Old Puckering

[Ballyhoo]

[Don't we all?]

I had a customer come in today to talk about a new order. I had previously done shirts for her in '08 and '09. The shirts they got were Bodek and Rhodes Ultra Club 8505, Egyptian cotton interlock (very nice shirts!). She told me that recently someone (maybe more) was complaining about puckering around the embroidery. The logo is two lines of text. I use the diamond mesh backing with light tearaway. There are less than 6K stitches. I have not seen the problem shirts yet. It is a good assumption that cold wash and low heat dry were not followed and all cotton shrinks regardless. The shirts are 4 years old!

I hate to tell the customer "that's life". Does anyone with very politically correct leanings have any suggestions on what/how to explain this to the customer?

Is there anything that can be done to avoid this... short of steel backing?

The color of the shirt has to be teal. The only teal polos that I could find are the Ultra Club that they decided are not good and Sanmar's K500 which are cheaper (and less expensive, too!). The K500 is 65% poly, so that should reduce the shrinkage problem. I would like to recommend a nice performance shirt, but can't find one in teal. Any ideas?

Thanks.

David Sklar
Ballyhoo!
Arlington VA

[Impressive Threads]

David I had a new customer ask that same question about a shirt he had for more than a year done by another embroider. My answer to him was after a year of washings the fabric itself starts to break down losing it shape and properties. The best embroidery in the world can not withstand the fact that fabric wears out eventually.
With performance shirts we all experience the difficulty of embroidery with out puckers. I just had a design that sewed out great on test fabric but when put on the ultra club shirts had a bit of a wave to it. I had the idea to use a fuseable mesh on the embroidery after trimming and it added stablization to the fabric to enable the embroidery to lay nice an flat. while it is an extra step I really like the look of the shirt afterwards. Thought I would share that tidbit with all.

Cindy in Phoenix

[Just Sew It]

Cindy, What did you use for backing before the f useable mesh?

[Impressive Threads]

I used 1 layer of mesh with 1 layer of tearaway on top for support during embroidery. This usually works well with dri-fit type shirts. If there is something that works better please share.

Cindy