Images Digital Edition March 2019

KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 42 images MARCH 2019 Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator, with 18 years’ experience both in production and the management of e-commerce properties. He is the program manager for the commercial division of BriTon Leap. www.erichcampbell.com Credit: All photographs courtesy of the author unless otherwise stated garment while cutting the threads or a standard single-edged razor, the technique is as simple as it is critical. Cut carefully from the back side, keeping the blade parallel to the stabiliser’s surface wherever you can, and start shallow. Slice bobbin stitching, occasionally scratching at top-stitching or tugging it carefully with tweezers as it loosens. If you try not to damage the backing, you‘re unlikely to cut the garment. Don’t pull too hard or put too much tension on the garment as this can result in small holes or tears. Steaming after you’ve removed the stitching and freed the original stabiliser helps to relax the fabric. After steaming, check once more for overly visible holes and flaws. If the quality of the remaining garment is reasonably smooth or your replacement design will cover small flaws, you are ready to re-stitch. The re-stitching process Re-stitching combines careful hooping and design preparation. Replacing a design in the same area as the incorrect embroidery requires extremely straight hooping and precise starting positions, especially if you are adding or replacing elements alongside remaining stitching. When replacing with the same logo you removed, as in a colour- change error, consider upscaling the replacement logo a small amount to shift elements and cover a slightly larger area – this may help hide some of the ‘scarring‘ from the previous logo. When replacing or ‘dropping in‘ elements, the best method is to register to an easily identifiable point in the remaining design, like a sharp corner, point or intersection. This will be your starting position, with any replacement elements set in relation to that point. With straight hooping and careful measurement, your new element will stay aligned and properly spaced. This method is best for unconnected, single layer elements; avoid adding anything that needs tight registration like small outlines added to an existing embroidered letter or graphic. Even when this ‘works’, the results are just not consistent enough to merit the difficulty of the labour. Recovery No embroidery disaster can be said to have been truly averted until the customer is happy with the outcome. Communication is as key in following up on an error as it should have been in avoiding it. Be transparent, be honest, apologise when your shop shares fault and make the customer feel that they have received the service or product they paid for and are happy with the transaction whenever possible. You‘ll find an honest answer, a sincere effort to provide the agreed-upon product and unflinching integrity does more to rescue an interaction than the in-fighting and blame-shifting we might be tempted to employ when faced with an angry customer. Ultimately, we know that our brand lies wholly in the perceptions of our customers and that their word often does more to shape our image than our own. We needn‘t kowtow to unreasonable requests, but every effort we make toward retaining a good customer should be considered less a production loss than an ultra-focused marketing spend. Follow your process and you’ll avoid most errors outright, but when the eventual problem crops up, pick the recovery method that you’d hope your service providers would extend for you, within reason. There’s never a bad time to be the hero, even if your work is what needs saving. No matter the tool used to cut the threads, stitch removal should really be a last-ditch effort in most cases. Careful attention must be taken not to cut into the garment or to make holes by pulling too forcefully on the stitches or material. Stitch removal takes a great deal of time and effort. Make sure that it makes sense for your bottom line before you break out the blades. Photograph courtesy of Celeste Schwartz Sometimes the scarring left by an embroidery design can be very severe. In this case, the open nature of the logo that was being replaced in a new colour meant that the scarring would have been much too visible to satisfy our standards. That said, this garment was given a second life as an employee uniform jacket with nothing more than a light texturing fill and a satin border. This sort of cover up can make scarred garments into usable pieces not only for employees, but for charitable donations as well. [Photograph courtesy of Celeste Schwartz]