Scraps of Compassion

Some time ago Charles and I were asked if we could donate some scraps of material to a group called Scraps and Prayers, they are a quilting group from Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Encinitas. We have always stuck those scraps in a tub or in the trash, never thinking that someone could use them to do good for others. Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts believes in contributing to various charities and while we do a lot for others we can’t give every time we are asked so finding a way to get rid of our scraps and possibly do good was very exciting to us. We immediately jumped on board with this as well as asked our cutter to start saving our scraps and before you know it we had a really good size donation to give them. We had no idea how useful those scraps would turn out to be. Plus what could be better than going green for charity.

Several months later we were at our new store in Escondido when 3 of the ladies came to see us. They wanted to show us what they had been able to accomplish with our scraps and to say we were floored wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Those scraps of fabric were being put to great use. One of the things they did was to use the scraps to make quilts for the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Camp Pendleton. When a warrior comes there to recover they get a comfortable, colorful quilt to snuggle in and keep. I just know they must appreciate the fact that someone cared enough about them and the sacrifices they make to our country to make a quilt for them. The quilts are 60x80, cheerful and warm and fit their beds. Pictured above is just one of the surfboard quilts that will be given to a soldier.

They also used some of our fine prints to make quilts for those in their congregation who turn 100 years old imagine the glee of someone who reaches 100 years old and to celebrate that with their very own quilt is just wonderful.
 
They make Prayer Quits for members who are gravely ill and the thought that some of those scraps of material would be used to make a quilt that brings comfort to someone very ill gives us a very humbling feeling.
 

The ladies also brought us a hand made quilt which we will always value, but truth be told while we appreciate the gift just knowing what uses they had put those scraps to were enough to absolutely make our day. We believe that the quilt we are holding depicts every design and color we have ever donated to the scraps for prayers project.
 
Now when I mention sending Aloha around the world, they have certainly covered that too. Several quilts were made for the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile. The thought that somewhere across the world a quilt is covering a child or adult who has lost everything they own and is suffering makes us feel all warm and fuzzy. It just goes to show what a huge difference a little bit of scraps can do when you have a group of good-hearted people doing positive things to help others.

Mahalo to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church Scraps & Prayers Group, we here at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts appreciate what you do for others in a big – big way!

If you have a comment, or your own story about going green for charity that you would like to share, please leave a comment and we will approve it. On-topic links within your comments are acceptable.

Summer Party Checklist, The

Summer is not that far off and honestly it can’t get here soon enough. I am the kind of guy who takes great pride in being overly prepared for just about anything life can throw at me. Especially when it comes to industrial strength parties or hula shows.

But recently it has become clear that I really am not as prepared as I could be. Why just the other day I went to heat up the grill and it would not light, its out of gas, no problem I said, I will just go grab the spare propane tank out of the shed. Now do you think there was propane in that tank? Hell no there wasn’t, apparently I was already using the “spare” tank and its empty too. Ever have that happen to you?

You can call me lazy, overworked, or whatever, but the real lesson here is that I need to start working on some sort of summer checklist. Now I must tell you right away that my summer checklist doesn’t remotely resemble the one my wife maintains for me. No sir, my wife's checklist is never ending and so long that it will most likely have to be transferred to some other sucker when I die. My summer checklist is all about partying, so I only care that the freezer is full of meats, grill is clean, gas is in the tanks, coolers are washed out, lawn chairs are dusted off etc. you get the picture.

But I admit that there are times when I am throwing a party and am not quite sure how to do something, and out of fear I dont want to ask my wife, luckily we have the Internet. But hopefully you are not too much of a slacker and you are a bit more prepared for summer, unlike myself. Speaking of prepared, we have even wrote a few articles about some of the common obstacles ourselves and guests have run into during the summer months and would like to share them with you. Below are some articles that you may enjoy, and in no particular order.

How to wear a Hawaiian shirt - Believe it or not most men don’t know how to dress for success, the Aloha way. Learn how us slackers master that.

What to wear in Hawaii - Its bad enough that some people don’t know how to dress on the islands, worse is that they go out in public like that.

Graduation Leis - Say what? Yes, it’s now a tradition, so get reading so you can keep up with the Joneses.

How to dress for a Luau - Whether you got a luau invitation in the mail or you are throwing one yourself, this is a must read.

How to decorate for a Luau - Lets assume no one in their right mind is going to invite you to a luau, and you now have no choice but to host your own. This is a real luau party story, wrote by a real person (it all ends well).

What Shrinks Clothes - An Urban Legend Dispelled

I have been meaning to write about one of our industries most misunderstood phenomena, which is what actually causes fabric to shrink, in particular cotton fabric and select rayons.

Now during my lifetime I have seen people show pictures of unwashed fabric and shirts compared against washed and dried articles, read statements proclaiming that its caused by dryer heat, and even someone trying to back up that dryer statement by saying that the appliance repairman told them so. But all those proclamations really fall short of answering the question.

While you may have indeed noticed that your cotton fabrics encountered shrinkage, you still really don’t know why. Did washing, drying or a combination of both cause it? Were there forces unknown to our civilization that caused it? A Government conspiracy maybe?

Here is what really caused you garment to shrink when you washed it, its called cellulose. Cellulose is primarily obtained from wood pulp and cotton and converted to textiles as well as other household materials that utilize converted cellulose. Yes its true, the wonderful solubility of cellulose in water is also what causes the shrinkage and wrinkling in your clothing when you launder them, machine washing and drying just makes the ill effects of shrinkage more noticeable.

Not convinced yet? The cotton actually draws in water so effectively that the cotton fibers swell way beyond proportion when wet and this swelling reshapes the garment. Hot drying simply chases the water out of the fibers at an accelerated rate and when you are drying the garment, the water and the cellulose molecules tend to compress the fibers as they dry. Obviously the clothes shrink and wrinkle in the process.

Another myth is that pre-washing prevents shrinkage. No it does not, while pre-washing is performed before a garment is sewn so to minimize shrinkage of the completed garment, it in no way prevents the sewn garment from further shrinking when its washed and dried. I would also like to add that there is no such thing as pre-shrinking, if it’s made from cotton it will continue to shrink until the cellulose deteriorates.

So now that you know what definitively causes fabric to shrink, you are probably wondering what you can do to prevent or minimize shrinkage. Well for starters you could take everything to a drycleaner, but that’s not cost effective for the masses. Our recommendation is to start out with good garments made from higher quality fabrics such as what’s used in our brand of Hawaiian shirts. Our Hawaiian apparel is constructed from cotton poplin fabric which has a higher thread count than most cotton fabrics; the high density minimizes the effects of water interacting with cellulose and minimizes shrinkage.

Hand washing and air-drying is sometimes suggested, but you have to remember that you are still introducing water to cellulose, thus the shrinkage is still occurring and just at a slower rate.

If you enjoyed this article please tell your friends. You may also be interested in how we design Hawaiian print fabrics.

Mahalo and have a wonderfull day!

Annoying Sales Strategies

Like many people who do a great percentage of their shopping on the Web, I would like to consider myself to be a fairly savvy web shopper. But there are some tactics and strategies used by web stores, as well as brick and mortar stores, which are simply bewildering.

At the top of my list are stores that proclaim that “everything is on sale, everyday” and all I can think is that they have no idea how to properly price their products. So what that tells me is that they don’t know or care about sustainable pricing, dont care if they are cheapening their brand forever and that the value of the product is most likely way less than you or I ever care to know. In the end you get what you pay for.

And then there are the web stores that slash through the so-called regular price and show a so-called sale price. E.g. Regular price $99.99 Sale price $35.00 While I can envision seeing that format used in a clearance or discount section, its pure silliness to do it to every single product offered AND to add more nausea to it, many will do it sitewide 365 days a year.

That strategy also prevents you from looking at any of their other pages and finding the regular price point (which is probably the sale price), but I assure you that you will never see that product sold for the slashed price anywhere, at any time. Folks, some simple Google's for comparison-shopping will often disclose that the so-called sale price is near (and shockingly sometimes above) their competitors regular pricing. Do stores really think that consumers are that inexperienced and gullible?

Finally we have one of the oldest, yet most backwoods tactic of them all, the “Sale, Store Closing” signage. There was a jewelry store next to ours that used that exact signage for over 6 years running! All I can say is that it was one of the most hideous operations that I have seen in a long, long, time, adding that the entire town most likely rejoiced when they finally lost their lease.

If you’re a consumer reading this we suggest that you shop around and compare, but make sure that you do not sacrifice lasting quality just to save a few pennies now. If you’re a business and you fall into any of those categories above, we would like to suggest that you use Google to find some informational sites which may help you with correcting your misguided course.

Mele Kalikimaka A.K.A. We Have Cookies & Aloha

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka! I was thinking what I would Blog about for my last post of the year, part of me feels I should tell you where to get a great Hawaiian shirt and the other part says to focus on fond memories of the past year. Given the fact that many wonderful things happen on a weekly basis and that I really don’t have time to write a book, I figure that I will close out the year with a short story about a new customer.

As many of you know we go out of our way to accommodate our customers needs, a few weeks back this lady came into the store and requested that we make her some 7X muumuus. Now normally that wouldn’t be a problem except for the Christmas holiday is right around the corner and sewing had already received their Christmas bonuses and for the most part have vanished for the year.

My wife was working the San Diego store that day and was well aware of the situation. But that wasn’t going to derail this customer, for moments after she was told there was no sewing she spoke those magic words that would open the gate to heaven, “I will bake him Christmas cookies”. That night I was told that I needed to make it happen or else (why me). Long story made short I managed to track down our main seamstress. While she laughed out loud at my lack of resistance for cookies she agreed to bail me out.

So a few days before Christmas she got the call that her order was ready, and in almost a blink of an eye she appeared with my plate of cookies (pictured above). So I must admit that whatever resentment I may have had for having to work so close to the holiday was instantly erased. So now that I am 3 pounds heavier than yesterday, I think that this is where I say mahalo prepare to jump ship for the rest of the year.

From all of us at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts, we wish you the best Christmas and New Years ever!

Mahalo and Mele Kalikimaka

Polynesian Holiday Entertainment San Diego - Lets Hula!

Its always challenging to get in the mood for the Christmas holidays, more so when you live in a warm climate and never get to see snow. To help everyone get in the proper mood we are compelled to produce a holiday hula performance on December 12th 2009.

This is a very authentic show that will be performed by the incredible Pipanie O Patitisa Hawaiian Dancers followed by an authentic Samoan Fire Knife Dance! Live music by recording artist Quintinn Holi.

If you attended the August performance you will know that this is a seriously good show. Where else in San Diego can you find Polynesian holiday entertainment that’s not only family friendly, but free as well.

The show starts at 5:30pm and runs to 6:30pm or later and you certainly don’t want to miss the fire knife dancers. Grab your lawn chairs and come on out for a spectacular holiday show, Polynesian style. We do want to add that while many December nights are warm there are instance where it gets cooler so you may want to bring along a sweater or jacket. Of course we have a lot of nice Hawaiian shirts for men online, as well as womens apparel such as mid length and long muumuu and childrens clothing in-store. We also have big sizes for men and women.

The hula show will be held in the large parking lot that is adjacent to the front of our showroom (which is in North San Diego County) and it’s really easy to get to. There is street parking as well as many public parking lots that are adjacent to our showroom. Below is a Google map that you can use for acquiring directions.


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15% off Coupon for In-Store and Online Purchases

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Wave Shoppe!

To print this 15% off coupon for in-store purchases, simply click your browsers printer icon.

Redeem right now with coupon code: ALOHA09

(Coupon valid until 12-31-2009 and my not be combined with any other discount coupons, past purchases, or wholesale orders.)

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