How To Choose Your Embroidered T-Shirt
Choosing a t-shirt to embroider can be a daunting prospect. There are many brands available to select from and within these brands many different styles, fabrics and colours from which to choose.
This guide will help you through the selection process for embroidering a t-shirt and will make the task of selecting an appropriate t-shirt simple.
The first point to consider when choosing a t-shirt to embroider is the embroidery itself. T-shirt fabric by its very nature is usually light and thin (although heavier weighted t-shirts are available). The size of your embroidered logo or text may affect the t-shirt fabric in a detrimental way and lead to the t-shirt becoming miss-shaped due to the weight of the embroidered logo that you apply. If your logo is small in size and does not include a large number of stitches (5000 stitches is an average size logo for embroidery) then you will get away with selecting a lighter weighted t-shirt. If your logo is large, say over 8000 stitches and includes a lot of infill within it then you may need to choose a heavier weight garment.
So what does the weight of the garment actually mean in practice? A light weight fabric t-shirt is usually between 130gsm (grams per square metre) and 150gsm with a heavyweight t-shirt been around 200gsm. As you can see there is quite a difference, so choose carefully as when taking into consideration the size of the embroidered logo you are applying.
Second point is the style of the t-shirt. We have a range of styles including v-neck, capped sleeve, long sleeve and traditional crew neck. When looking at the style you will need to think about where you intend to position your logo. For example, if it is to be positioned on the left or right chest area will it look ok on a v-neck style t-shirt. The main points to think about when selecting your t-shirt style is the size of the logo and where it is to be positioned.
The third point is fabric. We will discuss the fabric in another article, but suffice to say the type of fabric does play a part in your choice of garment. This is not as important in embroidered t-shirts as it is in printed ones and is often just simply a matter of preference for the wearer as opposed to its relation to an embroidered logo.
Fourthly, it is worth looking at the brand of t-shirt. Specifically is the brand going to be available in the long term? This is important if your embroidered t-shirt is going to be an item you will need to re-order in 6 or 12 months time. You will need to select a brand that will manufacture your chosen t-shirt in the future so you can get a consistent garment for your logo.
Final point is the price. We have left this one to last as in our experience it is often the deciding factor when selecting an embroidered t-shirt. As you would expect with a large choice comes a large price range. Price can be affected by many things: fabric, style, weight and brand are all factors that lead to the garment price. The other cost involved will obviously be the application of the embroidery onto your t-shirt. An embroidery charge is based on the number of stitches within your logo or text and is priced per 1000 stitches. Therefore, the smaller the embroidery, the cheaper the price.
So, which t-shirts do we recommend at JKL Clothing? Over the last 20 years we have seen many brands come and go within the embroidered t-shirt industry. There are 3 main exceptions to this which are Fruit of the Loom, Gildan and Uneek. In our experience these brands offer the consistency, quality and value that make for an ideal choice when looking to purchase an embroidered t-shirt.
Embroidered Ideal Products