Welcome to another annual installment—our 19th—of one of Printwear’s most popular features. This year a talented team of authorities from every industry sector offer up one or more of their most frequently dealt-with troubles, then deftly shoot them down. If you experience any of these maladies—or any of the simple curiosities also addressed—you may expect a treat on the following pages.  As always, our most sincere thanks to all those who participated in this feature. . . .

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Anything that speeds up the process adds to the bottom line, or it should. Too many times I hear embroiderers share their excitement over a new process, a bigger machine or a time-saving method with the customer in mind: “Wow, a six-head machine! Now I can lower the price on any shirt orders of six or more.” Or, “What a fast and efficient hooping device! I can lower my price to my customer because I am not spending as much time on their order.”

We all have that moment when we look at an item waiting for embroidery and scratch our head thinking what would be the best way to tackle this job? I’ve heard so many funny stories about difficult hooping; descriptions of embroiderers trying to frame horse blankets on hands and knees to gain that “third hand” are often shared in my Printwear Show seminars and at the Embroidery Line (EmbroideryLine.net) and more often than not the mental pictures the stories bring forth reduce the classes to gales of laughter.

There are things I collect: miniature shoes, quotes, people and helpful hints. I thought I’d share with you some of the ones I think are the best at smoothing the road, especially for beginners—that is, “newbies,” in our world.

Many people have helped and guided and advised me on my journey and I send out a thank you to all of them because naming them all would put me way over my word quota. You know who you are, though, and so do I.

Needles

Always suspect the needle first. Changing to a new needle solves many a stitching problem.

Apply silicone spray to the needle with a cottonⁱ swab to help keep it from gumming up when using spray adhesive or stitching through sticky backing or coated fabrics.

A whimsical moment recently had me wishing I could “see” what every professional embroiderer in the world was stitching at that very moment—an overview of where we are, what we do and why. I knew that I would see a lot of pure production embroidery and that is a good thing, as every business on earth needs the production embroiderer, even when we don’t need their specialty. But, I know I am not alone in wishing for, courting and producing more artistic products.

Knit fabric with a brushed pile on one side is known as fleeceⁱ. The fashion and accessory world has embraced the comfort, warmth and versatility of fleece and we find it everywhere. But the best known fleece garment is the sweatshirt.

More often than not, when blankets, baby clothes, coat linings and more are discussed, you will hear people say, “It’s made of sweatshirt material.” When we talk about printing or embroidering on fleece, it’s usually a sweatshirt that is being squeegeed or stitched.

Welcome to yet another annual installment—our 18th in a row—of one of Printwear’s most popular features. This year a talented team of authorities from every industry sector—many of whom you’ve seen in past issues, some of whom you see here every month, even a few we’ve never seen before—share one or more of their most frequently dealt-with troubles, then nimbly, succinctly and accurately blast them to smithereens. If you experience any of these maladies—or any of the simple curiosities also addressed—you may expect a treat on the following pages. . . .