How it's made
Most of what leaves this studio was made after somebody ordered it. All of it was made by me. Here is the whole path, from the idea to the box on your porch.
1. The idea
Sometimes it is a design already on the site. Sometimes it is a photo of your dad's handwriting, a logo, a date, an inside joke. Either way it starts as a picture of something that matters to you.
2. The mockup
For custom work I send back a digital mockup, usually within a day. Colors, placement, size, all of it. Nothing goes on a machine until you have seen it and said yes.
3. The stitch file
A machine cannot read a picture. Your artwork gets converted into a stitch file: every needle drop, every thread change, every bit of underlay, mapped out in order. Get it wrong and the letters pucker. Get it right and the stitching outlasts the garment.
4. The machine
The blank gets hooped by hand, squared up, and run on a multi-needle machine in my Colorado studio. I stay with it while it runs. Thread breaks and tension drifts, and the only way to catch it is to watch.
5. Checked and boxed
Backing trimmed, jump stitches clipped, the stitching checked against the mockup, then folded and boxed by the same person who hooped it.
How long it takes
Most orders are on their way in 3 to 7 business days. A custom piece runs the same once you approve the mockup, and a business run is one to two weeks from approval. On the designs that move fastest I try to stay a few ahead, so those go out sooner.
