22/01/2009 by admin.

This brings us to the low volume end of the t-shirt market place.

All the techniques listed below do not have setup costs, which often makes having small quantities of t-shirt printed, prohibitive.

Transfer

DTG white only

DTG white/black

WOW

Subli-flock

Sublimation

Paper Transfer

I will write in due course, an individual blog on each of the above,. I must emphasise that all judgements and opinions voiced in this blog are based on my own experiences and not scientific testing. Having said that, if I  have said anything that you disagree with, you can aways write a comment that everyone will see.

Posted in Sublimation, DTG, Transfer | No Comments »

21/01/2009 by admin.

Screen Printing used to be the only alternative to embroidery and probably got the whole concept of modern day corporate clothing started. It has been around for over 50 years and is tried and tested.

It is very versatile and can print most colours onto most colour garments!

The big problem with screen printing is the setup charges. For every different colour in the design you want to print, you have to create a screen. This in turn costs something like £15 to £30 each screen!

So before you start paying for the printing you could easily have a bill for over £60.

This problem is diluted when you want to print large quantities of garments. To be cost effective, you need to be talking in terms of over 100 items. The unit printing cost is very low. But be  very careful when you get a quote because you could get a price for printing only, with the screen costs showing up on the bill when the job is done.

The resulting quality is usually high, though you will be aware of a texure where the printing has taken place.

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16/01/2009 by admin.

Embroidery is probably the oldest method of decorating garments. It is certainly one of the most versatile. With a character all of its own, it is often considered to be too expensive.  Modern technology has vastly reduced the cost, but you still have to pay for Digitization. This can cost from about £15 to £50 depending on the size and complexity of the logo or crest you want embroidered.

You can embroider most garments, that other processes would find difficult, including fleece jackets which  have raised pile or woolly hats.

Of course, if you have a business that needs a whole range of clothing on a regular basis the digitization fee soon pays for itself, especially if you have a multi coloured logo.

With most other forms of printing you have to pay extra, for each extra colour used in your logo. The beauty of embroidery is that it makes no difference.

The only time I would be a little bit cautious  is with stretchy or very thin garments. Stretchy garments can suffer from puckering and with thin garments, the stitched backing can feel a bit rough, if you wear it next to the skin. Sometimes, if you have a very large logo, it can actually feel a little heavy and because of that, uncomfortable.

Posted in Embroidery | 2 Comments »