Emboridery on Leather

we charge an additional 35% for leatherwork. we have invested in the proper training, wedge needles, and digitizing ability to provide a superior product and as we believe leather is a superior (or at least more expensive) material we should be charging accordingly. On the flip side please make sure your DAMAGE policy is firmly in place and that your client REALLY understands it. I mean if you are charging $50 for an embroidery on a $2000 pc of leather... who incurs the burden if you .. or your not-so-caring-as-you-are employee messes the design up??

I agree with Robert on the Damage Policy. There is nothing like replacing a customers 250.00 leather jacket for a 30.00 design that your machine ate up.

What is a standard damage policy? I usually just eat the cost, or refuse to embroider.

ALL we sew on are specialty items so we are not in competition with our digitizing clients. Anything a normal embroidery shop would usually sew on we will turn down.. hats, shirts, jackets, bags, blankets, etc. We primarily do Altar Cloths for Churches using fabrics that can be quite unique and pricey... we also specialize in Leather embroideries and our threads of choice are the Metallics. Many of our pieces have hand embroidery and hand embellishments added to them, pearling for example or old fashioned goldwork.
So when we mess up it can be quite an expense.
We look at each job that comes in and during the quoting process I personally discuss the potential problems with the client and together we come up with a disaster scenerio resolution. I find out what their expectations are and we go from there right up front. If they are too unrealistic then I reject the order.
Something I learned the Hard way , is now, no-matter the time crunch, we ALWAYS run a full sized sample first. period. Sounds easy, but many of our pieces are in the Millions of stitches, so time is a serious problem to accomplish that.

The old saying by embroiders is "If I can hoop it, I can stitch it." and for the most part that is true. I have stitched leather, satin, cheese cloth, plastic, and a wide variety of things. I even thought about embroidering a bullseye on my neighbors cat... not seriously but the thought did cross my mind.

If you are supplying the item to be stitched you should add enough into your profit margin to cover it if you have an issue. If the customer is bringing in a item you dont have that profit marging to play with.

A few years ago my wife brought three dresses from a friend and asked me to stitch a snowflake pattern on them for Christmas. The first two came out great but when I stitched out the third my machine missed a few stitches in the middle of the design. I did not catch the mistake until i had unhooped the dress and try as i could I could not realign it. I attempted to remove the stitches and redo it. Long story-short I had to buy a new dress for my wifies friend that I originally was doing as a favor.

At about that point I researched and added the following Loss of Property Agreement to my invoice that I have the customer sign before the attempt.

Loss of or Damage to Property Agreement: I acknowledge, that during the course of embroidery, damage to the garment or item embroidered can and does occur. This damage may be caused by the embroidery machine, Digitizing process, and or human error. If I supply my own property to be embroidered, I agree to release AJ's Stitchin' Time, its owners and employes of any and all responsibility of loss or damage to my property.____________________________________