Worn especially among the younger generation and many athletes, fleece is one of the hottest new fashion fabrics available today. The material is not only comfortable to wear, but also conducive to quick absorption of sweat. Using fleece material along with various sewing techniques, you could start a custom fleece embroidery business of your own, which could ultimately help you make money working from home.
In order to prepare for your dream of starting an embroidery business working with fleece, you may need to take classes and practice working with the fabric. Once you have successfully completed classes, which will help you learn all kinds of embroidering techniques, you may be ready to begin your trade.
If you are already experienced in the craft of fleece embroidery, you will have a head start over those who are just starting out. You can take the pieces that you know your friends, family, and craft instructors were most enthusiastic about and begin creating your own product line. Remember that many of your customers will be high school and college students together with athletes. Therefore, you will want to do your research on the current fashion trends of those specific groups.
Once you have researched your market, and have observed what young people and athletes around you are wearing, you can begin to prepare for your money making venture. This is when you learn more about how to create in depth.
If you do not already know, it may be wise to begin testing your fleece fabrics before committing to buying huge volumes of the material. This is easy if you are already experienced, because you will have used several types of fleece products previously. However, if you have never used them, it is a good idea to experiment a little before deciding on a specific fleece product line.
The type of fleece most useful for embroidery projects is the polar fleece, which is actually a synthetic material. You can sew appliques right on these items. Not only that, but you can also iron applique patches onto fleece fabrics as well. If you use the iron-on appliques, take special care with the temperature of the iron that you use and only apply minimal pressure to the patch.
If you are sewing by hand or with a machine you need to be careful not to rip the fabric with the needle. Although this is not likely to happen, it pays to take care even so. You can consult craft books to see what types of needles are more appropriate for sewing onto fleece.
Fleece is also a great fabric on which you can directly apply lettering as well. The letter height for micro fleece or sheared fleece products should be approximately 3/16”. For non-sheared fleece, the optimal letter size should be around a quarter inch high. The best font to use for letter sizes up to half inch high would be Arial or similar simple fonts.
Fleece is an ideal fabric for embroidery fashions because it does not pucker up, and therefore, takes well to stitching. It has been used to create comfortable sport and leisure clothing as well as handbags, stuffed animals and household kitchen items. Many small holiday crafts such as snowman have also been created from fleece material.
Once you have created your product line, there are countless ways to market your embroidered fleece items. For instance, you can call upon local schools and other sports organizations, set up your own embroidery website, offer classes or sell fleecing embroidery patterns. Not only that, but you can attend local and national craft shows and put on home craft parties.
If you need help with the legal, operational, and financial aspects of running your home based craft business, it is advisable you contact your local business development offices. The Chamber of Commerce where you live would be a great place to start. They can help get you set up properly, and you can use their knowledge to increase your chance of business success selling your embroidered fleece crafts.