Exploring Multimedia I Embroidery Project

When I hear the term multimedia, I have visions of a huge corporate entity that owns magazines, newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. Images of executives in power-suits, suave newscasters and aggressive reporters swarm into my mind. But nowhere in this mental picture do I see embroidery. The end result is that a lot of us don’t explore multi-media applications simply because we don’t know what they are in terms of our industry. But it has a solid place and can open plenty of doors to new revenue streams for embroiderers.

So what exactly is multimedia? It’s the combination of two or more decorative techniques on one garment. For example, chenille combined with traditional embroidery. The result can be a totally new and unique look, something that can provide you with a competitive advantage over the other guys.

While embroidery itself is in high demand, certain markets are always in search of a new look. For example, the tourist market. Retailers need new eye-catching designs that will entice their customer to purchase their merchandise. Tourist shops are always on the lookout for something new and exciting. Corporate America is also on a quest for new and unique. To effectively advertise through logo’d apparel, it’s vital that their logo standout in such a way as to garner the attention of everyone in the vicinity. Multimedia can be an effective tool towards making this happen. So let’s take a look at some of the multi-media techniques being used today.

Our first stop is chenille. Over the past year, the popularity of chenille has soared. As a standalone means of decoration, it is very effective. Combine it with traditional embroidery and the possibilities are endless and exciting. Ron and Peggy Ekstrom of Lasting Impressions, Little Rock, AR are specialists in the field of chenille. “We offer both embroidery and chenille services to our customers, with about 40% of our revenue coming from chenille,” says Ron. “Our dollar volume of chenille has doubled every year since 1998. Customers are definitely looking for new ways to display their logos.” According to Ron, about 30% of their current orders call for a mix of chenille and embroidery. Most of these orders are for sports-related customers. “It’s a great way to do ‘name drops’”, says Ron. “We can create a chenille background, then drop in embroidered text to customize the design.”

Chenille is unique in the fact that it is rarely done directly on the garment. Typically, chenille is applied to a felt backing, essentially creating a patch. This patch is then sewn onto the garment. As a result, much of the Ekstrom’s work is not done on the finished product; rather a patch is created and sent to the customer who applies it themselves. This does not have to be done via hand-sewing or the use of a zigzag machine. According to Ron, “If our customer is an embroiderer, we can create a stitch file that will allow them to sew the chenille emblem in place using their embroidery machine. It works just like appliqué, which in fact it is.” This simple process opens the door for any embroiderer to offer exciting multi-media chenille designs to their customers.