Many customers find the exact design they are looking for in one of the stock embroidery warehouses (Dakota Collectibles, Oklahoma, Great Notions or Balboa). Before just sending you out into the world wide web for a design let me take a moment to provide some direction. All of the sites are a little different, however, they contain sections such as "sports", "animals", "mascots" etc. Dakota Collectibles is our most widely used design collection. Oklahoma is a close runner up in recent years replacing Great Notions. Balboa is premium digitizing, specializing in horses, dogs and cats. We have the ability to merge files, rotate, change colors, size, slightly modify and add lettering to design files. Embroidery files sew best at their original design size and shape, however, with a little computer work and patience we can increase or decrease size by approx. 20% on most designs.

Stock design order is simple:

1. Locate the stock design of your choice
2. Make note of the company name
3. Make note of the sewing size if available (refer to sizing for instruction)
4. Make note of the file name
5. Make note of the file size (stitch count)Give us a call and we can do the rest by phone! Our local phone number is (909) 243-6520 and our toll
free number is (877) 680-2330.

SIZE LIMITATIONS

Hat Fronts: 2 inches height x 7 inches in width

Left or Right Chest: 3 inches height x 4 inches in width (AVERAGE)

Center Chest: The shirt size is your primary limitation. Average is approx. 5 inches height x 7 inches width.

Jacket Back: Maximum is 10 inches in height and 16 inches in width.

Remember to consider lettering height and length when designing your "embroidery dream". For example: You locate a 2 inch high design and want lettering 1/2 inch high above or below your design your over-all height is basically 2.5 inches. Too tall for a hat, but OK for a heart logo. We can reduce most designs approx. 20% and it is possible to make that perfect hat using the 2.5 inch "dream" with a little computer help. So don't just give up....give us a call and we will try to work through the technicalities.

LETTERING

Unfortunately the embroidery language of lettering does not correlate to "fonts" in the computer world, however, there are some similarities. Although we have over 100 lettering styles there are several that are commonly used and a few that have never been set on my screen. Basically, most customers will ask for a script (hand writing) or a block, and we need to know upper and lower case or all capitals. For those customers that wish to be more involved we have provided a section which displays all of our lettering styles with comments reference the individual sewing specifics.

The lettering styles found in the design book links are considered designs not standard lettering. Their stitch count is higher than normal and is not desirable on hats.

EMBROIDERY PRICING

This question of "how much" seems to be the hardest to answer, especially on the Internet. Embroidery is typically sold by the stitch count and the average ratio is our demographic area is $1.25 per 1,000 stitches; which equates to a 5,000 stitch design (remember you made note of the file size) = $6.25. The overall stitch count is based on design and lettering and until the design and lettering is set and sized appropriately you can only figure an estimate. So we have a 5,000 stitch design ($6.25) and you want lettering above and below the design. You would need to add approx. $1.50 per line (not per letter) and your estimated total cost for this heart or hat design would be $9.25. We have a minimum charge of $5.00 if it is a single item, however, on multiples it is possible to have designs with lettering in the 1-3 dollar range.

At Stitchin' Dreams we remember our "mission statement" (4. Treat customers they way we prefer to be treated as customers) and realize that the large jacket back designs get very expensive. At this point we actually consider the design size, number of color changes, and we average less than $1.25 per 1,000. However, there are a few designs that are two parts and have over 50+ color changes that will run more than $1.25. So the bottom line is that we try to price our work according to the actual work, not always by just how many stitches are in it - Stitch count pricing is just a close estimate.

AVERAGE PRICING BY LOCATION: (EMBROIDERY ONLY - APPAREL IS SEPERATE

Lettering Only - Single Item Order

Hat Fronts: $5.00 - $8.00 (as much as we can fit on the front of the hat - not per letter)
Names on Back or Sides of Hats: $4.00
Left or Right Chest: $5.00 - $8.00
Center of Chest: $5.00 - $25.00
Jacket Back: $15.00 - $25.00
Name Drops on shirts/jackets fronts: $4.00

Design and Lettering - Single Item Order

Hat Fronts: $10.00 - $15.00
Left or Right Chest: $12.00 - $17.00
Center Chest: $20.00 - $30.00
Jacket Back: $25.00 - $125.00