1)How to Communicate & Place Your Custom Made T-Shirts Order: Part 1 - Color Communication
Picking your desire colour can be a real challenge. Even the same colour will come in different shade if you noticed.
If it is mandatory to have the absolute perfect colour, please insist to see colour charts. Colour charts come in many forms.
a)Fabric Color swatches
Some custom factories will provide you with fabric swatches to help you get not only a colour confirmation, but a texture, pattern and fabric weight confirmation. These swatches are extremely useful especially for colour matching and pattern confirmation.
Take note that even with this colour swatches, expect a 5%-10% variation with the actual outcome. Every batch of fabric that comes out of the factory is different.
b)Embroidery Thread Colour Chart
It is important to determine the colour of the thread to be used for embroidery. The chart is available in our factory & customers are welcomed to the factory to pick their desirable thread if it is mandatory. If not, just let our professional staff to do the job & we never let you down.
c)Pantone Colour Chart - Solid Coated & Solid Uncoated
The whole world uses these charts as means of communicating colours. Whether they are offset printers, silkscreen printers, embroiders, fabric dyeing house.
Pantone booklets come in two versions. Solid Coated & Solid Uncoated.
There are also another Pantone booklet, normally used by fabric dyeing house. But it is not necessary. Normal Pantone books will do.
d)Fabric Lab Dip
Now if the fabric swatches do not have the colour you are looking for, you may request for a lab dip. This is where the dyeing house will formulate the colour of your choice, but you will have to communicate the right colour first. This can be achieved by specifying a pantone code, or by giving them a sample colour on fabric/paper that you expect.
Take note that there is a significant minimum order you have to commit to get a fabric lab dip. We will do lab dips if you have at least 300pcs order. In any case, check with the manufacturers requirement first.
e)Receiving samples
Once the manufacturer understands what colour you expect, they will want to give you a sample. You can gauge a manufacturers commitment to quality from their willingness to provide you with a sample. We will always want to give you a sample, because we are committed to zero rejections and not wanting to spoil your day.
Check the colours carefully and don't forget to double check the spelling. Foreign manufacturers always get the spelling wrong. Can't blame them , as most of them can't speak your language.
2)How to Communicate & Place Your Custom Made T-Shirts Order: Part 2 - Choosing Fabric
Sometimes communication between a T-shirt factory and the buyer can be quite difficult. It is very important to let the manufacturer to know exactly what your requirements are so that the manufacturer can give you an accurate quotation and produce the shirts according to your expectations. However, the buyer usually have problems explaining their requirements, and the supplier struggles to understand what the buyer is trying to say. This 'how to' article aims to give buyers an idea how to place T-Shirt orders.
A T-shirt is usually made of some kind of fabric. The manufacturer has to understand exactly what fabric you are looking for. Telling the manufacturer to go and see a particular brand in some retail shop isn't going to help. Before you make and enquiry, ask yourself what fabric you would require.
a)Fabric composition
Start with fabric composition first. There are only about three-four kinds which are commonly used. We will explain in detail which fabric composition is suitable for which occasion in another article.
-100% Cotton
-Polyester-Cotton Mix
-100% Polyester
-Fancy material - Wool/Bamboo/Silk/etc
b)Fabric Pattern
Some t-shirts are smooth, some with hexagon holes, some with ribs like lines.
-Single Jersey/Knit
-Pique
-Rib
-Fancy
-fabric pattern / Jacquard
c)Fabric Weight
-Gsm
-Oz
It is hard to explain how thick you want the fabric to see. 'Not see through' is a very subjective statement and is unlikely to get you anywhere. Best is to state the weight - that is if you know what weight. The weight is normally quoted in oz. or gsm. In our opinion 155gsm fabric single jersey is very thin and has translucent properties. 180gsm is decent. 210gsm is thick. But this is only our opinion. Your opinion is bound to defer from ours.
d)Fabric Colour
State the colour you require. White is cheaper than Black, simply because the dyes for white is cheaper. So communicating the correct colour is important to get accurate quotations. Usually pantone colours is widely accepted.
e)Qty to Shirts Required
Naturally the more quantity you can order, the cheaper. Depending on manufacturers capacity, super large quantities like 1 million shirts are not always good news. Simply because of high incident of fraud, and/or the manufacturer has no capacity to produce.
Letting your manufacturer know what fabric you require is only the first step. There are more information you have to give and it will be discussed in other articles. If you really don't know the specification you require, it is best to send over a sample.
3)How to Communicate & Place Your Custom Made T-Shirts Order: Part 3 - T-Shirt Types
The first process is usually selection of fabrics. But you can also select your T-shirt type first. Certain fabrics are good for certain types of t-shirt while others are not. For example if you are looking for a round necks, smooth material like single jerseys are normally the better choice than pique material. Start with the basic types, which could either be a collared or a non-collared t-shirt.
a)Polo T-Shirt (Collared)
b)Polo T-Shirt (Zip)
c)Round Neck (Non-Collared)
d)V Neck (Non-collared)
So much for the basics, and now for the patterns. You can have a basic design which is just a single colour design or a "cut & sew" design.
A "cut & sew" design is just different patterns are cut, and sew together to form a shirt. The "cut & sew" designs are really up to your creativity, and the skill of the manufacturer to produce. Those that have high experience and skills can produce the most outrages designs.
Do note, the harder or longer to sew the more expensive it is. Fortunately, we have more than 20 cut & sew templates to help you with your design. Use the templates to do on the spot mock ups on pattern and colour combination to suit your taste.
e)Cut & Sew patterns
Once you have made a decision on what you want, the best way to communicate with the manufacturer is to send him a picture or at least a sketch. A picture in this case, is really worth more than a thousand words.
f) T-Shirt accessories
Next, go into the details. Here's a list of T-Shirt parts you can configure
-Collar
-Cuff
-Placket
-Pocket
-Button
-Zip
-stitch type
-piping colour
-open edges
So decide and communicate in detail, what accessory you need. Once you have decided what fabric, t-shirt types and accessories, you basically have a firm idea on what shirt you really want. The next section will be on how to communicate your imprints to the manufacturer.
4)How to Communicate & Place Your Custom Made T-Shirts Order: Part 4 - Imprints
No shirt is complete without imprints! I'm sure you would want some designs or some logos printed on that otherwise plain looking shirt. But in order to get it right, you have to let the manufacturer know exactly what you want. Basically below are common kinds of imprints.
-Silkscreen
-Embroidery
-Heat Transfer
First, let the manufacturer know which technique you want. You can choose a combination of techniques.
a)Silkscreen
i)Determine what silkscreen ink/technique you want. Some options include:
-Water based
-Rubberized
-Plastisol
-Embossed
-Metallic
ii)Number of spots and position. Manufacturer needs to know whether it is a feasible spot to print. Certain prints like "All Over" prints, need special technique, like printing on uncut cloth first.
iii)Size of image. How big is the image? The bigger the image, the harder and costlier to print
iv)Number of colours, How many colours. Usually the more colours, the more expensive
v)If you have a visual, or better still, the Adobe Illustrator file, attached it with your queries.
vi)If you want your imprints to come out sharp and precise, always have your artwork in vector form. The most popular format is Adobe Illustrator format.
b)Heat Transfer
i)While not generally recommended by us and not popular in Malaysia, it is still a good way to get photo realistic imprints. Certain Heat Transfer techniques are prone to crack and peel. So be warned. Similar steps as silkscreen process.
ii)Number of spots and position. Manufacturer needs to know whether it is a feasible spot to print. Heat transfer is normally done on a ready made T-shirt. so imprints that start from the edge is difficult.
iii)Size of image. How big is the image? The bigger the image, the more expensive it is to print. Heat Transfer paper is expensive. Anything bigger is than A4 size gets even more costlier.
iv)Quality of image file is important. Make sure you have the highest resolution you can get.
c)Embroidery
i)Determine what embroidery technique/method you want. Most embroidery are just normal embroidery. But you can opt for
-metallic threads
-3D
-Badges
-Appliqué
ii)Number of spots and position. Manufacturer needs to know whether it is a feasible spot to embroidery. Be aware that there is a size limitation. Anything larger than 11 inches is a challenge to embroidery. That is because the hoop size of the embroidery machine is restricted.
iii)Size of image. How big is the image? Is it full stitch (every part of the fabric has stitches)? Embroidery cost is usually determined by the number of stitches. Usually by every 1000 stitch. Eg, $1 for 1000 stitches.
iv)Try to limit your colours to maximum 9. Most embroidery machines can accommodate 9 colour threads at one time. Anything more will require the embroidery machine operator to change colour threads. That that could incur addition costs.
v)If you have a visual, or at least a low resolution picture, it will do. The design has to be traced by hand before it is ready to go.
5)How to Communicate & Place Your Custom Made T-Shirts Order: Part 5 – Summary Of Your Enquiries
In summary, your enquiry should be look like this,
Composition:100% Cotton Fully Combed
Pattern:Single Jersey
Weight: 180gsm
Colour:White colour
Quantity:500 pcs
T-Shirt Type:Collar T-Shirt with Pocket(accessories)
Imprints: Embroidery (Front) 3” x 3” on left chest / Embroidery (Back) 1”x 8” at the back
It is good practice if customer can attach their picture or at least a sketch as well as their artwork to be imprinted on the t-shirt. A picture is worth more than a thousand words.
