New Directions, New Ideas III Embroidery Project

Once relegated to the production of school “letters” for Varsity Jackets, chenille has come out of the backseat and stepped into a spotlight of its own. Chenille is appearing on caps, jackets, aprons, bags, shirts and more. And it’s no longer limited to the world of athletics. The corporate market, ever hungry for something “new” has firmly embraced chenille as a legitimate form of promotional embellishment. Souvenir and resort wear is now regularly emblazoned with creative designs formulated in chenille.

The potential is huge and chenille is an excellent complement to traditional forms of embroidery as the two can be easily combined in one design application. Because of its uniqueness, the price points are typically higher than with traditional embroidery.

Of course, it takes a chenille machine to create chenille embroidery, so entering into this market full-force takes an investment. However, you can get your feet wet by working with an existing chenille shop on a contract basis. It should be noted that chenille is normally NOT applied directly to a garment. Instead, a patch is created and that patch is then sewn on to the garment, much like an appliqué. Thus, a contract chenille embroiderer will provide you with the finished patch and a stitch file for sewing it onto the garment. As an alternative, many of the contract chenille operations will create the chenille patch and sew it onto the garment for you.

Either way, you will have the ability to offer chenille products to your customers and have the opportunity to analyze whether adding chenille equipment to your operation is a viable business expansion.