Why we invented heat applied lettering

My mother Ricki Stahl in 2006 standing next to antique kick press used to create die-cut lettering at Stahls'

My mother Ricki Stahl in 2006 standing next to antique kick press used to create die-cut lettering at Stahls'

Just finished an article in the online New York Times that not only made me laugh, but it reminded me about why my father started offering lettering with a thermal adhesive that people could apply themselves–he was tired of people complaining about the spelling mistakes they said he made!  ( Stahls’ Felt Stamping, the original name of the family business started back in 1932 by my grandfather AC Stahl, used to sew felt letters on sports uniforms for people). His solution? Put a thermal adhesive on the letters and numbers and let people press them on to the garments themselves.

The NY Times article has nothing to do with heat pressing lettering on shirts, but it talks about lettering mistakes and other disasters on custom cakes. I’m sure many of you can relate to some of the hysterical interpretations.  It highlights Jen Yate’s blog, Cake Wrecks,  a woman who has taken it upon herself to catalog and blog about the world’s funniest or in some cases creepiest, cake wrecks. What’s a cake wreck? I’ll let you read the blog or article yourself, but it’s basically when the person decorating the cake doesn’t quite follow or understand the directions given by the person ordering the cake. Or, they just take the directions a bit too literally. Is this ringing any bells with anyone? If you have any t-shirt lettering disasters you would like to share, I would really enjoy hearing from you.

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