Patch Help??

[booze]

The Legion where I live wants me to sew their actual patches. Not onto their uniforms, but their logo onto their patches. Can the Amaya do this? Is their a special hoop to do them? Should I just out-source it? If so, to who? How do I make an actual patch? Is their patch stuff I can buy and then sew it on? PLEASE HELP, I have never done this. I need some professional advice on this one.

Thanks

[Juli in Kona]

It would depend on how many they want? 10 or 100? And don't forget that the merrowing around the edge of a patch can't be done with a regular sewing machine, including out Amayas. It takes a special merrowing machine. But for a few patches you can get away with a satin stitch, but then you have to cut it out. Any way you do that, it is time consuming. I do name tags for a motorcycle club, but every patch is a different size and a different name, so I just do the satin around the edge, cut it out VERY carefully and then use a black pen to color the edge to hide the material. It works and my customer likes it, but it will not do for 100 patches. And this does not even touch on the digitizing aspects of the job.

Juli in Kona

[Wishes]

I would be sure that you have permission from the national organization to use their design even if it is at the request of a local chapter. I would bet that is a copywritten design.
Margaret

[sewsew7]

I have also done a few patches the way Juli has suggested. They turn out pretty good if you trim close enough. The only thing I also do, is go around the outside of the patch after cutting it out with fray check. Works for a couple, but wouldn't want to do a big order this way. It is time consuming.

[RANDIM]

I have purchased blank patches with the merrow edge and then sew directly on the patch. I get blank ones from patchsupply.com. There is a min quantity of 50. I set my design up to do a walk normal stitch the size of the patch and then insert the applique command. It does the stitch (these were round patches), the machine then pushes the frame out and I place the blank patch with a little spray adhesive or double stick tape and place the patch in the stitched outline. Press start and then stitch out the design. I use the smallest frame I can with a couple layers of tear away backing. I use my 5.5" slim line frame for 3 to 3.5 inch round patches. it is time consuming but it works.

Regards,

Randi
One Stitch @ A Time Embroidery

[signman]

I've done runs of a couple dozen for local scout units-small enough quantities that none of the patch companies will touch it. I buy the blank patches like Randi, set up the 'inline' walk normal stitch at 45 stitch size to the outside diameter, duplicate it and scale it to fit 'inside' the merrow edge.
Then the whole design in order.
Difference is..I set this up in the largest hoop I have-the double wood ones. Hoop up 1 piece of backing, and in Amaya OS I open it up, and move the image all the way to the top left corner. I think I did figure out the appique command otherwise I just sit and manually pause it after the first outline-set the patch inside that line-either double back tape under it or pieces of masking tape over it...then sew the 'inside' line (make this the same color thread as the patch material) and pause-peel off the tape-then let it sew the entire design. Back to amaya-move the design over, and start again. I do NOT pull the patches off until I've filled the whole hoop-depending on size of patch I can get 12-15 per hoop. Once done-then I pull the patches off. Otherwise you can tear your backing and no more patches can be done on that hoop.
Anymore than 50 I let the patch company do it...I can't compete on price with buying it in bulk that way...with a full markup and no time involved except for the 'prototype'-it's all profit.

[Aaron]

If you are doing more than 50 out source them. Most of the large patch companies will not do less than 50 unless they are large patches then they do less. I have patchsupply.com do all of mine. They do great work and the price is great with 4-6 wek turnaround and you can pay 25% extra for 4 weeks and 50% extra to get them in 2 weeks. They do them overseas so even the rush 2 weeks can take an extra week sometimes cause they have to pass through customs and you just never know what could happen there but 90% of the time mine come exatly when they say they will. We do a 4.5" tall star for the local sheriff's department with 16k+ stitches and at qty of 200 my cost is around $2.25. I mark them up a $1 or so and make a few hundred bucks for doing nothing more than sending an e-mail for reorders. If you are doing low qty then you can do them like a few people suggested above or you can buy the patch material and setup the patch and sew a walk stitch around the logo in the shape and size you want the patch and send them off to someone that does merrowing (I use Salem Emblem Shop cause they are close for shipping). Merrowing costs $0.75 up to a few bucks depending on size and quantity but if you are doing small runs of patches customers should expect to pay extra for that. Sometimes doing 15 patches at the price I need to do them in house is more to the customer than having 50 made overseas so make sure you do some math to figure whats best for the customer. If you need any more information on merrowers or where to get the patch material let me know. I actually get my material from Salem Emblem but not sure they normally sell the material but he sells it to me. They get it from Troy Inc and I would have to find that info.

[signman]

Don't undersell yourself Aaron...all my patch catalogs (ad specialty suppliers) have a generally 'discount' to sales reps of 50%, the lowest is 30%...and that's for high volume orders. So your cost would normally be doubled to get your sell price...then you can discount off that for the type of group, value of customer, etc.

[booze]

I just want to say thanks to everyone. I have bought some patch material, but don't want to go through the trouble w/ 150 patches, so I outsource them. Thanks

[Aaron]

Roland,

$2.25 x 2 = $4.50 -25% off comes out to $3.37 which is in the ballpark of where I am. They were getting them before for $3.40 so I figured its better to do them for $3.25 and make a few hundred bucks for placing the order and letting someone else do the work then to let them go to the other people. After I did this for them they started bringing in items from different departments and 5 years later I now do a large porion of the Sheriffs Department embroidery which is about a $10,000.00 a year account so I think making a little less for something that I am just a middle man on has worked out pretty well. All of thier shirts, jackets, hats, uniforms go to them at regular retail prices and I have also got a few other accounts such as Rotary and Lions from Shiriff's that are involved with those organizations. This is not the only patch job that has turned into other work so I think my strategy of selling patches for a good price has paud off and I don't feel I am underselling myself.

On a related matter I single names for walk in customers for around $3-4 depending on how I read the customer and have been told I do names way to cheap but I have gotten so much business off doing this that taking a little loss by doing a $5-8 name for less has paid off as well.