Shirt Shop doesn’t stop at shirts

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November 17, 2010 - 12:00 AM

Her company’s name — The Shirt Shop — only hints at a portion of what Elizabeth Donnelly offers for the holiday season and beyond.
In addition to providing screen printing and embroidery for shirts of all sizes, from infants to 6X, Donnelly also can customize jackets, towels, aprons, clothing for pets, caps, koozies or handbags. Or if it’s large enough, a Christmas stocking can be adorned with a child’s name.
Those services have been in place for years and have kept Donnelly occupied for the past 10 Christmases.
“But we really haven’t promoted what we do for the holidays,” said Donnelly, owner of The Shirt Shop since 2000. “It’s largely been a matter of seeing who showed up.”
That will change in 2010. With enough staff on hand to meet demand, Donnelly is willing to work with customers looking for specific types of apparel for Christmas.
“Some of our customers will ask for a specific design, and we can do that,” she said. “Others want to have their shirts as soon as they order, so we have some pre-printing done already.”
Most ordered items take about a week.
As for the shirts, Donnelly can offer up to 70 colors.
“We get a lot of people who will bring in something to see if we can match the color,” she said. “We can get pretty close.”
The strong demand this year has allowed Donnelly to hire an additional employee for her screen printing equipment. That, in turn, has freed up the other four workers — including the boss — to handle the added duties.
“It’s really worked out well,” she said.

NEW THIS year is Donnelly’s “Wall Words” merchandise, vinyl lettering and simple designs that can be affixed to most any type of flat wall or sign.
Donnelly has thousands of fonts, and several colors, to pick from.
“They may want to put a family’s name on a wall, or we can do company logos,” Donnelly said.
The designs are crafted by a former employee, who has since moved away from the Iola area. But with e-mail capabilities, she might as well be in the next room, Donnelly said.
“We can follow along with any orders she receives, so we know what’s going on if a customer needs help,” Donnelly said.
The Shirt Shop is open from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 5 in the afternoons, Monday through Friday.
If demand spikes, Donnelly said her hours could expand as well.
“All they have to do is call,” she said.
The Shirt Shop can be reached at 365-5050 or via e-mail at eliz@iolashirtshop.com.

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