INDUSTRY NEWS

Self-Taught and Self-Made

Aug 1, 2008

Stitches by SWYCE
Darla Hall's designs center on her two greatest passions: water and boats. Her home-based company, Stitches by SWYCE, serves clients ranging from a boat owner buying jackets for his crew to a weekend boater and his family.
After about a decade as an award-winning embroidery machine operator, Darla Hall wanted a new challenge. Working at a company called Canyon Gear, she approached her boss about learning to digitize. He agreed, with the stipulation that she had to teach herself. "His wife turned on the computer and said, 'See you tomorrow,'" Hall recalls.

After her bosses decided to move to Florida in 2001, Hall was left with a week of severance pay and the prospect of applying for jobs for which she was overqualified. So she took her $487 severance check and a portfolio of her work and headed to the Imprinted Sportswear Show in Orlando, Fla., bent on making her way.

Enter Stitches by SWYCE, the name of her company that includes a slight variation of a nickname her husband gave her.

Hall's Brick, N.J.-based company, located in her home, focuses on her two greatest passions: water and boats. Stitches by SWYCE creates designs for clients ranging from a boat owner buying jackets for his crew to a weekend boater and his family.

"If [a customer] can afford a yacht, he or she can afford a jacket," Hall muses.

One of her greatest joys is that she can do what she loves from home and still be there for her 5-year-old daughter, Amanda. The other joy is the look on a customer's face when she delivers a design that hits the mark. Hall's home-based shop includes two 15-color embroidery machines — a Tajima singlehead and an SWF 4-head. Her designs are digitized using Pulse software.

When Amanda hits first grade, Hall will expand her home operation into a more spacious production facility.

"This is what I have always really wanted," she says. "And while I'm most comfortable being an artist and running that machine, I understand that paperwork, phone calls and e-mails are all part of the deal." — Michael Pallerino


RECENT INDUSTRY NEWS HEADLINES

Dunbrooke Releases 2009 Catalog
Independence, Mo.-based Dunbrooke Apparel Corp. just released its 2009 product catalog, which will feature Reebok promotional apparel as well as new Dunbrooke styles.
September 05, 2008

Nazdar SourceOne Unveils Swatch Book Selector
Shawnee, Kan.-based Nazdar SourceOne recently introduced its 2008 Digital Media selector swatch book, which features an enhanced selection of flexible and rigid wide-format digital media for aqueous, solvent and UV curable inkjet printers.
September 05, 2008

Stahls' Launches Online Digitizing Service
St. Clair Shores, Mich.-based Stahl's recently partnered with EmbWorx.com, an online digitizing company.
September 04, 2008

ShirtsMyWay Offers Customized Corporate Looks
ShirtsMyWay.biz, Copenhagen, Denmark, is taking promotional and corporate shirts from lackluster to custom chic thanks to the insight of co-founders Peter Crawfurd and Michael Yang.
September 01, 2008

Magic Headwear to Offer Apparel
To complement its already-strong headwear business, Magic Group, Compton, Calif., is in the process of launching its first apparel line, Magic Activewear.
September 01, 2008

Embroidery Business NewsletterImpressions SourcebookScreen Printing Product CatalogImpressions Digital EditionINFO-ACTION

Visit Imprinted Sportswear Shows

Produced by: Nielsen Business Media, a part of the Nielsen Company
Nielsen Business Media Hospitality Design | Kitchen & Bath Business | Display & Design Ideas | Multi-Housing News | Commercial Property News | Impressions
Impressions is the one-stop source for authoritative information and education on the decorated apparel business, including embellishing on wholesale apparel and promotional products. This
resource is crucial to apparel decorating professionals seeking to establish and grow a profitable decorated apparel business. Every issue of our decorated apparel magazine, both print and
online, is geared toward providing how-to instructions needed to perform the four major processes that comprise the decorating apparel industry marketplace — screen printing, embroidery,
heat-applied graphics and digital printing. Impressions also provides business and trend information unique to the decorated apparel and promotional products industry.


Impressions Home | Embroidery Business News | Decorated Apparel News | Screen Printing Apparel News | Embroidery Apparel News 
| Digital Apparel News | Promotional Products News | Apparel Trade Show Events | Apparel Performance Analysis 
| Apparel Business Publications | Imprinted Corporate Gifts | Promotional Product Advertising | Apparel Buyers Newsletter 
| About Impressions | Contact Impressions | Sitemap | RSS