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cotton

Expect Garment Prices to Rise

Expect shirt prices to rise, as raw cotton prices are going up and shipping  (NY Times article here.) is off the charts. Expect it all to go up more than warranted by cotton or shipping prices as two other forces kick in: 1. Don’t expect companies not to take advantage of a commonly understood issue…

Going 100% Organic with Organic Embroidery Thread

We recently produced a 100% organic cotton cap.  Not only was the fabric made of organic cotton, but the embroidery thread was also certified organic!  A few thoughts… Like many “green” alternatives, you can’t just substitute organic thread for conventional embroidery thread made from rayon or conventional cotton and embroider away. On the other hand,…

Dye Migration, the Screenprinter’s Nemesis. Part 6. Poly White as a Partial Solution

Another tool in fighting dye migration is “Poly white.” We use Rutland’s “Super Poly White” but other companies have similar formulations. In some ways the game has been upped. Once you could sometimes use cotton white on 50/50’s and a white for 50/50’s would always work. Now sometimes we can’t even count on the dye…

Dye Migration, the Screenprinter’s Nemesis. Part 1

Dye migration is one of the biggest issues in screenprinting these days. I get more calls to help with this problem than with any other. It can be really insidious, as you can sometimes print and it doesn’t show up for weeks. I”ll cover a few topics this week, starting with testing the fabric. We…

Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha. Roughly translated from the Japanese, it means “chit-chat.” It is a cool idea, sort of like speed dating for ideas and thinking. You show 20 slides and talk more than for 20 seconds for each. Pecha Kucha nights happen in about 700 cities around the world. More ideas, what a good idea. The featured…

Low Cost Luxury and “Price per Wear”

If you want to buy a luxury item, you have to pay heavily for it, right?  A Tesla or a high end Mercedes is going to cost you 100K and a basic VW or Ford will cost less than 20K new. 80K for luxury. If you want a little luxury in your garment life, you…

GQ, Louis CK and the T-Shirt Dilemma

When I think men’s fashion I don’t really think Louis CK. And yet here he is, the subject of a GQ article about men’s fashion trends. Louis CK wore his t-shirt tucked in during his recent appearance hosting Saturday Night Live. And although GQ is calling for the return of the tucked-in tee this season, a…

Celebrating 40 Years of Comfort

Call me old fashioned, but I still love the soft well-made Beefy T’s. They are the only real ring spun cotton 6.1 ounce t-shirt. This year and in particular at the AC ISS Hanes is celebrating 40 years since the Beefy T was born with some cool old shirts on display, some funny baby bulls ads,…

Misprint Monday – Fighting Fibrillation

Fibrillation is defined as “the rapid, irregular, and unsynchronized contraction of the muscle fibers of the heart.” I’m talking about that type of fibrillation in this post, but many a screenprinter has felt like they are going to have a heart attack over the type of fibrillation that happens to t-shirts. Fibrillation in screenprinting is when…

Canvas Tote Bag Printing – Some Basics and Some Tricks

There are a wide variety of types of canvas bags out there in the world. They are all waiting to be decorated by the screenprinter. There are specifications of all the fabrics in terms of weight, weave, etc. In my many years of buying canvas totes and even working directly with companies that are manufacturing…

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