Custom patches for one person
Most people who want one patch never ask. They assume a shop that makes colors for a twenty-man club will not take an order for a single piece.
Independence Embroidery has no minimum and never has. One patch is a real order.
The people who come here for one patch are usually military, law enforcement, or fire service, and they want a specific unit on their chest. Others want something nobody else has. Both are the same job to this shop.
What it costs
| Setup, four-inch patch | about $45 |
| Four-inch patch | about $45 |
The first one runs about ninety dollars. Every one after that is about forty-five, because the file is already plotted and the setup is never charged twice.
Setup is the hand-plotting of the design. It is paid up front on its own invoice, before any plotting begins, and it is separate from the cost of the patch itself.
Why artwork does not change the price
Patches are priced at a dollar fifty per thousand stitches. Not per color, not per hour, not by how difficult the artwork looks.
A four-inch patch of a wolf rendered in six colors of thread costs the same as a four-inch patch with a unit name and a border, because the machine does not know the difference. It counts stitches.
What does change the price is how much of the patch is filled. A design that leaves the background open uses far less thread than one stitched edge to edge. Two patches the same size can sit at opposite ends of the range for that reason alone.
Backing
Patches come sew-on as standard. Sewn edges outlast every other method, and a patch that is sewn down stays where it was put.
Velcro is available at additional cost, for anyone who needs to move a patch between garments or take it off entirely.
Where they end up
Colors for one rider
Once or twice a year someone asks for a full set of colors for himself alone.
That work gets done, with one thing said up front. Setup does not get smaller for a smaller order. A club spreads the plotting cost across its members. One rider carries all of it himself.
The patches after that cost what any patch costs.
The largest one so far
The largest one-man project this shop has taken on was a full back patch, a front patch, and supporting pieces, commissioned by a single rider overseas.
There is no size limit on one person’s order.
Send the artwork, or send a description if there is no artwork yet.