I may be dating myself here (in fact I'm sure I am), but some years ago there was a commercial, I believe for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, that featured two people who had a collision and ended up mixing their peanut butter and chocolate. The whole point of the commercial was that two things that weren't supposed to work together – in this case chocolate and peanut butter – really could work and even complement each other.

Whenever I think of sublimation and machine embroidery I tend to think of chocolate and peanut butter. Obviously we can't run an embroidery machine into a sublimation printer to illustrate how well the two would go together; the collision would cause far too big a mess, and "you got your ink on my embroidery thread" just doesn't have the same ring to it. What we can do, however, is spend a bit of time today talking about how sublimation and machine embroidery can coexist and even complement each other in your shop.

First of all, both processes are about decoration. Machine embroidery is mostly done on garments or hats or bags, although people do embroider towels and things like inserts for travel mugs. Sublimation can be done on polyester garments or polyester tote bags, and it can also be done on items like mugs, mouse pads, jigsaw puzzles and keychains. Regardless of the medium, whether it is fabric or a poly-coated substrate, you start with something blank and finish with something that is decorated. The processes may be a bit different, but the goal is the same.

Second, regardless of which decoration process gets a customer in the door, the other offers them additional opportunities to spend money. Many embroidery orders are about identification of some kind. Maybe some shirts need a corporate logo. Maybe a baseball team wants embroidered hats. If you don't offer sublimation, the order may stop there. If you do offer sublimation, however, the corporate order may become shirts and coffee mugs. The baseball team may be delighted to learn they can also get their "First Place" plaques from your business. By combining your embroidered and sublimated products, you've vastly increased the available items you have for sale, and you've created an additional revenue steam. The same also works in reverse. There's no law that says the person who stops in to buy some sublimated golf-bag tags won't also need golf towels.

Third, it should be noted that a lot of the same skill sets are used in machine embroidery and sublimation. You need to have at least a basic ability to work with graphics. There needs to be an understanding of the processes that prepare the artwork for sewout or sublimation. The ability to place artwork precisely is a plus. You must be able to follow precise instructions while still being flexible enough to change circumstances and troubleshoot should a problem arise. While each form of decoration has its own quirks and procedures, the basic methodology of both processes has more similarities than differences.

Finally, if you're looking for an example of a business that does both embroidery and sublimation successfully, you can find several, including the company for which I work, without looking too hard. If you've successfully combined embroidery and sublimation in your shop, please share the story of how your business was formed and grew in the comments. I'd love to do a post with real-life stories about businesses that both embroider and sublimate.