It’s officially sweater weather Rat Rats Pet Rat Lover i love my rats shirt . Which means you can start printing your logo on custom hoodies, sweatshirts, and other cold-weather apparel. As a screen printing company, we pride ourselves on helping businesses, non-profits, school organizations, and other groups develop their identities with custom apparel. Custom hoodies are popular in the fall and winter. Yet, there are certain challenges that go with screen printing on hoodies. That’s why we recommend you come to us for screen printing, rather than trying to do it on your own. Continue reading to learn how we get the best results for our customers.

Unlike crewneck sweatshirts, hoodies tend to have more features (like zippers and pockets) that can make screen printing a challenge Rat Rats Pet Rat Lover i love my rats shirt . Seams can also disrupt the pattern you’re trying to print on a custom hoodie. This is why it’s important you think carefully about the size of your design and where it’s placed. Otherwise, your screen printed hoodies won’t turn out the way you intended. To help you understand why seams are problematic, we’ll take you step by step through the screen printing process. First, we have to build mesh stencils called screens in the reverse image of your design. Next, we lay one screen at a time over the hoodie and squeegee the ink into the fabric. Once we’ve applied all the elements of your design, we’ll remove the final screen to reveal your screen printed hoodie. Getting a clear print of your design requires that the clothing is as flat as possible. Since seams form ridges, they won’t receive ink like the rest of your custom hoodie. As a result, you may have uneven edges and gaps in your design. This is why we recommend you avoid printing over seams at all costs. Printing registration is the process of printing one color over another. Yet, printing over seams can make your registration off by several millimeters. While this may not seem like a big deal, you may notice white peeking out from under your design. We often print a white underbase on dark-colored items so your ink colors are as vibrant as possible. Keep in mind that we won’t be able to print an underbase for double-lined hoodies as they’ll move around too much on the press.

If you want custom printed hoodies AND t-shirts, you’ll need to submit two separate orders for screen printing. This is because we have to use different equipment and settings on the printing press for these articles of clothing. Also, keep in mind that the design you’ve printed on t-shirts may not be possible on hoodies due to zippers and pockets. For hoodies, we recommend using a smaller design or putting it on the back where you have an uninterrupted flat surface.