By Wayne Dominowski, SBA Contributing Writer
(SB) – Jennifer Rassel grew up in a family business. That’s why she works so hard at what she does, and why Little Red Embroidery (LRE) of Sergeant Bluff has grown steadily over the last 10 years. And, because she knows her craft so well, combined with her business acumen, Rassel is well-known not only in Sergeant Bluff, but also the Siouxland area and beyond.
There’s another reason: Along with exquisite embroidery and distinctive screen printing, Little Red Embroidery offers a magical selection of personal and custom apparel that comes in every size, color, style, and promotional products – caps, pens, golf balls, and a wide variety of personalized gifts, and services that include corporate logos, shirts, hats, bags, along with school mascots, t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and much more.
Jennifer and her husband, Shane, and their daughter, Julianne, a freshman at SB-L, love Sergeant Bluff. Their lives are intertwined with the community.
Originally, Jennifer set up shop at her home. It didn’t take long before the family adobe was becoming less a home, and taking on a full-fledged business. “We were running out of space to the point that not only had we taken over the garage, but also half our basement was storage for all our animals, blankets and everything else. During busy times of the year, our home dining room was full of items waiting to be trimmed and sent out.”
Initially, Jennifer, along with some help from family and friends, did all the work.
Rassel moved to downtown Sergeant Bluff, 406-4th Street, where she rented a space next door to Roger Kramer’s New York Life office. As time went by, and little by little, Jennifer added vacated space in the building and with it began to expand her product lines and services. Eventually, Kramer decided retirement was near, so he sold the building to Jennifer.
With the acquisition of her new business location, she began to add needed staff. In 2016, she added two persons to her operation. Today, six persons – including Jennifer – are intricately involved in Little Red Embroidery. There’s Jen, customer service; Trisha, embroidery lead operator; Emily, heat press, screen printing, and customer service; Brenda, screen-printing production, and Alyssa and Kelsie, embroidery.
Something else came along with each new staff member. “Generally,” Jennifer said, “When we added a person, we also added another piece of equipment.”
From her store and shops, Rassel combines art with embroidery, both refining and defining every kind of imagery imaginable, and with the aid of modern technology – computers and specialty machinery -- produces a dazzling display of everything from expansive choices of stuffed animal baby gifts -- from moose and cows to baby turtles and sloths ---representing a veritable zoo.
The embroidery services provided by Little Red Embroidery Co are second to none. From custom designs to corporate logos, this business can embroider anything and everything onto a variety of items, including shirts, hats, bags, and more. Customers can expect only the highest quality work from the skilled professionals at the Little Red Embroidery Company.
With 95,000 Facebook followers, Little Red Embroidery Company has established a reputation for excellence in the embroidery industry. Customers rave about the quality of the work, the friendly and helpful staff, and the overall experience of working with Little Red Embroidery.
Jenny has put this all together.
“There’s skill, art, and technology involved,” Jennifer said. “For example, in receiving an image of a company or school logo, we map out stitches to create the finished embroidery.” It takes a knowledge and understanding of how stitches work together with a fabric and how it both combine to make up the completed product.
On hand, LRE has a plethora of threads in hundreds of colors.
Placing an order is made easy at the Sergeant Bluff company.
From bringing in a drawing, a particular artwork, logo, or even just an idea, Jennifer and her staff assist customers by taking their provided art or idea, and help them choose their apparel to decorate, and then mockups are provided. Customer approval comes next, and after that, production begins. An order may call for a dozen items, to a hundred or more.
To produce a customized item, Jennifer has the most up-to-date machinery. The latter includes multiple embroidery machines: two machines that sew six garments at a time, one that sews eight at a time, and for small orders, LRE has three machines to fill requests for small orders.
Screen printing includes one manual operation for small orders, and one automated machine capable of producing larger orders quickly. Large conveyor dryers are necessary to cure the ink impressed on material. Little Red Embroidery also does heat transfers, such as names and numbers on the backs of jerseys.
It’s Little Red in name only. The truth is, Jennifer’s company can do anything when it comes to apparel (t-shirts, polo shirts, long and short sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, jackets, company ware, and virtually everything for teams, benefit promotions, as well as promotional products (pens, notepads, tumblers). All customer orders are original in design and presentation.
Jennifer said that “60% of our business is wholesale.” In fact, people might be surprised to learn that many of the screen-printed and embroidery products seen both locally, regionally, and beyond were the result of LRE collaborations.
Amazingly, orders of any size, proportion, or quantity can be produced at Little Red Embroidery. The saying ‘No job too small, or too big’ applies, a factor that is stunning considering a “little shop” in Sergeant Bluff can make that claim. “We can handle any capacity,” Jennifer said.
In 2025, to meet production output, Jennifer expanded her operation once again by enlarging her floor space to include a high-capacity screen-printing machine. To go along with the expansion in the screen-printing department, Jennifer brought in a highly experienced screen print operator to augment that important department.
Just think…. this is all right here in Sergeant Bluff. Embroidery and screen-printing don’t get any better than this. For Jennifer Rassel, what she’s put together spells S-U-C-C-E-S-S, and what she and her dedicated staff do daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly spells Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y and P-R-I-D-E.
Little Red Embroidery is open weekdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Thursdays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. To reach Jennifer, you may call her at 712-259-7811, or email at Jen.Rassel@littleredembroidery.com.
