The Path Best Taken

Pathing is one of the most important elements to master in the process of digitizing. Quite simply, pathing means the order in which the design sews; what sews first and what sews second plus the progression of the design from first stitch to last. Efficient pathing is a design with the fewest trims possible and minimal color breaks. An optimal one color design would have only one trim which is at the end. This would mean that everything was planned or pathed so that all parts of the design were sewn without stopping. To do this, all stitches traveling between elements of the design are covered by the later parts of the stitching. The best way to start digitizing a logo, is to plan out the design in your head before you begin.

Along with pathing, color breaks go hand in hand. Generally, the design will need to be digitized from the background to the foreground so that elements of the design on top fall in front of parts that should be behind. The idea is to only visit each color of the design once if you can. (Some designs may require you to revisit colors later in the logo). A 3 color design that has 52 trims is a very poorly pathed design. Each trim is another possible thread break or pull out and slows the machine down. As an old boss of mine used to say, “We aren’t making money if the machine’s not running .”

The efficiency of an embroidery design is most apparent at the machine. If you are an embroiderer, it will be the first thing you notice and the first thing that will make you crazy if it’s not right. If the machine keeps stopping throughout an order making the job take longer, you may need to charge more for production. A poor design can make the job take 2 to 3 times longer.

If you’re a promotional products salesperson, the first thing that you’ll notice is how much hair your embroiderer is losing. This is where a quality digitizer breaks out front of the “cheap” pack. It’s great to pay only $25.00 for digitizing until your embroiderer has to charge you for editing and longer production times. Your embroiderer may even refuse to sew a design that’s really bad. If your embroiderer cringes every time you walk in the door, you may be using the wrong digitizer.

NeedleUp Digitizing is the “right digitizer”. We have the experience and knowledge to create consistently great designs that are beautiful and efficient at the machine making your run times minimal!

*****NeedleUp Digitizing is owned by Donna Lehmann. You can contact Donna by email: donna@needleup.com or call us at 303-287-6633 M-F. Visit our website for pictures of some of our recent work: www.needleup.com *****

Pathing and the Colorway to Success

Pathing is one of the most important elements to master in the process of digitizing. Quite simply, pathing means the order in which the design sews; what sews first and what sews second plus the progression of the design from first stitch to last. Efficient pathing is a design with the fewest trims possible and minimal color breaks. An optimal one color design would have only one trim which is at the end. This would mean that everything was planned or pathed so that all parts of the design were sewn without stopping. To do this, all stitches traveling between elements of the design are covered by the later parts of the stitching. The best way to start digitizing a logo, is to plan out the design in your head before you begin.

Along with pathing, color breaks go hand in hand. Generally, the design will need to be digitized from the background to the foreground so that elements of the design on top fall in front of parts that should be behind. The idea is to only visit each color of the design once if you can. (Some designs may require you to revisit colors later in the logo). A 3 color design that has 52 trims is a very poorly pathed design. Each trim is another possible thread break or pull out and slows the machine down. As an old boss of mine used to say, “We aren’t making money if the machine’s not running .”

The efficiency of an embroidery design is most apparent at the machine. If you are an embroiderer, it will be the first thing you notice and the first thing that will make you crazy if it’s not right. If the machine keeps stopping throughout an order making the job take longer, you may need to charge more for production. A poor design can make the job take 2 to 3 times longer.

If you’re a promotional products salesperson, the first thing that you’ll notice is how much hair your embroiderer is losing. This is where a quality digitizer breaks out front of the “cheap” pack. It’s great to pay only $25.00 for digitizing until your embroiderer has to charge you for editing and longer production times. Your embroiderer may even refuse to sew a design that’s really bad. If your embroiderer cringes every time you walk in the door, you may be using the wrong digitizer.

NeedleUp Digitizing is the “right digitizer”. We have the experience and knowledge to create consistently great designs that are beautiful and efficient at the machine making your run times minimal!

*****NeedleUp Digitizing is owned by Donna Lehmann. You can contact Donna by email: donna@needleup.com or call us at 303-287-6633 M-F. Visit our website for pictures of some of our recent work: www.needleup.com *****

The Cost of Creativity

It’s no big news that the embroidery industry is a very creative place, but realize from a business standpoint, it’s a highly technical place too.

If you’re a hobbyist, the creative side is most important to you and you probably have never gone too far down the road to figuring your business expenses and the cost of doing business.

If you’re a commercial embroiderer, you better have, because without this information you are flying blind and can easily go into the red. Red is bad. Black is good. Even just the basics will give you a picture in your head to help you make decisions that are best for your bottom line. After all, for you, you’re in it for the profit and the love of the embroidery.

First, list all your expenses for a year’s time. Everything from turning on the lights (if you have a shop) to yearly fees and subscriptions/memberships, supplies, office expenses, web cost (if you have a website) and any help (bookkeeping, accountant, web designer) everything…if you spend money on it, related to your business, count it.

Divide this total, breaking it into a monthly expense by dividing by 12 or a weekly expense dividing by 52 (weeks/year). This way you can see exactly how much work and money you need to bring in each week to break even. This is not profit, just cost to do business. If you want to know your daily “break even”, divide that weekly total by how many days you work per week. This can be scary and make you feel a bit pressured but it’s good to know.

Now, whatever this daily total is, you know that you have to exceed this to be “in the black”. You need to start pricing jobs by how long it will take you to do them, start to finish. How much do you need to make per hour? If an extra step is added, such as re-bagging the garments, the price needs to go up. To figure running time for a design: stitch count divided by machine running speed SPM (stitches per minute) = # of minutes to run. In this way, you can figure how many hours you will need to complete your order whether you have a multi head or a single head.

If you are a one person shop, it gets more difficult because you wear all the hats, i.e.: receptionist, production manager and machine operator. You can go a long way to being efficient if you schedule and organize your time. Don’t let the phone interrupt your production 50 times a day. If you have to, schedule call backs for a certain time each day and tell your customers exactly what you’re doing. If they understand that you will call them back and that you’re not letting other customers interrupt you while doing their orders, they will feel special and appreciate your attention to their jobs. Doing this will make you more efficient at the machine.

If you are a multi person shop, these figures can help you keep up with whether you can afford that new machine, an extra person to help or get another machine operator. Just so you know, a good machine operator averages around 35,000 stitches per hour.

This industry is a wonderful and creative way to make a living; you just have to be smart about your business costs and pricing. Cut expenses where you can to raise your profit margin and compete not only on pricing but quality and customer service.

Focus your time on the production and your customers and let NeedleUp take care of the digitizing for you! You’ll get professional designs that will run efficiently every time which will get you through your order faster and grow your profits exponentially.
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NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, 303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.

EMBROIDERY - 60 wt Thread

What's the deal with 60 wt thread? Well, here's the skinny....anyone who's ever been frustrated with small lettering (and really, who hasn't?) has one more avenue to try with lower weight thread. The problem is, for those in the commercial production side, it's more trouble than it's worth as far as some are concerned. Not only do the embroiderers not want to carry a full complement of 60 wt thread inventory because it's costly, you must also use a smaller needle with 60 wt which is also adds to the cost. For the production conscious embroidery company, the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to this option. Text has to be digitized specifically for this wt thread which causes another problem; you have to have designs edited (or be able to do it yourself) to enlarge the same designs for other applications. All stock designs are created with the industry standard 40 wt thread because that is by far, what everyone uses. What's more, digitizers will create logos for 40 wt unless told otherwise. We can certainly customize the design for 60 wt when we work with the embroiderer directly but many times, we digitize logos for customers that purchase the stitch file without knowing who will be doing the production. This requires us to stay with the industry standard 40 wt.

So what's an embroiderer to do? You have to make the best decision for your business; what's cost effective for you. If you're a small, one or two head shop, is it worth stopping the machine to change out thread and needles for short runs? What about if you run multiheads, can you afford the time it takes to change out needles and thread across the board? Is it worth the expense considering you have to carry at least a few colors available for your customers in quantities to match the number of heads you run? And, if you're spending the extra time to put up special thread and needles, you'll have to charge more, right?

One final thing: some embroidery companies with multiheads find that it is worth carrying 60 wt thread in a few basic colors, in order to be able to provide small lettering to their customers by dedicating one needle color to the 60wt thread and leaving the smaller needles on the machine so they're not changing them out constantly.

SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: Have you made this decision for your business? How do you feel about this topic? Post your comments & questions.........