The Sauce Splat!

Welcome to Behind the Seams.  

Although domestically produced goods are making a comeback, the days where everyone knew how to sew are long gone.  For most people, the steps that go into making the pants on your legs, or the hat on your head are largely unknown.  There is a LOT that goes into each and every item we make and we are excited to give you a look behind the seams!

And now, the Sauce Splat!

Here at the Sauffice (Sauce + Office), our logo is affectionately known as the 'Splat.' It is applied to all of our products as a reflective heat transfer.  Not only is it a crisp, seam-free way to add a logo, it's also a functional addition that helps you to be seen in low-light conditions.  Sometimes I'll be driving around Bozeman on a dark winter evening and see a little 'Splat' bouncing up and down on a runner who is out braving the cold in one of our hats.  When I see this it really justifies the claim that they are a functional addition to our products.

So how are they made?  

First, we purchase a large roll of 3M Scotchlite material.  The sheet on the roll is made of two layers: one layer is the reflective material, the other layer is a clear plastic carrier.  

The roll is loaded into a cutting machine that has a precise needle-shaped blade that is able to use just enough force to cut through the reflective material and not the plastic carrier layer.

The blade follows a line that is uploaded from a vector art file.  We load the roll into the machine and cut the art file over and over until we have enough splats.

Next comes the fun part!  We remove all the parts of the logo that we don't need in a process called 'weeding.'  Any of you long-time Sauce fans may have noticed that we recently changed the version of the logo that we use on our products. When we remove the parts we don't need, this new version of our logo makes it super easy!  Our original splat required an extra step and it took longer to prepare these logos.  Each sheet of material is weeded until all that's left is our Splat logo.  Then the sheet is pressed to the shiny side of freezer paper to keep the logos from sticking to one another.  

The sheet is cut into strips & clipped into batches of 150 pieces. 

Then each logo is lovingly applied to a hat, headband or one of our apparel pieces.   Our heat press machines use a precise amount of heat and pressure to ensure that the logo adheres to the fibers of the fabric.

Next up in Behind the Seams... an interview with our Saucy sewers :)