Embroidery Blanks Sources

Happy Spring Everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather {before it gets hot and we all melt} and the last month or so of SCHOOL! This year has flown by! The hours and days fly by. I was at work today and before I knew it, it was almost 1:00. Tomorrow is Friday already. TIME FLIES!

I’ve added a new Ad over on the right for a website that has been on my LINKS list forever. Apparel-n-bags! The pigment dyed hats, Comfort Colors t-shirts and sweatshirts, trucker hats…. all there! I’ve been using the Adams brand hats for a long time and have done a blog post or two on doing them (monogramming hats + I’ve done a couple of designs on them too (Mini Stitch & Anchor Patch). They come in youth and adult sizes too. We all love Comfort Colors also. And I feel I am too old for trucker hats, but they sure are popular these days! Anyway, great blanks and all from ANB. Check them out! Click on any of the pics below to pop over!

adams pigment dyed hat adams youth hat comfort colors youth trucker hat

We hope to get a few new designs done ASAP. We hosted 40 people for Easter, so now that it is behind us we can get some other stuff done (besides pine straw, cleaning and mowing the grass). You can check out all of our latest designs at Applique Cafe! Have a great weekend! Here are those HATS I did on the Adams hats… Also, be sure to click on the LINKS tab up top for lots of other BLANKS websites! It needs updating but it’s a great place to start browsing.

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Applique Cafe Christmas List!

Just a quick post to share with you all the things we offer at Applique Cafe that should be on your Christmas list! 🙂

  1. GIFT CERTIFICATES!! We sell them in $10 increments and they can be printed and mailed to you or to your mom/friend/cousin/neighbor. If time is of the essence, I can also fill in the info and email it to you to print!

Applique Cafe gift cert 400

2) Monogram Wizard Plus!! I’ve sold 2 this week, so a couple of people are getting new font software for Christmas! There is an actual installation CD for MWP which is shipped to you. I usually mail same day, so it will arrive in your mailbox within 2-3 days (we ship USPS Priority Mail). If you are new to embroidery and are frustrated with the fonts that came on your machine, or with merging letters together, then check out MWP! It’s a GREAT investment for your embroidery business. Below is an example of your screen and it’s super easy to use!

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Look at all the possibilities! It comes with all of the font options you see below, plus you can add to your font collection with a few clicks at the Needleheads store.

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3) Needleheads Store Gift Cards!! You bought or already have Monogram Wizard Plus, and you want to add to your font collection? We sell $25 Needleheads gift cards for $19.99, so you’re saving $5.01 off the bat! Needleheads often runs sales and specials too, so you can save more by using our gift card on top of their sale! We have physical gift cards we can mail you, OR, most people just want the code to get the discount (which we can email to you). Needleheads gift cards are redeemed at the Needleheads Online Store.

Needleheads gift card sale

4) Sew What-Pro Embroidery Software!! SWP is a top seller at Applique Cafe month after month. Not only is it super affordable ($65), it’s easy to use and honestly I couldn’t survive without it! I use it for merging (adding a name to an applique design), minor editing (deleting a part of a design) and for the most part, just to SEE the applique design I’m working on. It shows me the size I’m working on, each step in the process and I can play around with colors (thread) to help me choose my fabrics!

Here are a couple of workspace examples, and I just updated my SWP last night so the screen now looks a smidge different! By the way… the names you see are done in Monogram Wizard Plus, then merged in to Sew What-Pro!

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5) Durkee Cap Frame!! OK so we don’t sell cap frames, but if you saw my recent post on the “new” Durkee Cap Frame, then you might want to add it to your list too! Check out my blog post from earlier this week to learn all about it – HERE. If hats are on your product list, then consider investing in a DCF to make life easier! 🙂 They have frames that are compatible with multi AND single needle machines!

Durkee Cap Frame

6) Mighty Hoops!! Again, not something we sell here at Applique Cafe, but again, check out my recent blog post on the super easy magnetic Mighty Hoops! The hoops can be used alone, or with a fixture to help with centering and easy hooping. Check out that blog post HERE. Below is the 6.5″ square Mighty Hoop and Fixture, and I’m giving it a workout this week monogramming towels!

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And here is my 7.25″ square Mighty Hoop that I use without a fixture! It’s great for items like bibs and bags that are a little harder to hoop.

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7) Applique Cafe Christmas & Holiday Designs!! Lastly….. all of our Christmas & Holiday designs are 40% off, so if you are still working on Christmas shirts, towels or even winter (this category includes snowmen, ice skates, mittens and other winter designs), then they are on SALE!

cmas sale

Durkee Cap Frame

OK Y’all…. Christmas is right around the corner, and I have another neat embroidery machine gadget that you might want to add to your Christmas list! It’s the Durkee Cap Frame which is compatible with a variety of multi and single needle embroidery machines. Durkee has cap frames that work with Brother/Babylock 6 & 10 needle machines, Happy 360 machines, Janome MB4 machines, Tajima 360 machines as well as a single needle machine cap frame insert option. Check out THIS LINK for more information on which machines are covered, and also check out the videos on the same link for multi needle and single needle cap frames. I’m going to show you some photos, but if you want to see these hoops in action, check out the 2 videos.

Here are a couple of Durkee photos of the cap frames available. The Durkee multi needle cap frames are like your other hoops and attach to your machine as a hoop would. The sewing field for multi needle cap frames are 5″ wide X 4 1/2″ tall, which is quite a bit larger than the Brother cap frame and driver set which is 5″ wide x 2 1/2″ tall. The single needle cap frame is a 5×7 insert for your 5×7 hoop and the sewing field is 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″.

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Single needle insert:durkee cap sn

I have the Brother PR650 and here are my photos of a hat I did yesterday using the Durkee Cap Frame. All you need is sticky stabilizer, and I used a few straight pins. I use commercial sticky stabilizer from Sewingmachine.com, but any sticky will do. Someone recommended Filmoplast Sticky Backing by Gunold, but I have not tried it yet. I would love feedback if any of you have used it!

I cut a piece of sticky to cover the back of the cap frame. Peel the paper side off of course and stick it to the back of the frame.

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On your hat, you need to either fold the lining of the cap back to keep it out of the way, or I pinned it to the bill of the cap to keep it out of the way so I could get the hat on the frame.

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Next you unscrew the wingnuts enough to get the bill of the hat under the clamp and once in place and straight, you tighten those screws so the bill and the hat is secure. As you can see below, it’s super easy to center the hat using the center seam of the hat and the center hole of the clamp. I also placed a couple of straight pins on the hat to secure it to the sticky stabilizer. You will need to measure the space you have on the front of the hat, format your monogram to fit that space, and I made a mark (which you can’t see) of where I want the monogram to be centered. For this hat, my monogram ended up being 3.05″ tall X 3.04″ wide. Again, you have 5″ width and 4 1/2″ height to work with using this frame.

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The Durkee Cap Frame fits on my machine just as my biggest hoop would. With all secondary frames (non-Brother frames or hoops), you should always check your borders to make sure your needle is not going to hit any part of the frame. Your machine thinks you have your largest hoop on the machine, so it doesn’t know it only has limited space. Check your boundaries or borders to make sure your monogram will fit! It should, unless you didn’t hoop the hat correctly.

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I chose a hot pink Monogram Wizard Plus “Master Circle” monogram on my orange hat. One benefit of this cap frame is that it holds the bill flat and in place for you. I used to do hats using fast frames and use chip clips to keep them flat and in place. With the Durkee cap frame, the hat is definitely secure.

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The finished hat…. Now I loosen the wingnuts to pull the hat out of the frame and pull the hat from the sticky stabilizer.

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Here is the sticky stabilizer which remains on the hoop. You can actually leave this stabilizer on the frame and just “cover the hole” with a smaller piece of new stabilizer to do your next hat. You could re-use the sticky for 8-10 hats.

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My finished hat!! I’m a big fan of hot pink and orange!

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Some other things to note:

*You can also use this cap frame to monogram or embroider the back of a hat!

*It’s a fraction of the cost of traditional cap hooping systems ~ $195 (regular $229.50) with Free Shipping using code “NF”. $195 seems like a lot, but if hats are something you do or plan to do a lot of, it’s well worth the initial investment for something that makes your job so much easier and faster! Do 30 or so hats and you’ve paid for it!

*Click HERE to purchase for your multi needle machine, and HERE for single needle machines! Compatible machines are listed on each link.

Please comment or email me at rosemarygulledge@appliquecafe.com if you have any questions! You can also check out the Durkee Embroidery website for more information and to purchase.