Images Magazine Digital Edition July 2018

www.images-magazine.com JULY 2018 images 33 TIPS & TECHNIQUES Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator, with 18 years’ experience both in production and the management of e-commerce properties. He is the partner relationship manager for DecoNetwork in the USA. www.erichcampbell.com This hand-cut reverse appliqué was a winning idea for this tee on account of its extremely light- stitching and high impact, though it does suffer from some distortion due to differing weights of jersey knit in the decoration. Luckily, the design ethos of distressed pieces allows for some leeway in execution. While other garments utilised a standard fully-embroidered version of the logo, the brand’s willingness to stretch its logo for this light and inventive retail-inspired take allowed for larger lighter coverage on tees Tone-on-tone logos like this are fantastic for tees. Distortion is minimal due to a fairly drastic lightening of density; here it’s about 35-40% lighter than standard full coverage. That same lightness makes for a flexible hand and very little disruption of the garment’s line when worn When using a peel-off backing to frame a tee, one can simply hoop the backing intact and score the area of the cover sheet with a pin to create a ‘window’ in the sheet. The stabiliser where the embroiderable area of the garment will be adhered can then be revealed by lifting the corner of the scored rectangle and carefully peeling away the carrier. The area to be embroidered is then smoothed in place, from the centre towards the edges, without stretching the fabric. It is pressed firmly into place, leaving the area to be embroidered entirely smooth and held fast. This all-over adhesion eliminates a great deal of stretching and distortion during the embroidery process. It is advisable, however, to underlay your design in such a way so as to permanently marry the material to the backing before the heaviest stitching starts. Credit: All photos courtesy of Celeste Schwartz Avoid cutting or ‘burning’ the material by not hooping too tight from the hoop. When hooping a tee, take care not to stretch it more than you’d reasonably expect it to stretch when worn. If your material is overly shifting, even with the addition of underlay that marries it to the stabiliser, consider using an adhesive backing or an embroidery- specific spray to adhere it to the stabiliser. Avoid cutting or ‘burning’ the material by hooping too tight, and employ a ‘window’ of stabiliser atop the garment for more fragile tees. In short, by selecting the most stitch- friendly garment, sticking to designs that complement the substrate, and hooping carefully with the correct stabiliser, you may find the humble T-shirt taking a more prominent (and profitable) role in your product line.