How to Tackle T-Shirt Embroidery

Though the No. 1 platform for screen printing, T-shirts present unique challenges when it comes to digitizing and embroidering.
January 01, 2008

T-shirts have become increasingly popular since James Dean and John Wayne started wearing them as outer garments in movies in the 1950s. Those garments were 100% cotton, which remains the basic today; however, not all 100% cotton T-shirts are equal.

Since you have to put considerable effort into properly embroidering a T-shirt, you will want to choose a high-quality garment (See "T-shirt Essentials: Know the Fabrics and Styles" at end of article). Though proper embroidery can do a lot to raise the perceived value of a T-shirt, it can't change the quality of fiber used to weave the shirt's fabric.

With so many choices in fabric, knit and feel, it's impossible to provide one formula for successful T-shirt embroidery. But with an eye toward the differences in fabrics, there are some guidelines that should help you with all of them.

For example, all T-shirts have horizontal stretch. Whatever you embroider on them, you do not want to destroy the horizontal stretch that makes them so comfortable to wear. Choosing designs that are not one solid block of stitching, such as widely spaced lettering, will help maintain the garment's stretch.

Also, if you must do a solid fill on a T-shirt, try to limit it to a small left-chest design. Garments with 1x1 rib and those with Lycra spandex have even more stretch than cotton and cotton/poly blends. To avoid ruining that extra elasticity, stretch these garments slightly while hooping. This prevents the embroidery from taking up too much of the stretch needed for the garment to fit as snugly as it was intended.

Choose the Right Backing
Most T-shirts will shrink when laundered, and you have to take that into account when embroidering. Of course, there are some T-shirts marketed as "pre-shrunk," but you'd be wise to test them before assuming they won't shrink further after they're sewn and laundered. Be sure to stabilize any embroidery design so it won't be greatly affected when the garment shrinks during laundering.

Through experience, I've determined that poly-mesh or no-show backing is best for embroidering on T-shirts. I generally place a lightweight tearaway behind that just for extra stability during sewing. After the garment is embroidered, I remove the tearaway and trim the poly mesh around the design. This combination gives the garment stability in the embroidered area without a huge block of backing showing through.

When you have a heavy corporate logo — more than 8,000 stitches — to embroider on a T-shirt, you may have to resort to a cutaway backing. But use just one layer of a light to medium weight. Multiple layers of backing are sometimes used to make up for poor digitizing. If the design is bad enough — too much density, etc. — it is better to fix the design than to add multiple layers or thick backing to a T-shirt.

On tiny designs, particularly on infant garments, you may not want to use even the lightest poly-mesh inside the garment. In these cases, use several layers of water-soluble backing, such as Solvy or EZ-Aqua. The stitch count needs to be light in these designs, as they won't have any stabilization once the backing washes away the first time the garment is laundered.

You generally won't need to use toppings such as Solvy or EZ-Aqua on T-shirts. However, as the T-shirt evolves into more textured fabrics, such as 1x1 rib and baby piqué T-shirts, you will want to add these toppings to keep the stitches from sinking into the textured weave of the garment.

Keep Stitch Counts Low
The key to successfully embroidering a T-shirt is keeping stitch counts to a minimum. These two sample designs shown on p. 64 — Bikini Bottom and Curley Tail's — have just 16,000 to 17,000 stitches each, even though they cover the full fronts of the T-shirts. To keep the stitch count down, the lizard in the Curley Tail's logo has varying numbers of running stitch lines to depict the weight of separate areas. If a heavier satin stitch outlined the lizard while the interior of the design remained blank, the lizard would most likely pucker after the garment was washed.

Edge walk, or a guideline underlay, is useful on satin columns of 2 mm or wider to keep a clean edge on the letter and to maintain column width on these soft fabrics. To further increase the stability of the wider columns in the Bikini design, I added a zigzag underlay. I set the length of the zigzag stitch so that it would make a needle penetration in the middle of the widest columns to further increase the stability of the letters.

To prevent the satin stitches from sagging after washing, consider using split satin stitches in columns that are 7 mm or wider. This was done in the top of the "T"on the Curly Tail's design to prevent these stitches from becoming too loose.

To keep full-front designs smooth as they travel across the T-shirt front, you should digitize from the center of the design out. For instance, in the Bikini Bottom design, the word "Bottom" was digitized first from left to right and then "Bikini" was digitized from right to left.

To apply color and stitches to large areas of decorative designs without driving up the stitch count, consider using motif fills. The use of these open-fill stitches will not detract from the T-shirt's soft hand. I find that the parameters set in software packages often have the stitch lengths used in these designs too short. Stitch lengths of 2.5 mm to 4 mm will result in less stress and stitches in these motif fills.

When embroidering corporate logos on a T-shirt, it's sometimes impossible to avoid the large rectangular block of stitching bordered by a satin stitch outline. Due to the horizontal stretch inherent in the T-shirt, you might need to apply greater amounts of pull compensation to the inside fill of the logo so that the borders will remain in registration with the fill.

To avoid distortion of the fabric from this solid block of fill, you may want to align the fill stitches at a slight angle to the weave of the fabric to reduce the amount of pull. Adding a cross-hatch underlay with stitches at angles of 45 degrees and 135 degrees to the angle of the fill will allow you to use less density in the top fill. Using stitch lengths of at least 4 mm in the fill also will reduce stress on the garment.

The above photo of the ants marching across a child's T-shirt shows pull compensation issues in the whites of all the eyes. Though this design runs fine on a woven fabric, it will have to be adjusted by adding pull compensation and an edge walk underlay to each of the eyeballs. The direction of the satin stitches allows these stitches to fall between the ribs of the knit and pull in too much.

Watch the Threads
T-shirts are generally worn next to the body. Tie-off knots are formed to prevent all those letters you just stitched from unraveling. I recommend using rayon threads and cotton bobbin threads to make these knots less abrasive to the skin.

For the same reason, I would avoid using metallic threads on T-shirts. Metallic threads are metal and are abrasive on T-shirts worn next to the body.

Play with Placement
Left-chest logos on T-shirts go in the same location as if you were sewing them on a knit sports shirt, with the center of the design 71/2 inches down from the shoulder seam for women and 8 to 9 inches down for men. The center of the design should be 4 to 6 inches from the center of the shirt.

T-shirt shoulders are cut squarely. A word of caution: If you lay the T-shirt flat on a table to hoop it, you will automatically line up the hoop with that straight shoulder, and the embroidery will look crooked when the shirt is worn. The problem is that the human body does not have straight shoulders; they slope downward as they extend from the body. For the best results, use a hooping device with slanted shoulders and let the T-shirt drape naturally over the device. The embroidery might look crooked when the garment is folded, but it will appear straight when the T-shirt is worn.

Full-chest design placement can vary depending upon the size of the shirt, but a good place to start is with the top of the design 2 to 3 inches below the neck band. The design should be placed so that no part of it falls below the bottom of the sleeve seam.

For fun, try smaller embroideries at the back center of the neck, on the sleeves or a couple of inches above the left bottom hem.

Combining the right T-shirt fabric and style with the proper backings and designs will allow you to create someone's most treasured T-shirt.

Pat Williams of Image Embroidery in Sierra Vista, Ariz., is an award-winning digitizer with decades of experience in accounting and small-business management. She also is our Grand Champion winner of the 2007 Impressions Awards. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Pwilliams22@cox.net or visit imageemb.com.

T-shirt Essentials: Know the Fabrics and Styles
The majority of commodity-priced cotton T-shirts are open-end cotton, which is made of short fibers spun together to create the yarn from which the garment is knit. During wearing and washing, these short fibers loosen and can start to pill.

Better-quality cotton T-shirts are made of combed cotton. This longer staple cotton provides a tighter weave and smoother finish to the garment, which is a much better surface to embroider.

Ring-spun cotton is better yet. The name refers to yarn that is twisted as fibers spin around a ring. This happens at least three times, cleaning and aligning the cotton fibers before the actual yarn is spun. This lengthier process results in a stronger and softer yarn.

Other processes, such as pigment dyeing, also are being used to make cotton T-shirts softer and give them a comfortable, lived-in look.

Beyond cotton, a cornucopia of new fabrics and textures are available to explore in today's T-shirt market.

Moisture-wicking T-shirts are having a huge impact. These shirts are usually 100% polyester but can be found in cotton/poly blends. The theory behind the performance features of these garments is double-layer construction. The top layer is designed to wick moisture from the under layer. This action keeps the wearer cool, comfortable and presentable under heat-generating conditions.

It seems like a paradox, but the exact same moisture-wicking T-shirt also is sold as a first layer for cold-weather activities. A sweat-soaked cotton T-shirt will quickly chill a winter athlete when he rests or finishes his exercise. As a first layer under winter outerwear, moisture-wicking T-shirts keep the skin dry, warding off that clammy chill.

As you make your rounds at the next trade show you attend, check out the performance properties of popular shirts with fabric trademarks that contain the word dry, such as Dri-Mesh, Rapid-Dry, Cool-N-Dry, Dri-Fit and others.

Lycra spandex also has been added to athletic T-shirts to give them a more body- conscious fit.

For an upscale casual look, silk and silk/cotton blends have been added to the casual T-shirt market. These shirts should make a smash in the corporate executive lines or in the high-end resort market. Pima and Egyptian cottons are the longest staple cotton fabrics around and will result in fine knits for the upscale market as well.

Mercerized cotton has been through special processing that gives the yarn an unmatched luster and soft hand, and an increased ability to absorb dyes that produce vibrant colors.

To add to the variations available in T-shirts, all of the above types of fibers can be woven into jersey, interlock, 1x1 rib and baby piqué knits. These types of knits also are available in various weights from 3.69 ounces to 6.1 ounces. Fabric weight measures tell you how much one square yard of the fabric weighs. It's generally an indication of how thick the fabric will be, though a 3.69-ounce poly can feel as thick as 6.1-ounce cotton.

While you're educating yourself about fabrics, don't ignore styles. While there are too many cuts to cover here, it's accurate to say that vintage is in. The retro look is hot with the younger market and brings back cherished memories to the baby-boomer crowd. When embroidering T-shirts for vintage looks, try blanks with raglan sleeves and color blocking or use ringer T-shirts. Ringers have contrasting color ribbing at the neck and hems of the sleeves. Closer fits, heathered colors, pigment dyeing and contrast stitching all add to the vintage appeal. — P.W.