Seamstress Steven

Seamstress Steven emerged from the dark shadows of Seaglass Logowear! How did that happen, you ask?

The Clifton Park Youth Hockey Association is purchasing jerseys from us for the Mini-Mite and Mite teams, and Thursday came to us about name plates for the travel team jerseys. After a little research, we decided it was something we could do at a competitive price, quickly. We had a completed sample by Friday afternoon, the blank name plates ordered and delivered for overnight standard delivery Tuesday. With the names in hand, the setup process began Wednesday, which left Thursday for the embroidery day. What began around 3 pm Wednesday, wrapped up around 10 pm Thursday.

The lengthy process of name plates began with Steve taking the name and inputting the details/measurements into the digitizing program. Once he had all of the files setup for the cutting and stitching, he sent them along to me. I then took the cut files and uploaded themto the Roland GX24 for cutting the tackle twill (applique material). For each name, there are 4 cut files (2 different sizes per name, per name plate color - black vs. white). All names were run within 1 hour and set aside while I began the initial name plate.

Once the file was inputted to the embroidery machine, stabilizer was hooped and the design was aligned. An outline of the name plate was stitched onto the stabilizer (to which the name plate would be secured using "sticky back") allowing ease of name plate placement, matching with the lettering. Once the name plate was secured to the stabilizer, an outline of the first letter was stitched, the machine was automatically set to stop allowing the initial to be placed onto the plate. With pressure sensitive adhesive on the back of the twill, the initial was secured and then the tack down was stitched (This is the top outline securing the letter to the material.). This process is done for each letter across the bottom layer, then again on the top layer. On average, these name plates took about 35 minutes apiece, making it a long day and night!

Once Steve arrived Thursday afternoon, I continued to babysit the embroidery machine while he moved forward. Myself being a somewhat annnoying perfectionist when it comes to sewing straight lines, Steve offered to complete the hemming! With a short crash course on sewing, he was off! While Steve was on a short break, Charlie made a futile attempt at hemming these name plates; Lack of opposable thumbs was a major problem!