Free Embroidery Designs

I have an embroidery business. I make blankets with pictures and peoples names on it.

I know that I can put "Go Seattle" on the blanket
Can I put "Go Mariners?" "Seattle Mariners" "Ichiro #51"
Can I use the team colors?
How about the font?

I have no intention of playing with NFL, NBA, MLB lawyers! I just want to sell blankets!!

You’d probably need to license the fonts, colors and team names from the specific teams. Obviously, sports related items command a good price and the teams know this so they’ll charge you a premium (probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars).

You can probably get away with "Go Mariners!" or something like that, but to use the whole package (team name, colors and font) you’re running into trademark territory. Stick with something simple such as above, "Go Mariners!" or player names/numbers and possibly add the team colors too. I wouldn’t try to replicate the entire "look" the team has going by copying the font, color, logo and everything. Basically, use just enough so that fans will know it’s a football blanket (team colors and a "Go Mariners!" sort of thing), but not so much that you’re infringing on their trademark.

If you’re really worried about it, contact a lawyer who deals in trademark law. Most lawyers will give you a free consultation so you can ask them a quick question and explain what you have planned.

Good luck!

My intention is to be able to embroider golf towels for memorial golf tournaments each year and possibly do shirts down the road if I find that it is not to difficult. Can someone please tell me if I am going in over my head here with even thinking about trying to do this? Please help me out here with some answers. Thank you…

Visit as many sewing machine dealers as you can and tell them your interests.

Machine embroidery is easy – the machine does all the work. All you need to do is follow the instructions and watch the results as the machine does it’s thing.

Ideally, you want an embroidery machine that has at least a 5×7 stitching area, USB direct connect or USB flash drive for sending designs to the machine that you have downloaded from the Internet to your PC.

Do not buy an embroidery machine that uses rewritable memory cards and card reader box only – they are becoming obsolete as they are not compatible with Vista 64.

Do not buy software from a dealer – you need to become comfortable with the machine first, and some software is less expensive online.

Embird is one that is very popular and can be downloaded as a free trial.

You will need to also purchase, embroidery thread, embroidery bobbin thread and stabilizer. A package of needles and small scissors will come with the machine.

See this site for tips and techniques for machine embroidery – http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques

Forums that are helpful are http://www.sewforum.com and http://www.annthegran.com/