Blue Pointe Bistro

Today's featured client spotlight is a personal favorite of ours, Blue Pointe Bistro. We love the small Italian bistro presence in our Weymouth neighborhood. The food is great, too!

This client came to us with their logo, "Blue Point Bistro" inside of their trademarked blue-white box. We hand-digitized their logo for a left front chest custom embroidery, and threw in free hat to see how the logo would look on that, as well.

The logo was hand traced using our state of the art embroidery software. Then there is the thread order when running the embroidered shirts themselves to consider: we stiched the white block first, then the blue block, outline and lettering, and then finished the whole design off with the white lettering. Since the client's font is so unique, we had to trace each individual letter - except in the exciting case when we could simply copy and paste a letter "E" :)

The last request of this job was to incorporate this graphic of an aqua and royal blue flame somewhere on the black shirt. We made the flames in two sizes, and embroidered one right beneath the back collar on one shirt, then on the right sleeve on the other. We dropped off the samples to the client, and are awaiting on a decision for the final order!

This is just one of the many client project that exemplifies our embroidery services capabilities at Dock This Way. Let us know what you think!

Personalized Gifts

We thought that now would be the great time to remind you of our specialized custom gifts. This piece was made for the lunch lady as a gift from the graduating class from my daughter's school. The custom embroidery design was done in the Curlz font, (one of our girly-font favorites) and embroidered on a white tote bag in hot pink.

This is a great example of Dock This Way's extensive embroidery service capabilities - not to mention a great gift idea if you're stumped!

Now's also the time to embroider garments and accessories like towels and blankets for your packing college student - not only will the custom monogram help your student identify and protect what's theirs, but also serves as a great going-away present and a memoir of home :)

Contact us for more information, or to talk about your project!

Yacht Club Custom Embroidery

I thought I would do a client spotlight on one of our oldest and most loyal clients, The South Shore Yacht Club. This is where we keep our boat, where we can be seen sporting nearly every weekend, or when a summer day becomes too unbearable :)

Yacht Clubs typically have a flag that symbolizes their clubs. Members sport this flag, or burgee, on their boats, and it represents loyal membership wherever it waves - it can also be honored in a ceremony at the beginning of the boating season - in our case, Opening Day, which is close to Memorial Day and involves a cake at the end.

We designed this wavy burgee for South Shore Yacht Club merchandise. We also have a simple triangle flag, which we use for club officers like the Commodore's hats and polo shirts. The great thing about embroidered shirts or sweatshirts from your Yacht Club is that you can easily customize any garment with your own boat logo and boat name. For example, we had a customer recently who owns a motorboat named "Bon Bini", and we selected his exact boat type from the hundreds available in our Dakota designs. Then we matched the font on the back of his boat and embroidered light jean jackets and sweatshirts for him to sport on those cool Massachusetts summer nights.

Does your yacht club or similar organization have a custom embroidery design to show pride for your membership when you wear it? Or do you just have a favorite jacket that seems a little too plain? No job too small - let us design your logo and we know that you'll love your result, and probably want much more than one! Hope to hear from you soon :)

(Stay tuned - Related to boats and Yacht Clubs, my husband also does custom marine canvas upholstery work.)

The Wizard of Oz

A few weeks ago, my youngest daughter debuted her acting career as the lead role in her 8th Grade play, The Wizard of Oz held at a long-term client of ours, Saint Jerome Elementary School. (We provide embroidery services for uniforms!)

We bought a Dorothy dress and her grandmother tailored it to fit her perfectly - she added some fringe to the bottom. We also made the ruby red slippers ourselves - bought some low back heels at payless (She wears an 11!), brushed on some glue and dipped in red glitter. They looked perfect!

After all was said and done with a stunning performance behind us, we had the cast party to do. So I decided to make green custom t shirts for the entire cast! I collaborated with my team to create an original Wizard of Oz design, simple in black, to silkscreen across the front. As you can see (modeled by my daughter - she never takes this off) they came out great!

Do you have a special project, like a cast party that you'd like to commemorate? We can take on and work with any idea or concept, and guarantee quick turn around for special event silkscreen jobs! Just look at these amazing shirts :)






Contact us today to see how we can get the ball rolling on your project, albeit a play or the end of a sporting season, and how to we can make your special event unique!

New Jobs, Upcoming Possibilities!

Just wanted to share some exciting, upcoming jobs and projects we have slated over the next couple of weeks.

We've spoken to The Venetian restaurant in Weymouth, which is a fantastic local eatery if you haven't swung by. They are going to have 2010 Tide Shirts available for sale in their bar!

We've reached out to a client we have not heard from in a while, and as a result we are now talking with the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth for monogrammed aprons.

With these jobs and one more old customer requesting 25 shirts in-process, we are excited to officially kick off our summer business season! Remember, this is the time to get your 2010 Tide Shirts, company shirts for corporate events, or monograms for gifts or for your departing college students!

Soon we will be putting together a company newsletter to keep you in touch with us - you'll never know when you'll have the need for a personalized gift :) We're planning to feature blog posts, featured clients, product giveaways and other exciting promotions!

Our Embroidery Shop

Here at Dock This Way Embroidery and Design, we operate out of our family home. This assures personal, one-on-one attention to each job and quick turnaround time for embroidery services and silkscreen tshirts or other clothing.

So we'd figure that we would give you a quick peek at our workspace! We have one large ten needle machine, a Melco (And looking to invest in one more, potentially a tabletop Amaya). This is great for designs with a ton of color changes. Some embroidery machines are one - needle: which is a pain because you need to stop the machine when a different color thread comes through, run the new thread through the machine and the needle, and start it again. Yeah. Time-consuming.

We have all different sized hoops to accommodate different design sizes, from embroidered gloves to scarves and regular tshirt logos. We also have a great selection of threads available, and if we can't match the exact color you are looking for, we can order the perfect color in less than 3 days!

We keep our threads according to color and protected from light and damage in plastic bins - it's important to keep the threads wrapped up and to not bang them around: if you do, they'll become weak and be likely to break while running a design.

I actually snapped a shot while the machine was running. We got an order for a custom sail wallet, and I'm embroidering a piece of sail canvas with a green number. I then sew the pieces together to create a very customized gift :)

Got a logo idea? Just want to try us out? Contact us and let us know what we can do for you!

How does silk-screening work?

At Dock This Way Embroidery and Design, we also specialize in silk screening services, as exemplified by our famous Tide Shirts. We’ve done everything from sports team shirts, to company tee’s to hand out at a corporate event. We work with artists to make sure that the artwork you want gets translated into your vision: but how does it work?

We have access to large machines that enable us to turn around quick orders. However, it is possible to DIY and silk screen from home using store-bought materials. My daughter took a screen printing class in Florence, and went through the whole process herself. (Here is one of her more complex pieces)

1.) Get your image, establish your colors. Once you have a design or drawing that you’d like to silk screen on a garment, pick the colors you’d like to use. Remember, you’ll need a different screen for each color, so you may want to start off simple.

2.) Trace your design onto mylar or tracing paper. Your design has to go on completely transparent paper, and you have to paint the areas that you want to receive color, and do not define the negative spaces to prevent color from bleeding through.

3.) Get a screen. A screen is typically a wooden frame with cloth (ideally silk = silk screen, get it?) stretched around it.

4.) Coat your screen. You can buy screen emulsion at many craft stores, like Blick. Coat the screen evenly, and in a low-light area, as it is sensitive to light like photo-film.

5.) Place your design on your screen, then take outside. If you don’t have access to a large exposing light, simply place your image on the outside (not where the frame is exposed) and leave in the sun. This will expose the areas around your design, and “cut” through the screen. Bring inside, remove your drawing, then wash, and you’ll have a negative of your design.

6.) Secure the garment, clamp the screen. Pin down your garment onto a table, then clamp your screen drum-side down (using everyday clamps that can be bought at a hardware store) where you’d like the design to appear on your item.

7.) Pull the ink. Blot some ink on a squeegee, and hand pull over the screen 3-4 times. This will assure the ink goes through all holes and looks crisper.

8.) Let dry. Remove the screen straight-up, set aside to dry. Repeat if your design has other layers or colors after the first garment is dry. Start with the lightest color and move up to the darkest.

Contact us to get your own silk screen job done, and check out some hand-pulled Italian works done abroad!