Heat Transfers or Embroidery

When purchasing custom clothing, there are several options. They both have advantages of their own that allow pictures and logos to be properly adhered to clothing, accessories, and other items made of fabric.

Embroidery-What? Embroidery is a very popular method for embellishing clothing and other items. Using embroidery machinery, a special type of thread is woven through fabric in many, many stitches to create a desired pattern. Embroidery designs can use several different colors, where the machine stitches the pattern in layers. Most fabrics are able to be embroidered including cotton, denim, twill, suede, leather, and synthetic fabrics including fleece, nylon, and micro-fiber. Embroidery is priced by the number of stitches per design.

Heat Transfers-What? Heat transfers are another popular method for customizing apparel and fabrics. Heat transfers use specialized inks and heat press machinery to bond ink to fabric. The heat press uses high heat and pressure to literally transfer ink from a paper pattern to desired fabric. The process works best on 100% cotton fabrics. Heat transfers are priced by the size of the design and the number of colors.

Pros and Cons. Both embroidery and heat transfers have their pros and cons depending on the needs of the buyer. Embroidery designs can use many colors; however, the logo must be digitized, an expensive process to put a design into embroidery format. A colorful heat transfer can be more expensive; however, a very large single or two-tone design can be transferred inexpensively.



Angela Oliver is an author for EmbroideryAuthority.com, specializing in custom embroidered logos. Please visit the site for more information about heat transfers and embroidery.