Embroidery

Musto Corporate operates our own in-house embroidery machines here at Laindon. With an embroidery service close at hand, we can offer exceptional delivery times and ensure high quality.

Embroidery is durable, capable of fine detail and embroidery thread is available in a huge array of colours to match virtually any art work.

From art work in virtually any digital graphic format, a stitch plot is created which drives the embroidery machines. Then the fabric is clamped in place and the multiple needles go to work.

The clamping frames and any seams of pockets in the garments can impede the application of embroidery to some items.

Watertight Integrity

Watertight integrity of Technical garments is always maintained after embroidery by applying a patch of material over the stitching inside the garment and appropriately taping the edges.

To prevent leakage we take a piece of heat seal fabric - the same as used to tape the seams - and heat press this on the inside of the garment, over the embroidery, and then tape the edges to prevent lifting.

We don’t guarantee Technical - waterproof- clothing which is embroidered outside Musto as we cannot ensure that the patching and taping is carried out to our standards.

Hidden Zips

To make customisation simpler, many of Musto Corporate’s garments have hidden zips in the linings so that the embroiderers can easily and efficiently do their job.

If there is no zip, we unpick the lining and then when the work is done, our expert machinists close up the seam and you’d never know what had happened.

Badging

Badging is available in many forms, from an embroidered cloth badge to a specially crafted flexible plastic, “rubber”, badge that can reproduce very fine detail and that can be made in many colours.

On some Technical garments, where seams might be in the way of normal embroidery or printing, the best way to proceed is to have the logo applied to a piece of the outer shell material and then have this sewn on to the garment by our team of machinists.

Other embroidery badges incorporate the logo on a contrasting embroidered square or rectangle which itself can be stitched to a garment or just embroidered straight on the shell fabric. This allows the use of a logo that might otherwise be too close to the colour of a garment to stand out.

Newest form of badging is the rubber badge, cast in flexible plastic.

These rubber badges are made to supplied art work and are usually in relief. The background can either be virtually transparent or a solid colour and the detail can be applied to this surface in a number of colours. Intricate detail can be included in a rubber badge that cannot be reproduced in any other medium. Rubber badges can be made in any shape, from a rectangle to a circle, and don’t have to be flat, they can be domed or built up in many ways.

Thermal Printing

Modern thermal print techniques offer plain colours, reflectives, halftoning – scores of different styles and every colour under the sun.

The prints are digitally produced and transferred to a substrate which is then applied to the fabric of the garment by pressure and heat.

One of the most versatile methods of customisation, Thermal Printing has one disadvantage, of making the print area less flexible than the surrounding fabric.

Sublimation Printing

Sublimation printing is a fabric print process that can only be applied to 100% polyester garments, but allows subtle tones of colours.

Sublimation dyes bond with the fabric below the surface, at the level of the filaments of the yarn, rather than sitting on top. That means that sublimation is extremely durable, though it can suffer from fading after long exposure to ultra violet light - sunlight.

Sublimation allows for very fine and subtle tones, equivalent to the colours in photography, though its finer tones can only be effectively applied to light coloured fabrics.

Screen Printing

Screen printing offers a good way to apply large lettering or areas of colour.

Colours are applied one at a time, the fabric ink being squeegeed through nylon mesh, which forms a stencil, onto the garment. Once one colour has been applied, a new screen for the next colour is carefully aligned over the garment and that colour is applied.

There is a set-up cost for each screen and the screens have a limited life and have to be replaced for each job. Screen printing inks tend to be thicker and less flexible than some other options and might crack with extended use.