[Northpoint]

Nameplates: What's the secret of sewing the letters on a name plate without sewing the letter into a jersey. I purchased a Ioline cutter and am doing sport apparel. What we've done was hoop the jersey, sew the plate down and then sew the letters with a zig zag stich. By doing this the letters get sewn into the jersey defeating the purpose of a name plate (which are thought to be removed). To avoid this we hooped a large piece of backing, sewed a placement stitch for the plate, set the plate then sewed the letters (of course this requires trimming the backing). Then hoop the jersey and sew the plate down. VERY TIME CONSUMING. Any ideas?

 

[tfalk]

Have you thought about using a sticky backing to hold the nameplate? The sticky I have is a tear away so you don't have to trim it, just tear it away from the nameplate. You could also use a 2 sided patch backing, then you could just heat press the name plate to the jersey.

 

[Northpoint]

No, there is no heat press involved. All zig zag stitching. Letter and plate. All twill. I cannot see hooping the nameplate first to sew the letters. If the plate is not hooped perfectly the name will not be straight. This is why I ran a placement stich to backing, laid the plate then sewed the letters. This way 1) the name is straight 2) the letters are not sewn to the jersey. After the letters are sewn then I sew the finished name plate to the jersey. I have a Ioline twill cutter that creates the sew-out digitized file for the platement, tack down and zig zag stitching. However, my process described above is extremely time consuming. Is there a better way?

 

[gailevans]

You said you are trimming the backing -- Are you using cutaway backing? It really doesn't require cutaway. Tearaway should work fine. Be sure to get a tearaway that has a clean tear edge though. Some leave fuzzy edges when torn away, and that will not work for your purposes.

 

[Northpoint]

Ok, I think I may not be clear in my request. I'm looking for the correct procedure to sew twill letters to a name plate then sewing the finished plate to a jersey other than what I described.

 

[tfalk]

I would treat it like 2 appliques...

First, hoop a piece of sticky. Run an outline rectangle/stitch to show you where to place the plate. Place the plate on the sticky, run an outline stitch to show you where to place the letters, sew the letters, then peel the plate from the sticky.

Then hoop the jersey, run an outline stitch again to show you where to place the plate, lay the plate on the jersey and do the final stitching. I might even consider a layer of double sided patch sticky between the jersey and plate to hold it in place prior to final stitching...

 

[Northpoint]

tfalk, thank you for your feedback. My twill has an adhesive back which keeps the twill in place. Basically what you are saying is that name plates are a two-set process and the process that I'm using is correct.