Welcome to Kenmare

Feature Stories (Vol. 110 No. 10--3/05/2008)

Sandy Westlake discovers passion for putting
graphic design to fabric

By Caroline Downs

Sandy Westlake of Kenmare just loves painting ceramics and has dabbled in other crafts, but she discovered her favorite creative outlet came in the form of a high tech, state-of-the-art Toyota Expert ESP 9100 embroidery machine.

After purchasing one of the machines for herself last October, she has now dedicated a bedroom to it, complete with a work table, chest of drawers and--the most critical component for Sandy--her home computer.

She has also established a business from her home called Embroidery Expressions.

Seated in front of the monitor, the embroidery machine attached by a cable and towering above her left side, Sandy smiled as she explained how her interest started several years ago. "I’d seen this the first time in Medora," she said, "and I thought, ‘I’d absolutely love to do that.’"

She has discovered a passion for working with graphic design, then transferring the idea on the screen into reality on fabric. "I had done some cross stitch and embroidery by hand," she said. "My mother taught me, but I could never sit and do that."

She gestured toward her computer. "With this, I could see the fun part was setting up and I could be creative," she said, then paused and grinned. "There’s a lot of graphics out there."

Sandy almost settled on a used model, then discovered a place to buy a new machine for essentially the same cost with several graphics, lettering fonts and sizes of embroidery hoops included. Fortunately, her home computer was already compatible with the machine’s software, so she expanded her options by purchasing additional graphics as well as hoops and attachments to handle jackets and caps.

Then there’s the thread, spools and spools of thread, 5500 hundred yards per spool with 15 spools loaded on the machine at any one time. Add in a couple dozen extra perched on a separate rack and a drawer filled with even more spools, and Sandy appears to have the entire rainbow at her disposal.

She needs all those colors to achieve the effects she wants, whether for basic three-letter monograms or complex pictures. The pre-packaged graphics are varied and useful, but Sandy has the most fun designing something unique. "I love doing any of the set-up stuff!" she said.

The set-up involves laying out a specific arrangement of pictures and/or letters and words on a grid, then adjusting the colors, width, height and stitch density through the computer. When Sandy believes she has finished a design, she sends it from the computer to the embroidery machine. Then she moves to the machine, where she enters additional data for the project and keys in the specific spools of thread needed.

Next, she’ll run a trace of the design without thread to verify the size, and stitch one copy on a test fabric to check all the details before embroidering on a particular item. If she’s doing the embroidery for someone else, she will have them review the design on the test fabric. "I like to stitch it out and show them first," she said. "I’ll stand behind what I do."

Her husband Greg often helps with aspects of the embroidery itself: threading the 15 different needles, arranging fabric in the hoops, sliding prepared hoops into the embroidery bracket so each towel, blanket or jacket can be stitched. He even maintains and oils the machine to keep it in top running order.

Before buying the machine, Sandy realized that several custom embroidery orders for local merchants were actually sent out of town to be done. She tested interest in the community by talking with different business owners about potential orders. She also visited with Debi Mogren, owner of the former Deb’s Designs, about what Mogren offered in the way of machine embroidery and discovered the machine she intended to purchase had different capabilities than Mogren’s. "I wanted to provide a service we didn’t have in the community," she said.

The Westlakes’ enthusiasm for Sandy’s new hobby was tested during the Christmas season as she launched her business venture. She admitted one reason she and her husband invested in the machine was to fill the void in their lives with their three sons grown and moved out of Kenmare. "I thought, ‘This will keep me busy,’ and it did!" she said.

The couple was surprised at the number of requests that came in, including sweatshirts created for the State B volleyball champion Kenmare Honkers in early November. "From the middle of November until right before Christmas, I’d even say December 22nd, we’d come home from work and come in here," Sandy said from her seat at the computer. "We were up till 12 o’clock every night. I think we went Christmas shopping one day!"

She smiled, though, as she described the busy holiday season. She offers her full range of design and embroidery capabilities to customers, as well as the items to be embroidered. "You see so much of it," she said. "And you can do whatever--sweatshirts, coats, hats, tote bags, blankets and towels. You can embroider on just about anything."

She has several suppliers for such products, and customers can order through her. However, she will also embroider on something brought in by a client, basing the price on the necessary set-up and run time for the machine, as well as any additional work needed.

She can replicate nearly any design in any color on any fabric. However, a limitation to her machine is the fact she can only embroider one item at a time, while some models have multiple units to handle four or more hoops at once. She compensates with thorough dedication to each project.

New ideas keep coming
for embroidery business
"At Christmas time, I’d say we did fifty-some sweatshirts," she said. "I do my best to get everything out as quickly as I can. I like two to three weeks lead time for most orders."

Sandy is currently employed full-time by State Bank & Trust of Kenmare, and her husband serves as the Farmers Union Oil manager. Sandy smiled as she explained neither of them intends to quit their positions to operate Embroidery Expressions, but she would like to see the business grow enough to hire an assistant.

The frantic pace of the Christmas season has scaled back to a flow of occasional orders, so Sandy has used more of her time in recent weeks to develop original designs. One of her latest creations incorporates both embroidery and trendy applique on a Kenmare Honkers sweatshirt. She is also developing ideas to market finished products through local stores and to assist in fund-raising projects for community and school groups.

She welcomes inquiries about her machine and its capabilities to her home phone at 701-385-4641 during evenings and weekends. She can also be reached by email at tboys@rtc.coop, but said she was more easily contacted by telephone.

Sandy laughed as she described the way the embroidery machine allowed her to tap into her creativity, even while keeping her awake at night. "I could sit here until two in the morning [designing]," she said. "I can get so involved in it, and I don’t want to quit!"