is available. Sometimes they even contract them out to other companies and maybe overseas.   This is even worse.

Digitizer must sew out designs

Make sure that your digitizer sews out the designs before sending them to you.  Many digitizers with such a low fee do not sew out the designs before sending them to you.  Many of this type do not even own an embroidery machine.  If you have a design that you have purchased for a low price and it has a lot of issues in it, it will cost you money in the end.  It will drive up your production time so far that it will cost you money to do the job.

You want to make sure that you are working with someone that will give you a trouble free design and you can make money on their work.  This is truly one area that you do not want to skimp on in your embroidery business!  This is one area where you get what you pay for. Don’t forget you are going to charge the customer for the digitizing fee.  This is not a charge that you absorb in any way shape or form!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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“Working With Stock Embroidery Designs” is going to be the title of our Embroidery Webinar of the Month for next Tuesday night March 30th at 8 PM ET. It is the first part of a 2 part series about Working with Stock Designs.   In this first part we will be covering:

• The Basic Rules of Using Stock Designs
• The Advantage of Using Stock Designs
• The Known issues in Stock Designs
• Steps in Working with Stock Designs
• I will show you how to edit some basic stock designs
• I will show  you the best way to add lettering to complete a design
• I will talk about Density-Underlay and Pull comps within the stock designs.

Part 2 of “Working with Stock Designs” will be held on April 27th at 1PM ET.

If you are an Embroidery Tips and More Embroidery club member these webinars will be FREE!  If you are not, go to EmbroideryWebinaroftheMonth and reserve your spot!

Make sure that you join us for these very informative webinars!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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SIMPLE 10K Conference Tote Bag

Bob Jenkins, known as Bob The Teacher placed an order for 60 Essential Tote bags for his SIMPLE 10K Internet Marketing Conference that will be starting tomorrow.  These tote bags  will be used to hold a large binder and other tools that the conference attendees will be using during the conference.

I digitized his Simple 10K Conference logo that I embroidered on the front of the bag and the signatures of his guest speakers were embroidered on the back of the bag.  Each design was 8 inches in width.  When I came up with the idea to put the signatures on the back he thought that it would be a really nice addition to the bag and a total surprise for the speakers.  When he received the bags he thought that they were totally “Awesome!”

Why as I telling you this?  I just wanted to share with you how I digitized and embroidered these bags and show you what can be accomplished in a short time and yet bring in some real dollars!   I only had a few days to get this together.  I ordered the bags and they were shipped out the same day and I had them in my hands in 2 days.

To begin  with; Bob created the logo in Corel Draw so I had good clean lines to start with.  The lettering at the top of the logo was very small, but the remainder was a good size and easy to work with.  It was very hard trying to get the signatures from the speakers without them knowing what he was going to do with their signature.  Digitizing the signatures was a lot easier than trying to get them!

The fabric for the Essential Tote Bag is  a rough textured 600 Denier Polyester, so I  used a Contour or Edge Run underlay along with 2 lines of perpendicular underlay to create a good smooth surface to make it easy to embroider the top stitching.  I also used a .20 millimeters Pull Compensation and a total of 72 stitches per inch for the density.  I hooped the bag with a 12 inch square hoop with a firm 1.5 oz tear away backing. The bags really did turn out great.

Front and Back of SIMPLE Conference Tote Bag with Signatures

Bob Jenkins wanted his signature to appear backwards.  This is how his signature appears on some of his websites!  He loved it!!   The pictures definitely do not do the bags justice, but I wanted you to see that this was an easy job that was very profitable!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Sunday, February 28th we get on the ship for our Embroidery Cruise.  This is such a busy an exciting time for me, preparing the lessons for the cruise and, finalizing my book and getting it to the printers, just in time for the cruise!  I am busy preparing the lessons that I will be teaching on the Embroidery cruise and  I am really looking forward to sharing what I know with my students.  Some of the embroiderers will be new to me and I am so anxious to meet them.   My daughter Kathleen will be joining me for this spectacular event!  7 days of fun, relaxing, sharing with my daughter, networking with other embroiderers and teaching my favorite subject!  Life does not get any better than that!

I will be teaching the following courses:

• How To Work With Stock Designs
• How To Save Time In Design Creation
• How To Work With Small Lettering
• How To Create  Pricing Structure That Will Create A Profit For Your Embroidery Business
• How To Market Your Embroidery Business -Including Marketing Your Business On -Line

I finished writing my book and I will have some copies  with me on the cruise.  My books will arrive just in time for me to leave!  The title of my book is “The Truth About Embroidery Business Success”  and the sub title is “7 Elements To A Profitable Home Based Embroidery Business”.  I have been working on this book for several months but it is finally finished.  As soon as I am back from the cruise, I will be creating a website for my book and I have some exciting plans for the future that I will be sharing with you shortly!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Brenda Adams, one of my students, won a “Monogram Wizard” contest for a pillow that she entered.  This pillow is being featured on the back cover of “Designs In Machine Embroidery” magazine.  Brenda stated that she learned a lot from my Underlay class and applied those skills to designing and sewing out this pillow.

Brenda also took my “How To Create Monograms” class and was very creative in putting this monogram design together for this pillow.  She did a beautiful job and I am so proud of Brenda; this is a huge accomplishment.

The picture on the lower right of the dark gold pillow is Brenda’s.  She was in a fabric store shopping and picked up the magazine and saw her pillow on the back and was extremely surprised and excited.  I cannot even imagine the feelings that she went through when she saw her picture on the back cover of that magazine.

If it had been me, I am sure that everyone in the store would have know about it at the time, but Brenda is not like me, she is a bit more quiet!

I just wanted to share this with everyone. What a way to start off the New Year!   Brenda definitely needs to be congratulated on her accomplishment!

Thank you Brenda for sharing your win with all of us!

Joyce Jagger
Your Embroidery Coach

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The big question that I get a lot is What Golf, Polo, or Knit shirts can I order for my embroidery customers that will not shrink?  I ordered from Sanmar and the shirts that I ordered shrank after I washed them.  Who should I order from?

Actually Sanmar is about the best out there that I know of.  They are very easy to deal with and offer a huge variety of products and quality.  What brand did you order?  That is what you are going to have to pay attention to, not the supplier.  All of the knit shirts are going to shrink a little bit.  This is something that is totally unavoidable.  Knit shrinks no matter what, especially when it is put in the dryer.  I do not care how expensive the shirt it, there will be a small amount of shrinkage.  Some are a lot worse than others.

“Order 3 Different Golf, Polo Or Knit Shirts In 3 Different Qualities And Test For Shrinkage”

Try ordering 3 different shirts, 3 different qualities, all well known brands and test from there and see how you make out.  How are you testing the shrinkage?  Lay the shirt out on a piece of backing,  I mean from a large roll and trace around it.  Wash and dry it and then lay the shirt back on your drawing again and compare that way.  This is how I used to test my shirts.

I always offered 3 different qualities to my customers and I told them in advance about the shrinkage.  If they were more interested in price, that was their issue, not mine, they were told.  Sometimes they just order the next size larger to compensate for the shrinkage.  Not only does this work, but it also covers your butt, so to speak.

Good luck, and remember no matter what shirt or how much shrinkage, the shirt will always need a little press to look great!  The embroidery will always pucker or cup under a little after washing and drying when you have a lot of fill stitches in the design.  A little press takes care of this issue.  So many embroiderers think that it is the design when this happens, but that is not necessarily true.

If this tip helps you please leave a comment and let me know!  I would really appreciate it.  Sometime I do not know if my information is getting to you or know.  If you let me know, then that will help me to deliver the kind of information that you are looking for.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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