ImagesMagUK_February_2021

For larger lettering The largest and boldest lettering may be better rendered entirely in a short- length fill stitch. Think 3mm lengths with underlay and complete coverage, bounded by thin satin borders. This combination of fill and satin border creates a clean-edged letter with few stitches that would easily snag. Larger lettering can also be rendered in appliqué if your shop or your customer wants to avoid extremes in stitch count. With laser-cut edges and heat-adhesive appliqués in particular, the coverage of the outside edge doesn’t necessarily require excessively wide, lofty satins for a clean finish. For customers demanding the texture of a fully filled embroidery, the combination of colour-matched appliqué covered with a 50% (or less) density fill may provide the perfect balance between cost and the textured look they crave. Consider using classic zig-zag-attached, collegiate- styled applications, particularly when the heat-applied adhesive makes the stitching process more decorative rather than functional. Applied to save apparel Appliqué may be the simplest sell to a customer considering embroidery, and with its incredibly tough fibre, it is very unlikely to fail. With garments that are likely to outlast their decorations, however, the safest bet may be more than just hardening the decoration against damage; sometimes you can do better by planning to fail. The decoration is definitely not the toughest part of decorated apparel, especially with speciality workwear pieces. My experience of the planning to fail concept came from motorcycle culture. I digitised designs that went on extremely tough materials for motorcyclists, sometimes including workwear pieces. All of these garments were built to withstand damage. Luckily for me, motorcycle culture is very friendly to patches – the concern for most of my clients in that segment was the preservation of the vest or jacket they wanted to decorate, but they had no illusions about the durability of embroidery, so they planned ahead for replacing damaged patch sets as needed for their jacket decorations. The concept of removing and stitching on (without adhesives) a standalone patch was entirely clear to them; although they wanted embroidery that stood up to the most abuse possible, they were usually in the form of patches that could eventually be removed and replaced. Discuss the options for ‘refurbishing’ garments for your toughest workwear clients – they may latch on to the concept of this refurbishing as an added value to your product. If your staff can stitch on a manual machine, you can make patch attachment another valuable part of your services. Hooking up One method I’ve used on occasion with customers who know they may have to replace a patch is to use a hook-and- loop backed emblem to decorate their garment. With outsourced patches, you can often order custom-cut emblems with pre-cut loop patches you stitch on your garments. With nothing more than simple lines and an embroidery machine, you can appliqué the loop material to the garment in question, ready to receive a removable patch. This allows customers with difficult work environments to pre-order additional patches to replace damaged units, or even change up the look of their existing garments with more than one decoration option. Emblematic multimedia Another great option is to create sublimated patches. Although I promised we wouldn’t run to print to solve our problems, this solution was so well received by my customers that it bears mentioning. Most pre-edged patch blanks are already made with polyester and you can easily choose to use polyester twill when creating your own, so there’s no reason not to Split satin stitches like those seen here allow you to maintain the dimension and some of the shine of traditional satin-stitch lettering, while reducing the likelihood that a long, loose thread will catch or snag. The wing-tip also shows splitting in the longest satin stitches for the same benefit [Photo credit: Celeste Schwartz] Text on a jacket back is ‘one lean against a rough surface’ away from shredding, but this edged fill stitch is smooth and low to the surface of the jacket, and therefore less likely to snag than a lofty, wide satin-stitched letter [Photo credit: Celeste Schwartz] This apron has been snagged; although with these letters I’d likely stay with a satin stitch, you can see how a cut paired with an attempt to pull at a loose end can lead to disaster. Shorter stitches aren’t always the best choice, but they can help keep a design from coming apart in some cases [Photo credit: Celeste Schwartz] www.images-magazine.com FEBRUARY 2021 images 31 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES