HOW ARE YOUR SASSY SCRUBS MADE?

We thought you’d love to learn how your custom Sassy Scrubs are made, one garment at a time, for each and every customer.  Here’s how…

Other Garment Manufacturers
Many common garments are made in noisy, dusty factories.   Poorly paid seamstresses hunch over clanking machines or control huge “stamp-out” fabric cutting machines which cut dozens of pattern pieces at once.  This kind of clothing production often occurs in a foreign factory, off-shore,  where impact on the local environment, safe working conditions and worker concerns aren’t even a blip on the company’s radar.  Customer service?…Non-Existent.  Custom options?…Impossible.  Special lengths?…Nope.  It’s a frightening business, with no attention given to either the needs of the worker or the customer.

Where is Sassy Scrubs?
At Sassy Scrubs, we have a completely different attitude.  We are nestled in beautiful  New York State, far from any large city, and all of our scrubs garments are made right here in the USA.  Every garment we produce is made for each and every customer right here in our shop.

Each customer chooses his or her own scrubs fabrics from hundreds of  fabrics available at Sassy Scrubs.  Next, our customer chooses their pocket, length and neck options, so they each receive a well fitting uniform which fits their lifestyle, their individual interests, and their own unique body needs as well as their work needs.  Once the customer completes the design process, Sassy Scrubs takes over. 

Processing Your Scrubs Order
Once we receive your order at Sassy Scrubs, we review it, looking for any unintentional ordering errors.  For instance, we want to be sure you really intended to order a Maternity Scrub Top along with your other Men’s print Scrub Tops.  Maybe your address is Nevada and your order lists heavy flannel Scrub Pants in August.  As part of our customer care, we might email you to be sure that you really want to be warmer than you already are in the middle of the desert.  Once reviewed,  your order sent on its way to our Fabric Cutting Department. 

Hand Cutting Your Scrubs Order
In our Cutting Department, Sassy Scrubs staff locates the fabrics you’ve selected in your order.   Our own company patterns for the scrubs garment you selected are placed on the scrubs fabric, aligned properly with the fabric grain so that your completed garment will hang properly. Our Cutting Department staff use a special cutting tool, called a Rotary Cutter – kind of like a really sharp pizza cutter – to slice around the outline of the pattern to create the garment pieces necessary.  If needed, our patterns are adjusted to your specific requests at this time.  For instance, we adjust our patterns if a shorter or taller hem is ordered; if you request long sleeves on your Medical Scrubs Tops and for your specialty inseam for your Basic Scrub Pants is required.  Every scrubs order is examined closely by our Fabric Cutters to be certain that your unique scrubs requirements are realized.   Now, the Fabric Cutter places all the pattern pieces, including the size and care tags appropriate for that particular garment into a package – ready to be transferred to our Sassy Scrubs Sewing Department. 

Sewing Your Scrubs Garment
Our specially trained Seamstresses complete each garment, one at a time.  They each care about the tiny details which make your uniform garment unique.  They care that the pockets on your tops are straight, level, and backstitched for durability.  They care about ensuring that your pants drawcord is securely sewn down on the back seam of your scrubs pants so that it won’t pull out during laundering.  Each uniform garment is expertly sewn, carefully and individually, by only one seamstress…your seamstress.  Since she “owns” your scrubs, every Seamstress takes extra pride in how she completes “her” garments…just for you.  So, who do you think receives the benefits from all of this supreme attention to detail?  You do!

Inspecting Your Scrubs
To pass through Inspection, each uniform is pressed and final measurements are take to ensure your garment meets the specific parameters necessary.  No uniform garment can be approved if it has more than a specific variance in circumference from our customer size chart.  No scrubs can pass inspection if the length does not equal what was ordered by our customer.  Tags for size must match the size garment you requested.  Care tags must equal directions for the specific fabric you ordered.  Our Inspectors are required to be completely familiar with all of our hundreds of  fabrics so the name of the fabric can be verified with what you have selected.  Inspection is a crucial step, since it is our last opportunity to spot any errors before your scrubs are packaged and shipped out to you.  Due to the experience and attention to detail of our Garment Inspectors, our errors are minimal and our customer happiness is high!

The Personality of Sassy Scrubs
At Sassy Scrubs, we provide a supreme level of specialty services to all customers and our staff takes that commitment seriously – from our Ordering Department to our Fabric Cutters and Seamstresses to our Garment Inspectors.  But we’re all about serious business at Sassy Scrubs. 

Our staff  in our Cutting Department sing while they work!  Our Production Department has various jigsaw puzzles spread out in our lunch room for friendly jigsaw competitions, often hiding pieces from each other, to insure “their” puzzle is completed first.   We regularly enjoy pizza Fridays and picnic cookouts and, of course, enjoy Birthday celebrations for every staff member.  We teach each other new crafts and often cut out quilt squares from our left over scrap fabric at break and lunch, helping the quilters in our group.  So, we have bunches of fun here at Sassy Scrubs, but the best fun for us is the pleasure we take in creating a quality product for each of our customers.  Each staff member “owns” his or her job, and performs all their duties with you, our valued customer, in mind.  Our customers see this in the quality and detail apparent in their garments, and they tell us about their satisfaction with glowing compliments.

Make Your Choice
So, now that you know how we make your Sassy Scrubs, the choice is yours.  You can choose uniforms made by the thousands in a dusty, sweaty factory, where working conditions are poor.  Or, you can choose custom made scrubs from Sassy Scrubs, sewn right  here in the USA – where we’ll treat your scrubs just like we “own” them.   We think you’ll make the right choice – Sassy Scrubs

The key to success in combating those pesky stains is to act fast.  OK, so you can’t do your laundry at work, but you can treat that blood or coffee stain sooner rather than later, for best results.  Speed is of the essence, and important for successful scrubs stain fighting.  Don’t toss your scrubs in the hamper and leave them there for a week, or that mess down the front of your favorite Sassy Scrubs top is bound to be a new decoration.  For most of us, that is not a good thing.

For most fabrics, the time proven combo of baking soda and vinegar can gobble up those ugly stains plastered across your favorite scrub top. A paste of baking soda applied to the stain, followed with a dribble of vinegar can often leave your scrubs stain free.  Be sure to launder your scrubs after this application to avoid those funny looks in the elevator.

With today’s new oxygen-producing stain removers, even the toughest medicine, blood or even grass stain on your Sassy Scrubs is no match for these tough stain fighters.  The newest products have been formulated to fight the problems all us slobs face most – blood, grease and protein based stains.  Just the types of things we face every day.  Easy to use and pretty reliable, these new stain fighters are worth keeping in your cabinet at home to combat those scrubs stains which fly at you out of nowhere. 

So, you already know you’re a slob.  You know what’s going to happen today.  Your scrubs are going to get stained.  Face it and deal with it.  But with a few stain fighting weapons in your scrubs laundering arsenal, you can also keep it a secret.

-Karen

We highly recommend that you take your Sassy Scrubs Ties to your local dry cleaner, as you would with any other necktie. There, they will likely clean your tie in a mesh bag to protect the fabric and the interfacing inside the tie (the stiffener fabric). You’ll receive your Sassy Scrubs ties back in good condition, with no fading of the fabric and wrinkle free!

Do not attempt to pre-treat any stains on your Sassy Scrubs Tie.  Pre-treatment chemicals may take out the stain, but leave an unsightly ring around the stain which may become more difficult to remove, and may even be impossible to remove by your dry cleaner.  Simply take your tie to the dry cleaner and fess up.  Point out the stain, with any information you can share about the type of stain (grease, coffee, food, etc.) to help them determine how best to help you.  Don’t worry, they see ties with stains every day and it’s their job to get them out.  Let them help you.

With a little care and professional cleaning, you should be able to enjoy your Sassy Scrubs Neckties for a long, long time!

With great prizes at stake, the many entries we received for the Sassy Scrubs Blogging Contest were diverse and creative.  Sassy Scrubs was honored to award our Grand Prize to one of the most interesting and touching stories that we received.  Anne Johnston, Corporate Writer/Marketing Coordinator for the Office of Corporate Communications at Thompson Health in Canandaigua, New York, told us about a program at her facility, instituted to help their nurses.  Anne won the Grand Prize and used her $250 Sassy Gift Certificate to help stock the shelves of the Scrubs Loan Closet.

We extend our congratulations to Anne and encourage you to read more about the fabulous FF Thompson Scrubs Loan Closet below.

Guest article – Anne Johnston
Corporate Writer/Marketing Coordinator for the Office of Corporate Communications at Thompson Health in Canandaigua, NY

Scrubs Loan Closet Gets Off the Ground

After gasoline, groceries and regular monthly bills are taken care of these days, some folks find that there’s not much left in their bank accounts.  Now, any Thompson Associates who find themselves in those shoes, even temporarily, have one less expense to worry about.

That’s thanks to the new Scrubs Loan Closet, a program created by Thompson’s Nursing Work-Life Council to ensure that the prospect of a uniform doesn’t present a hardship for anyone. If you’re not familiar with it, the Nursing Work-Life Council was created as part of the Magnet designation process to address quality of work life issues for nurses.  “The program is based solely on donations from people who work here,” says Cristine Crawford, an RN in the Birthing Center who is on the council and helped organize the program.  The need for the loan closet was identified through Associate Services, where staff sometimes sense that new hires who are required to wear scrubs cannot afford to buy their own.

“Before you get that first paycheck, it’s kind of hard to go out and purchase some,” Cristine says.  “Scrubs are not cheap.”

Deborah Gollus, Senior Recruiter, agrees. “If they’re coming from a non-healthcare background or a healthcare background with a different uniform requirement, it can be a burden,” she says.  Associate Services brought the issue to the attention of the Work-Life Council, which got the program up and running on October 1, using a space in the corner of the 2 West conference room.

To stock the closet, Cristine sent out a MOX to fellow Associates. “The initial response was very good so there’s probably a lot more out there,” Cristine says, noting that she plans to send out occasional reminders.  As of early this month, the closet featured scrubs of all sizes, both prints and solid colors. “We definitely could use some more smalls. We could use more of all sizes, actually,” Cristine says.  Associates – whether they are new or having a hard time making ends meet – are welcome to help themselves to the closet’s contents at any time. “We didn’t want people to feel like they had to ask,” Cristine says.

The council asks that each person needing scrubs takes a maximum of two sets.
If the people who benefit from the closet are able to donate the uniforms back to the closet in the future after they are able to purchase their own, it will keep the program going, Cristine says.

-Karen

Recently, Sassy Scrubs President, Karen Bradley noticed an order for some Sassy Kids Scrubs from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas.  Sassy Scrubs immediately contacted Make-A-Wish to let them know that we would be honored to donate these scrubs, hoping that we could play a small part of making this very special Wish come true.

Ten year old, Katelyn, is fascinated by animals of all sizes and colors! She loves learning about animals, especially dogs and cats, through books, movies and television shows. When Katelyn was given the opportunity to have her wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas, it came as no surprise when Katelyn wished to be a Veterinarian for a day!

On wish day, Katelyn was greeted by a limousine that took her to her new employer, Lakeside Animal Hospital in Fort Worth. Not only did she arrive in style, Katelyn also wore Sassy Scrubs and a personalized lab coat that was sure to make all her co-workers jealous!

Once at the hospital, Dr. Katelyn was able to pet and hold the patients, take their vitals, and even witness a few surgeries! At lunch time, Katelyn indulged in her favorite foods! As a token of thanks, the staff surprised her with a basket full of goodies and, more importantly, her very own black kitten! This is truly a wish that will provide memories to last a life time!

Special Thanks to Katy Reddy, Wish Coordinator – SW Region
Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas

-Karen

For many high school students, the ability to immediately generate an income after graduation may be an appealing thought. They may also be dissuaded by the rising cost of tuition. While it is true that a higher education may be one of the largest expenses one will ever face, the importance of a college education has been quite evident in terms of earning potential in today’s economy.

A college education can lead to more opportunities in working life, especially for higher paid occupations. When pursuing a continued education, students could gain opportunities to work with some of outstanding professionals in their field of study. Individuals would also become aware of what is accessible to them within different levels of education.    

Many programs such as those in Medicine, Nursing, OT, PT, and others offer challenging and rewarding careers after graduation. If you are considering further study in one of these programs you’ll be preparing for the many opportunities available to you once your college education is complete. Realizing your college education is an investment into your future is the first step.

We’d like to hear about what you do for fun, and see if we can help share that with others. We’d also be happy to share our fun pastimes in this space with you. Do you like to crochet or knit; sew projects for yourself and your family, read, engage in sports… whatever it is, just let us know. We have an abundance of talent here at Sassy Scrubs and our interests are a diverse as yours. Let us know where your interests lie, and we can all learn something new!

Would you be interested in learning about a new craft, seeing a new sewing pattern, or read a new recipe? Share your interests with us! We’re not all about work here at Sassy Scrubs, and we’re sure you’re not either. Let’s have a little fun. Together.

-Karen

• Always have a chaperon or an adult with children when Trick or Treating. This is an important tip to follow, especially for younger children who are considering going alone. Never let a child go Trick or Treating by themselves. This can be considered unsafe and it’s not as fun if kids are by themselves. If your child doesn’t want any parents to come, you can always have a friend or older sibling go with them. Older siblings like candy too you know!
• Being bigger, does mean better! Children as well as adults can benefit from large Trick or Treating groups. This way the kids can be around their friends, and adults will also have company. Plus, it is much easier for a group of adults to handle a group of children then just one adult alone. Remember, there’s more safety by the numbers.
• Try to avoid houses with their lights off. Young children may believe that every house in the neighborhood is participating in Halloween. This isn’t true and can turn into a scenario that should be avoided. It’s important to inform children the reasons for a resident having their lights off. Reasons may include that residents aren’t home, they aren’t participating in Halloween, they are out of candy, or other possible dangerous situations.
• As a chaperon or parent, it’s important to let children know the dangers of open candy given to them. Candy received already open is considered extremely dangerous and can cause serious health concerns for adults and children. If you see anything like this laid out or in a child’s candy bag, throw it out without question. Be sure to inspect your child’s completely before allowing your child to enjoy the treats.

When talking about Halloween, remember that safe and comfortable Kid Scrubs are always a great choice. Kid Scrubs in “hospital green” are the perfect doctor or nurse costume, while Kid Scrubs in a dog or cat print make a fabulous veterinarian costume. Think Sassy Scrubs Kid Scrubs for safety and comfort this Halloween.