In December’s Printwear Magazine, I endeavored to help commercial decorators avoid and recover from the most common errors that happen in machine embroidery. In all truth, purely technical disasters are pretty rare. Once in a great while you may break a needle and punch a ragged hole in your garment or fold some part of the piece under the area you are embroidering, or manage to foul your piece with lubricant from your machine, but the truth of the matter is that almost all of the problems you’ll deal with in the day-to-day operation of your embroidery business will stem from poor communication.

The steps I prescribe to tackle this are really pretty simple, though the article provides more detail.

• Collect data completely and carefully.
• Show accurate previews to your customer and obtain explicit approval for your work.
• Communicate all production details clearly and completely to your staff.
• Make sure all pieces go through a complete quality control check before they are considered ready for the customer.

Master those steps, and the errors will be infrequent. That said, if you do have improperly stitched items, the tips in the second half of the article will help you save garments and save face wherever possible.

If you want to read more, check it out in the December digital edition of Printwear!