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.

What is Fleece?

Ultra Fine Micro-Fleece Pullover

Fleece is a knit fabric with combed nap. The nap is composed of the small fibers that stand up from the fabric’s surface. Examples of fabrics with a nap are velvet and velour. If you run your hand along a piece of velvet in one direction, the nap will stand up. If you run your hand in the other direction, the nap will lie down. The fabric looks different, depending upon which way the nap is running in relation to your view of the fabric.

Fleece has a “combed nap” or a “brushed nap,” which is what gives it its soft, airy, comfy qualities. Here is how fleece is made:

Fibers are spun into yarn. The fibers used could be synthetic or
natural fibers. Wool fibers were used for the original fleece fabrics.
The yarn is knitted into fabric.
The fabric is brushed to make the nap stand up. The spaces within the nap form an insulating layer of air. (On wool-producing animals, such as sheep, the spaces between the hairs composing the coat or “fleece” keep the animals cool in the summer and warm in the winter.)

If you hold a fleece up to the light, you can see the knitted fabric under the nap.

Synthetic vs. Natural Fleece Fibers

Wool fleece can be quite heavy and also absorbs moisture. Synthetic materials do not absorb moisture, which means they retain their lightness during exercise, while helping wick moisture away from the skin. For this reason, fleece is used to create the most high-tech, performance-enhancing athletic apparel. Queensboro carries a wide variety of this type of apparel, including custom fleece jackets and vests. Especially popular are the microfiber fleeces, which are made from the thinnest of fibers, are lightweight and not bulky, and maintain the warmth and flexibility of much thicker fleeces.

Origin of the word “Fleeced”

When you talk about fleece, the notion of “getting fleeced” may come to mind. The term “fleeced” means “stripped of all money, like a sheep shorn of its coat, or fleece.” Use of the term dates back to the 16th century. One thing is for sure, if you buy fleeces from Queensboro, you certainly won’t get fleeced!

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.

Queensboro Shirt Company: Behind the Seams

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Tag Archives for fleece jacket

Cue the Snow!

What is Fleece?

Embroider Your Dog

New Fleece: Snuggle Up with Your Sweetie

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