Ann Arbor T-shirt Company® Blog

  • What is Embroidery?

    By: Rachel T, rachel.t@annarbortees.com

    over 6 years

    What’s the Stitch?

    Plain Boring Tee

    Branded Apparel



    Embroidery is the process of decorating fabric or other materials with a needle and thread. Both human hands and machines can do this. While embroidering by hand may add a personal touch, our need for speed drives us to use embroidery machines. Our machines can embroider between 700-950 stitches per minute. The machines also have 15 needle heads that allow for 15 different customized colors of thread. This means we can offer embroidery with a ton of colors and provide it in one week.

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    Tags: #custom embroidery, #embroidered shirts, #custom jerseys, #how to order a shirt, #custom design, #custom apparel, #corporate apparel
  • What is Applique?

    By: Rachel T, rachel.t@annarbortees.com

    over 6 years

    Every Kiss Begins with Applique!

    Applique can make any garment stand out among the hordes of plain boring garments.



    If that picture wasn’t convincing enough, read on to discover why applique may be the right choice for you.


    Applique? Sounds fancy...

    The word "appliqué" derives from the French verb "appliquer," meaning "to put on." Applique is a sewing technique that involves stitching a small piece of fabric onto a larger one to make a pattern or design. We start by stitching the piece of applique to the shirt in the shape of your design. Then, a laser cuts where the design was stitched so we can remove the excess material around the outline.

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    Tags: #custom jerseys, #how to order a shirt, #greek letters, #custom apparel, #applique
  • What is Digitization?

    By: Rachel T, rachel.t@annarbortees.com

    over 6 years

    Digitize Me, Cap’n!

    Embroidery digitization is the process of converting existing artwork, like a company logo or team emblem, into a stitch file that an embroidery machine can sew onto a garment. Before we can embroider any design, we must digitize it first. Digitizing is a complex process that is both art and science. The digitizer must plot out how the continuous threads of different colors will shape the design. After we digitize the art, we send it over to the embroidery machine.



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    Tags: #embroidery, #how to order a shirt, #custom design, #custom apparel, #digitization
  • What is Screen Printing?

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    over 7 years

    We have many ways of taking bland, boring garments and turning them into something amazing. One of our most popular requests is for garments to be screenprinted, which is a complex process that has been around for over a century.

    We use automatic screen presses. These are big carousels that revolve the garments printing a different color or part of the design at each station. This is a big step up from a manual press, where the operator has to swing different arms of the press into place to print each color. Manual presses limit the speed and amount of colors you could apply to a single garment. Our newest press is capable of printing 864 shirts an hour with up to 12 different colors!

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    Tags: #how to order a shirt, #screen printing, #custom design
  • How to Order a Shirt: Part 7/99 - Online Group Ordering - The easy way to order shirts for your group

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    over 7 years

    Remember what a hassle it was when you ordered shirts for your office staff/baseball team/fraternity/insert your organization here? First you had to get everyone’s sizes and choice of shirt style, which took forever, especially when that one guy couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted a long sleeve or short sleeve tee. Then the worst part - collecting the money! Several members of your organization conveniently “forgot” to bring you their money by the deadline, so you had to push back the order until they finally “remembered”. And finally, the shirts arrived, but you spent another hour of your precious time handing them out. Who knew ordering t-shirts could be so exhausting?

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    Tags: #how to order a shirt, #group ordering, #custom apparel
  • How to Order a Shirt: Part 6/99 - Online Design Studio, the Fastest Way to Get Custom Apparel

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    almost 8 years

    Today, we get away from our usual topics that talk about how you are going to decorate your shirt (The Decoration Decision), how the shirt is going to fit you (Fit To Be Worn), and what you are going to wear (What’s in a T-shirt?). We will tackle something more essential to a t-shirt order than anything else. This is the very “fabric” of the t-shirt order - You, your group, and how you place your order.

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    Tags: #how to order a shirt, #custom apparel
  • How to Order a Shirt: Part 5/99 - Shirts With Super Powers Part 1 (Give Me Cotton or Give Me Death!)

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    almost 8 years

    I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me cotton, or give me death!

    In Part Three of this series, What’s in a t-shirt?, I alluded to my irrational fear of wearing polyester. Today, I will give you some options that will calm even the most aerophobic and pyrophobic readers.

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    Tags: #how to order a shirt
  • How to Order a Shirt: Part 4/99 - When a T-shirt Isn't Enough

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    almost 8 years

    When ordering apparel, t-shirts are typically the first thing that comes to mind. T-shirts are great and all, but they don’t need to be the only thing you think of. After all, there is whole wide world of apparel. From shoes to hats, we’ve got you covered. Everyone’s tastes and needs are different. Use this blog to compare various types of garments and pick the right style for your group.

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    Tags: #how to order a shirt, #screen printing, #custom apparel
  • How to Order A Shirt: Part 3/99 - What's in a T-shirt?

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    about 8 years

    Last time we explored the fit of the shirt. We gave you a couple of pointers on how to pick the right shirt for your group. In this blog we are going to talk about the fabric of the shirt. The fabric will determine how the shirt feels, looks, and wears. Here are a few features that will affect how you experience your new apparel.

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    Tags: #t-shirt, #custom printing, #how to order a shirt
  • How to Order A Shirt: Part 2/99 - Fit To Be Worn

    By: Gavin, gavin@annarbortees.com

    about 8 years

    In our last blog about ordering t-shirts, we talked about the various types of decoration available and how to decide between them. We also alluded to the garment playing some part in the decoration decision. In this blog, we explore how different shirts fit and what you need to look for.

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    Tags: #fit, #custom printing, #how to order a shirt