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A Fabric Guide To Embroidered T-Shirts

The embroidered t-shirt has come a long way in recent years. Only a few years ago t-shirts were almost all designed in a crew neck style and made from 100% cotton. Times have changed and if you are looking for a t-shirt on which to embroider the range available is quite daunting to say the least.

So, what are your choices and how will your preference of t-shirt fabric affect the finished embroidered t-shirt product. A t-shirt made from 100% cotton is still the most popular type of fabric to manufacture t-shirts from. The main advantage to the wearer is comfort with a superior feel next to the skin. Recently manufacturers have started to add more and more man-made fibres to the t-shirt, most noticeably polyester. The advantage to adding polyester is wear as this makes the garment more robust and allows the t-shirt to be washed at higher temperatures without causing the garment to shrink or become miss-shaped. The colour of the garment also affects the make-up of the fabric. Some colours such as grey have a small amount of polyester added, often as little as 1%. The other extreme is the 100% polyester t-shirts. These are mainly for sportswear garments and many will have wicking capabilities that draw sweat away from the skin and allow the wearer to breath in the t-shirt.

How does the choice of fabric affect the embroidery that is stitched onto it? All fabrics will behave differently when embroidered. This is in part affected by the size and number of stitches within a single embroidered logo and also the weight of the fabric. We very rarely have any difficulty embroidering 100% cotton t-shirts or those with a polyester and cotton mix of no greater than 50% polyester. The main problems we encounter when embroidering t-shirts are when they are either 100% polyester or contain a high percentage of polyester. These t-shirt can pull and distort with the stitching of the embroidery and the weight of the logo.

Our recommendation at JKL Clothing is to select a t-shirt fabric that is at least 50% cotton and has a weight of 180gsm minimum. We have found that this standard of fabric performs best when applying an embroidered logo to it. The main brands we supply can be best found on our bestselling ranges and include Fruit of the Loom, Gildan and Kustom Kit.

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