New embroidery service popular with customers

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — The new embroidery service at Jean’s Serendipity and Fish and Friends may sound a little bit dainty at first blush. But  co-owners Jean and Richard Sloat can stitch up a company logo as easily as a horse blanket with the stable owner’s name and a highly detailed reproduction of an Appaloosa, right down to the horse hairs in the tail.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
CUSTOM WORK — From hats to T-shirts and more, custom embroidery only takes a few minutes.
    “If we can get a hoop on it, and we have 15 different size hoops, we can stitch on it,” said Jean Sloat. “Leather, horse blankets, coats, jackets, hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts, baby towels,” are what she says can be personalized with their new American-made embroidery machine that holds 16 different spools of thread  accounting for the detail in reproducing artwork, logos and words. Designs can be as large as two feet wide.
    In addition to 5,000 in-house designs and up to 20,000 more available through the Internet, she says a company logo or a special artwork selection can be digitized and reproduced so the computer in their new Amaya XT can read the design. And, she says it only takes minutes to get the e-mail back with a digitized design.
    The couple purchased the machine in February. After training and practice over the winter, they say they are geared up for just about anything. Richard Sloat said they see company logos and custom work for businesses as a growth opportunity for their new embroidery service. One recent custom order called for them to embroider the smiling little Coffee News man on a jacket. Several parents, local athletes and residents have placed special orders for a variety of items from jackets to hats and visors with a wide choice of embroidery from team names to monogrammed initials.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
DIGITAL WORLD — Jean Sloat can download specialty designs that have been digitized into the computer and reproduce them faithfully as embroidery.
   Despite a substantial inventory of souvenir items like hats and T-shirts that say ‘Maine,’ Jean Sloat said invariably, a customer would ask for something that said ‘Houlton, Maine.’
    “Or, instead of a chickadee, the customer would want a loon. No matter how many items we get, we never have the right thing. So, now we can do whatever the customer wants. We had a lot of people who came in over the summer as tourists. They picked out their design and in a couple of hours came back and picked it up.”
    “And some of them specifically wanted ‘Houlton’ on it,” said Richard Sloat. His wife said several members of the town’s championship football team, the Knights, ordered embroidered hats, visors and sweatshirts along with the coach who had a large ‘K’ embroidered onto his pants. They have done some work for soccer players and said they hope to see orders for the basketball players.
    With the holiday shopping season getting under way, the couple said special orders are coming in for   Christmas presents. Richard Sloat said one young man is getting a gift of a “special shirt with a special vehicle embroidered on it as a Christmas gift. But, we shouldn’t say too much since it’s a surprise.”
    Other types of special orders were placed for weddings. “We did some ‘Father of the bride’ hats and tank tops for a bachelorette party that said ‘Bridesmaid,’ ‘Bride-to-be,’ and ‘Maid of honor.’ That was fun,” said Jean Sloat.
Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
 ESIGN TEAM — Richard and Jean Sloat of Jean’s Serendipity and Fish and Friends show off their new American-made embroidery machine that can reproduce almost any design. In addition to 5,000 in-house designs and up to 20,000 more available through the Internet, she says a company logo or a special artwork selection can be digitized and reproduced so the computer in their new Amaya XT can read the design. “If we can get a hoop on it, and we have 15 different size hoops, we can stitch on it,” said Jean Sloat.
    With pricing at $1 for 1,000 stitches, a straightforward design with a name and small picture on a simple T-shirt can end up costing about $12 to $15 according to Richard Sloat.
    The Sloats’ business also includes a pet store with freshwater fish, small animals, birds, reptiles, an English and Western tack and apparel section, children’s toy’s, gifts, collectibles and a JC Penney catalog department at their 79 Main St location near Broadway in Houlton.