ROCKINGHAM — The Embroidery Corner is the perfect name for Colleen Parsons’ new venture as she’s taken up shop inside the front corner space of Jeff’s Trophies and T’s on Broad Avenue.

Parsons’ endeavor has been in operation since right before Christmas, but this isn’t her first foray into the embroidery business.

“I worked for Jeff and I did his screen printing, so I made the T-shirts. It’s something that we outsourced all of our embroidery, and I had a background in doing embroidery many years ago when I lived in Richmond, Virginia,” said Parsons. “I just saw all that embroidery going out the door and thought ‘gosh Jeff, we can really do that in-house,’ and it was just not something he was interested in doing. So I thought about it for several months and went back and forth and just decided to go ahead and do it on my own.”

Because the two businesses compliment each other and have a lot of the same customers, Parsons said it just made sense to stay in his store and rent the space from him.

Parsons offers embroidery on boots, hats, bags, shirts, hair bows and pretty much anything that can fit into her commercial embroidery machine. Travel ball team hats seem to be the biggest seller, however Parsons was amazed to find out how many people liked to have their names or initials stitched on things.

“Most of my customers really are more corporate and travel ball, that kind of thing, but I do monograms,” she said. “Matter of fact, I was really surprised at how many people wanted things monogrammed. It was something I was gonna offer, but I really didn’t think much about it. But I opened right before Christmas, and oh my gosh, so many monograms. It was a nice surprise.”

The process is actually rather simple — now that computers and software are in the mix — and once Parsons get an order, she hoops whatever the garment is. Whether a shirt, hat or any other item, she has different size hoops for different orders.

“Once it’s on the hoop, you slide it on the machine, and it actually all works off software,” said Parsons. “When I used to do it, probably 20-ish years ago, it was what seems ancient now, the technology. There would be a little screen that would tell the machine what to do, but now it’s all software.”

A typical monogram from The Embroidery Corner is around $7, Parsons said, but the price can vary depending on how big the item is being stitched.

“If it’s something bigger like a jacket back or even with the hats, the puff is a little more,” she said. “But generally everything starts at seven, and that’s sort of a typical logo or monogram.”

Although the split between customers bringing in their own items and Parsons ordering for them is 50/50, she said that someone buying something low-cost and having it monogrammed can improve the quality.

“Around Christmas, a lot of people would go to Walmart or somewhere and get like an inexpensive bag, and then you put a nice monogram on it, and it makes it look really nice,” she said. “It makes it look a little more expensive.”

The Embroidery Corner is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Reach reporter Matt Harrelson at 910-817-2674 and follow him on Twitter @mattyharrelson.

Matt Harrelson | Daily Journal Colleen Parsons, owner of The Corner Embroidery inside Jeff’s Trophies and T’s on Broad Avenue in Rockingham, works on the stitching of a Donald Trump “Make American Great Again” hat.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_Parsons-1.jpgMatt Harrelson | Daily Journal Colleen Parsons, owner of The Corner Embroidery inside Jeff’s Trophies and T’s on Broad Avenue in Rockingham, works on the stitching of a Donald Trump “Make American Great Again” hat.

Matt Harrelson | Daily Journal Parsons works on one of the threads on her commercial embroidery machine inside her shop, The Corner Embroidery.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_hands-1.jpgMatt Harrelson | Daily Journal Parsons works on one of the threads on her commercial embroidery machine inside her shop, The Corner Embroidery.

By Matt Harrelson

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