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Embroidery on Polo Shirts

Embroidery on Polo Shirts

Daniel Horgan |

One of the most often asked questions by customers is problems with embroidery on polo shirts, especially the sports type fabrics that are made from very thin polyester fabrics. These will often pucker and hole during embroidery.

There is not one simple answer to this question, as often it is several issues that cause the puckering. Here are a few to consider.

  • Poor digitising. You get what you pay for and many companies offering this service have never seen a embroidery machine, let alone have the experience in embroidery.
  • Over tension of your embroidery thread. Many people do not understand the importance of correct thread tensions. They leave this to the machine engineer who will maybe call once a year and set the tension to tight for this type of fabric. Over tension will just stretch your thread and cause it to pucker when it relaxes back to its normal position.
  • Using the wrong type of backing. Many people still use a 40g very easy tear away backing and never look at the back to see that it is already perforated and coming off before they have completed the embroidery.

Unfortunately, embroiderers do not want to resolve any of the above issues and just want a quick fix. So, the solution we have is to use one of the following embroidery backings that will compensate for the above issues.

  • Use our special Super Spun Backing. This is a very lightweight translucent backing that is extremely strong. It is a cut away backing and will not move of perforate during embroidery. Once you cut around the design the backing is comfortable to wear.
  • The other option is our Soft & Strong Backing. This will let your stitches sit into the soft backing without going through it. It is available in 40g, 50g and 80g weights. After embroidery just cut around your design and the remainder will be comfortable to wear.

If you have any questions or need samples, then please contact us at 

sales@etcsupplies.co.uk