Sunday, December 20, 2015

LOCAL EXPOS

2016 Local Business Expos / Community Showcase / Tradeshow / Health Fairs / etc.


Looking to enter a new community?  Check out this list of upcoming expos / showcases / health fairs in the local areas.

Jan. 10, 2016   D'Andrea Premier Bridal Show

Jan. 31, 2016  Star 105.5 24th Annual Classic Bridal Show

Feb. 20, 2016  Marengo Chamber Home and Business Expo

Feb. 20, 2016  Richmond / Spring Grove Chamber Expo

Feb. 27, 2016  Algonquin LITH Chamber Winterfest (formerly known as the Home and Business Show)

Feb. 27, 2016  McHenry Chamber Expo (Life is a Journey w/ a B2B Boulevard)

Feb. 27, 2016  Wauconda Chamber Business & Home Expo

March 5, 2016  Huntley Chamber Home & Business Expo

March 5, 2016  Fox Lake Chamber Business/FMY Expo

March 12, 2016  Lake Zurich Chamber Business & Community Showcase

April 2 & 3, 2016  Crystal Lake Chamber Home & Business Expo

April 3, 2016  Barrington Area Chamber Community Showcase and S.T.E.M. events

April 9, 2016  Hampshire Home & Business Expo

April 9, 2016  Harvard Business & Community Expo

April 16, 2016  Cary Grove Chamber Community Showcase

May 5, 2016  GOA Regional Business Association Business Expo Face to Face (Elk Grove Village)

May 14-15, 2016  Gluten Free & Allergan Friendly Expo Schaumburg

July 13-15, 2016  Billiard & Home Leisure Expo Schaumburg

Oct. 17-19, 2016  Fleet Technology Expo Schaumburg

Oct. 26, 2016   Great Barrington Area Tastefest


NOTE:  If you would like your business expo listed here, please contact EmbroidMe.  Info on the right.


 Looking for the tips 3 part series, sign up here:

Full Name
Email *
Organization

We have UNDER ARMOUR for business logos

EmbroidMe of Crystal Lake has been given rights to sell a select set of UNDER ARMOUR items with business* logos.

Come by the shop to check out the catalog.  All items must be embroidered with a company logo.  There is a 3 piece minimum for any Under Armour order.

The online catalog is now available for viewing:  http://ppdconnect.com/alphabroder_UnderArmour_US/

*NOTE:  We can not sell to colleges or high schools.  You must use your direct UNDER ARMOUR rep.


Image result for under armour

Saturday, December 19, 2015

3 PART SERIES

Request Expo / Tradeshow Checklist You've invested money in having a booth ... sign up to get the 3 part series on tips for Expos and Tradeshows

Full Name
Email *
Organization

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Stay Charged - December 2015 Newsletter

"Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try."-Jack Canfield


In this month's newsletter: Staying in front of your customers in a tech world will only give you a greater name for your brand! Check out our flyer for our December product of the month that will charge your devices quicker without tangling multiple cords! And, learn 12 clever ways to use more visuals on social media.

Looking for a multi cord charging device? EmbroidMe will light your way with this handy device!


Charging up to three devices has never been easier all the while promoting your brand with an illuminated logo!

EmbroidMe is your marketing partner and this month we want to spotlight a tech item that everyone can use! This is MFi certified("Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad") and comes with a matching travel bag. Promote your name with a functional promotional item that will be used every day!

We have a few of these in the store that you can have ... if you ask for one before they are all gone.




12 Clever Ways to Use More Visuals on Social Media 
By Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
If there is one thing you should try to do to increase the impact of your social media, it's adding visual marketing to your posts. At the simplest level, that means that every post should contain a graphic or video. While that sounds like a lot of work, it can have a huge payoff -- this tactic has helped us double the impact of our posts.

 For most marketers just getting started with visual content creation, putting visuals in every single post feels near impossible. That's where this post comes in -- the purpose of this article is to explain the best (and often easiest) tips for adding visuals to your social media posts.
Read More

  Click image for details

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Snag Resistant or Snag Proof

Snagged fabric isn’t a look anyone can make work. No one wants their clothing riddled with tiny holes and loose threads, after all; it looks unkempt and unprofessional, a bad look for any occasion. Luckily, there are many products on the market today that help prevent clothes from coming undone in such an unsightly way. Sports gear, women’s nylons, and polo shirts are some of the clothing that has become snag proof in recent years, and with good reason; activewear and thinner fabrics are the most likely clothing items to become easily damaged, so they need a little extra protection.
What makes a snag-proof fabric snag-proof? First, it’s best to understand what exactly causes clothing to become snagged. A snag happens when something—usually a sharp object of some sort—is able to pull a thread or group of threads away from its place in the fabric pattern, breaking the thread in the process. This leaves behind a small hole, usually with the offending thread still attached; get enough snags in the right material, and the whole thing could potentially unravel. Even one or two little snags could become bigger holes if left without mending, destroying an otherwise perfectly good piece of clothing.
Weft and Warp Knitting
Snag proof fabrics seek to remedy these issues by being made of durable, tightly-woven threads. Sometimes, snag proof fabrics are woven in a warp knit; these fabrics’ fibers are woven at a more diagonal angle than the straight-across weft weave that other fabrics utilize, creating a tighter weave pattern that’s less prone to snags.

Picture sourced @ https://imac4.wordpress.com/page/2/
 
 Snag-proof fabrics tend to be made of polyester, a strong and long-lasting fiber made of different synthetic compounds. Clothing made of polyester is generally strong enough to stand up to more repeated wear and tear than other, more natural fibers, while staying just as or even more comfortable. Polyester fibers, being strong, are difficult to break under regular use. Polyester fabric, being tightly woven yet slightly elastic, is difficult to put holes in; coupled with the strong polyester fibers, this makes snagging the fabric tough to impossible. For sportswear, which often gets a more rough-and-tumble treatment than everyday clothing, this tougher fabric is a much better alternative than others available. Nylons and other women’s legwear also benefits from a fabric that won’t tear or snag easily, lasting longer and requiring fewer replacements to be bought.
Even if you don’t play sports or wear nylons, snag-proof polos are quickly becoming a popular choice for everyday or business-casual clothing. After all, even the most usual actions can cause an accidental snag here and there, and a snagged shirt is an annoyance no matter where you are and what you’re doing. Many companies are quickly adopting these new snag-proof shirts. One of our vendors, for example, carries a variety of their own snag-proof polos in a special tricot weave, which must undergo vigorous snag-testing to make sure it’s ready to ship out.

Snag proof fabric must be tested for resistance in a special “beanbag” machine that rolls a fabric sample in the hook-and-needle lined cylinder for one hundred revolutions. This should leave the fabric with minimal snags, if any. Tested fabric is rated on a standard scale of 1-5; 1 is the lowest grade possible with the most snags, while 5 is the highest and has minimal to zero snags after testing. Typically, any fabric with a rating between 1 and 3 is unacceptable to be shipped out, as it will snag too easily to be called snag resistant; 3-4 is a standard rating, and denotes an acceptable fabric; 4-4.5 is excellent, and 4.5-5 is an optimal fabric that is just about as snag resistant as it could be. Pique knits and jerseys must test at a 3.5 to a 4 rating before they can be acceptable to ship, and tricot weaves must be between 4.5 and 5. Typically, a pique knit shirt made of 100% cotton is a solid 5 on the scale, making it an ideal choice when considering an apparel purchase. 

Polo or Button ... a few thoughts on both items

Interestingly enough, polo shirts were originally designed for playing tennis; in fact, to this day, they are sometimes referred to as “tennis shirts”. Before champion RenĂ© Lacoste invented the shirt in 1926, tennis fashion consisted of long-sleeved button-up shirts, flannel pants, and neck ties. This attire made the game difficult to play, and was uncomfortable to boot. Lacoste’s design improved the clothing greatly, changing not only the style of the shirt, but the material as well. The short sleeves meant players no longer had to roll up their sleeves to keep their arms mobile; the soft pique-style collar was able to be turned up to prevent a sunburned neck; the new “jersey knit” fabric was durable, and more breathable than the previous dress-shirt fabric; and a "tennis tail", created when the back of the shirt was longer than the front, could be placed into the back of the pants to keep a dignified and tucked appearance while still moving freely. Later, polo players—whose uniforms likewise consisted of uncomfortable, long-sleeved shirts—gladly embraced the shirt as part of their own sport. By 1973, when Ralph Lauren featured the shirts as part of his company’s “Polo,” collection, the shirt had already become so associated with polo that tennis players—for whom the shirt was originally designed—took to calling it a “polo shirt”.
At the turn of the 20th century, the color of choice for dress shirts was white. They were meant to be a simple part of a suit, nothing more. In the 1910’s, however, colored shirts became increasingly popular, with vertical blue-and-white stripes quickly becoming a favorite. As the decade changed, striped dress shirts stayed trendy, with thicker stripes and more varied colors coming into favor; blue and green stripes could stylishly exist together on one shirt, while another might feature yellow and pink stripes, and so on. Before long, checks, plaids, and dots also came into fashion. These stripes and patterns were almost always set against a white background, again to compliment whatever suit a man might wear, though solid-colored pastel dress shirts became acceptable near the end of the 1920s.
Short-sleeved dress shirts didn’t really come onto the market until 1953; even then, clothing retailers feared the shorter sleeves would be too reminiscent of sports shirts, and had to educate their sales associates on how to properly sell the idea of a short-sleeved dress shirt. Luckily, customers gladly took to the new style, as they could now keep cooler in the workplace while still looking classy in a suit jacket. From these short-sleeved dress shirts, the business-casual button-down shirt as we know it today was created. These shirts could be buttoned up to the neck, or left open at the top for a more casual look, and were almost always worn tucked into the waistband. More casual, sporty looks came into style as well, made of more comfortable fabrics and with two large pockets.
“In the 1910’s the striped shirt such as blue and white vertical stripes were very popular in the summer months. The trend for stripes continued into the 1920’s where various thickness of stripes were mixed with not just one color but multiple colors of stripes. Blue, green and yellow could be seen on one shirt or pink, yellow and green on another. For dress shirts the stripes were nearly always against a white background so as to complement whatever suit men chose to wear. Besides stripes, Chevoit checks, light plaids, and even polka dots had their trendy moments. Solid color dress shirts were acceptable towards the late 20’s.  Greens and blues were the favorites although pastel colors like peach, pink, purple, and orange were seen on trendy dressers…Fabrics were mostly cottons or linen in summer. Silk was very popular in the 1910’s until the cost of silk import drove the prices too high for the common man in 1920. Thicker, corser weaves such as broadcloth were favored in the early years with the softer oxfords and mercerized cotton leading the later years. Soft material that was primarily used for men’s underwear and night shirts became a welcome fabric in men’s dress and casual shirts too…While most men wore dress shirts for 90% of their life, the working class, the young men, and the weekend sportsmen wore casual shirts which were long sleeved and collared just like dress shirts. The sport shirt was usually a single color, in a heavier durable fabric such as twill, wool, or flannel for manual work and rugged sports (hunting, hiking, fishing, etc)... The short sleeve shirt was just starting to make an appearance in mens sportswear. The polo shirt, a short sleeve knit shirt with longer shirt flaps in the back and three buttons up to the collar was about as casual as you could get. The polo shirt was new to market and not yet ready for the masses to bare arms.”
“The difference between dress and sport was still in the tailoring and the fancy collar types. When the short sleeve dress shirt hit the market around 1953, retailers, feared they would look too much like sport shirts. Educating the salesmen to show off the new style as a cooler alternative to long sleeves was required. Fortunately most male shoppers picked up the trendy short sleeved style with enthusiasm. Now they could relax in their offices in casual comfort and still look respectable when the need came to put their suit jackets back on …The button down shirt was a spin off from men’s dress shirts. They always had one or two chest pockets, were worn tucked in and had a moderate point collar. Most shirt collars buttoned up to the neck just like dress shirts. Some styles were made “sporty” with double large pockets and more casual materials. In fall and winter a long sleeve plaid flannel shirt (aka a country or California ranch look) was especially popular.”

Monday, December 14, 2015

TECHNIQUE: Embroidery

·  Modern days, most machines computer operated

Free motion embroidery
 Uses machines, but user moves fabric and lowers “feed dogs” by hand.
Closest to at-home embroidery you’ll get in a commercial setting.
Uses mostly zigzag and straight stitching.
Only uses one needle at a time, so colors must be switched out manually.
Bad for multiple identical embroidered products, as the needed conformity of a computer can’t be reproduced easily by human hands.

Computerized embroidery
We have this here
Need to decide and load what colors will be needed BEFORE embroidery starts
Can make many different effects, e.g. shimmers, glitter, chain stitches etc.
Image files must be made or imported in embroidery-specific software


We want you to start with vector art of high-res jpeg to create the embroidery file.  You can think of an embroidery machine as basically a simpler form of a CAD-Machine.  A "program" has to be created to tell the machine which needles to use in which order to create the design.  The program used to be called a tape from back in the days when computers were run by cards and tape.  To create the program, a person or another program has to create a new program telling the machine which needle to use and where to go.  This is what is called setup.  While programs assist with this, some human interaction is needed to create the best design.

You can machine-embroider any fabric, including silks and soft wools. But producing exquisite embroidery that is well suited to the fabric, doesn't pucker, or change the fabric's drape, involves the interaction of all the following elements: a machine that's well-tuned and set at the appropriate needle and bobbin tensions, a well-prepared and positioned design, the correct needle and thread for the job, and a good understanding of the fabric you're embroidering so that it's properly hooped and stabilized. I'll examine these essentials, but I want to concentrate on how to choose designs and fabrics that are compatible with each other and tell you what to do when they're not.”
Sourced @ http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4411/machine-embroidery-a-marriage-of-fabric-and-design#ixzz3qdvz5OuU