Cue the Snow!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful. Actually, if you live in Wilmington, N.C., our weather has been frightful for a couple of weeks now. By frightful, I mean cold (not snow!). All of the staff members are sporting their Queensboro fleeces from the remnants table. The warehouse is either a tropical jungle or an Alaskan igloo, depending upon where your desk is. We frequently get to try out our outerwear while we are at work. (Our facilities manager tries really hard to maintain an even temperature, but when you are heating or cooling the equivalent of an airplane hangar, there is not always a lot that can be done.)

Embroidering Fleece
Because the cold weather is upon us, I am certain that you are going to want to stock up on fleece. Lots of fleece. At Queensboro, you can get fleece jackets, fleece scarves, fleece beanie hats, fleece blankets and more! Before you order your fleece, there are a few things you should know about the relationship between fleece fabric and embroidery. Last week, I wrote a post about the characteristics of fleece fabric to help our customers (and myself) learn more about fleece. I did not talk about the process of embroidery on fleece. To help you get the best results for your fleece order, here is some information about the way Queensboro embroiders fleece.

Fleece is a fabric with a high nap. That means it is a thick fabric. Logos with lots of thin lines and lettering often need a bit of tweaking for best results. It is possible to embroider these logos on fleece, but we do recommend you consider allowing us to eliminate thin outlines and thicken up fine text.

The fleece will generally compact slightly after a few washings, so if your logo has fine details and you do not want us to eliminate or thicken those details, your logo will begin to stand out more after time.

When Queensboro’s digitizers modify logos for embroidery on fleece, they thicken the logo by adding more stitches to the logo and shrinking the spacing between the stitches. This keeps the logo from sinking into the thick fabric, and keeps the fabric from sticking out between the threads of the logo.

The embroidery machine operators and packers showed me the solvy they use to stabilize the fleece fabric during embroidery. Solvy is a water-soluble stabilizer that the embroidery machine operators place on top of the fleece once it has been hooped and placed on the machine. The solvy makes the embroidery surface smooth and flat so that the end result is clearer and crisper. After the fleece is embroidered, the packer removes the excess and then uses the steamer to release small pieces from around the embroidery. Any solvy that is left will dissolve during the first wash.

Each of these steps helps Queensboro produce your embroidered fleece outerwear and items at the highest possible quality so that your logo will shine.

Embroider Your Dog

Don’t embroider on your dog, embroider a likeness of your dog-or cat, bird, horse or other pet. That is what Queensboro Logo Specialist Kit Furderer did. Actually, the sweet dogs pictured at right belong to his uncle. I asked Kit why he decided to render the dog photographs in embroidery and print artwork and he said “My uncle’s dogs are like his kids.” Kit compares the custom embroidered fleeces he has ordered for his uncle to carrying pictures around in your wallet, or wearing your child’s sports team logo out and about. He has ordered custom embroidered fleeces for his uncle as holiday gifts. “He needs them for the cold Midwestern winter.” (Said with a bit of a twinkle in his eye. All we need here in Wilmington for the entire winter is a fleece!)

A Unique Pet Portrait

What could be more unique or special to a devoted pet owner than a likeness of their furry, feathered or finned friend rendered in embroidery? Below, we have included the original pictures of the pets, as well as the artwork created for printing and embroidery. You can see the progression from photograph, to printing artwork, to embroidery.

Tips for Perfect Pet Portraits

From the pictures, you can see that the embroidery and printing artwork capture the personality of the dogs, and their overall characteristics, but are a stylized version of the photographs. I asked Kit how to take a great photograph for our logo artists to translate it best into embroidery. His main request was that you capture the pet’s personality in the picture so that the artist working on the artwork can incorporate it into the final embroidery file. I would add that it is much easier to digitize if you send us a clear picture, with the pet’s features well-defined. Depending upon the complexity of your logo, there may be a fee (around $25.00). If you would like for us to digitize your pet, send us your photograph to evaluate and we’ll let you know how we can help!

New Fleece: Snuggle Up with Your Sweetie

Women's Full Zip Polar Fleece

Saturday is Sweetest Day. If some of you are scratching your heads, that is probably because you don’t live in the Northeast or Upper Midwest. Sweetest Day supposedly began in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1921. On that day, a Cleveland candy maker handed out over 20,000 boxes of candy to children, orphans and less fortunate residents of the city. Cynical holiday weary folk dismiss Sweetest Day as a concoction of the greeting card industry, but sources indicate this myth is not so. Today, Sweetest Day is celebrated much like Valentine’s Day, with chocolates, flowers, jewelry and other nice but completely impractical things.

A Different Kind of Cuddly Gift

No, I do not advocate buying your sweetheart a lemur, though they are cute. While it is too late to order for delivery by Saturday for a super-special Queensboro gift, you can always nicely present a Queensboro order confirmation in a vase of elegant flowers. What should your IOU promise your sweetie? A brand new Queensboro Winter 2008-2009 fleece! Today is the debut of our new men’s and women’s fleece, and they are on sale, too! Don’t get fleeced! Pick out a toasty gift that will make your sweetie swoon.

When in Portland. . .

. . . Bring a fleece! And a rain coat! This week, I, Kate, one of the Queensboro Bloggers am in Portland, Oregon for the Garden Writers Association of America Symposium. This is my first time at GWAA and my first time in Portland. Being in a new place is giving me all kinds of new things to write about. That is what I love about travel. So, this week I will be posting some musings from the Left Coast, along with my regular
Queensboro blogs.

Queensboro Fleece Blanket: Handy for Plane Rides

Microfiber Fleece Blanket

I don’t know about you, but I hate airplanes. It is not that I am scared, it is that I feel they are exceptionally germy. Even though they say that they wash the blankets they give you, I have watched too many nvestigative reports to believe that. I did not have my Queensboro fleece blanket with me, but our Customer Service Training Manager Heather had hers, so she stayed toasty warm. Heather and I just happened to be on the same plane to Portland. Without a blanket, I used my custom embroidered fleece as a jacket, pillow, blanket and sunshade during the FIVE HOUR FLIGHT.

Are You a Vendor?

I have tons of Queensboro items with my personal logo on it. My logo is for my garden-related writing that I do in my “free” time. When Heather and I got on the MAX train yesterday to get from the Airport to our hotels, there were several other Garden Writers with us. We found this out because I was wearing my fleece with my logo on it. (It is COLD here!) The other writers asked me if I was a vendor for the Garden Writers conference because I had logo wear! I said, “Well, I vend my writing services!” Wearing my logo fleece was great because it let the other conference attendees identify me as a fellow registrant, and it started a conversation about writing and my work at Queensboro. I might be the only writer at the conference wearing my own logo, but I bet by the end I will have recruited some more!

Your Logo is the Key to Conversation and Customer Acquisition

I write a lot about the importance of having your own logo. Up until now, I have not had the chance to test my observations anywhere other than my local grocery store. My experience on the train in Portland proved to me, first-hand, that wearing my company logo is the ticket to starting a conversation and potentially recruiting new customers. It was also a way for me to jump-start my week and get to know some others in my field before the big event begins. A good logo will pique (pronounced peek–not peekay–more on that another time) the interest of people around you and allow you to naturally talk about your business.

If you’re looking to jump start more interactions about your business and your brand, check out Queensboro’s custom embroidery services. You might be surprised what a difference wearing your own logo makes. I certainly was!

Queensboro Shirt Company: Behind the Seams

The Official Company Blog for Queensboro.com.

Tag Archives for custom embroidered fleece

Cue the Snow!

Embroider Your Dog

New Fleece: Snuggle Up with Your Sweetie

When in Portland. . .

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