# pre cut letters



## gmille39 (Oct 18, 2006)

I'm looking for pre cut cloth letters to sew on shirts, shorts, sweats and hoodies. We've all seen the shirts and hoodies that incorporate some screen printing along with some sewn on letters that are loose around the edges. Anyone know who may sell these?


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## make_edit (Jan 25, 2008)

I get mine from Stahls, get the adhesive backed.It is a little more expensive, but it keeps them in place when they are being sewn. I used the no-adhesive backed at first and used a light tack to place them, but gets a little messy.


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## gmille39 (Oct 18, 2006)

make_edit said:


> I get mine from Stahls, get the adhesive backed.It is a little more expensive, but it keeps them in place when they are being sewn. I used the no-adhesive backed at first and used a light tack to place them, but gets a little messy.


I'm not looking for those types of letters. Basically, they look like you took some old shirts and cut letters out of them and then you sew them onto the item. Not applique' in that sense. I've seen some where it looked like some fabric was screen printed and then letters cut out of the fabric and sewn on other items.


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## make_edit (Jan 25, 2008)

my mistake, not familiar with that look.


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## gmille39 (Oct 18, 2006)

make_edit said:


> my mistake, not familiar with that look.


I may have to just make my own. It's a pretty common style you will see in Target, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Walmart. 

Might be a good way to recycle some old clothing.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

make_edit said:


> I get mine from Stahls, get the adhesive backed.It is a little more expensive, but it keeps them in place when they are being sewn. I used the no-adhesive backed at first and used a light tack to place them, but gets a little messy.


Do you get some sort of digitizing with those to sew them on by?


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## gmille39 (Oct 18, 2006)

tim3560 said:


> Do you get some sort of digitizing with those to sew them on by?


Through Stahls, you can get sew disks with letters.


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## st258 (Mar 14, 2008)

Before I bought a die cutter from a now-out-of-business company, My employees and I bought the thermo adhesive from stahls or Sunbelt Lettering, found the letters we wanted in magazines, blew them up on a copier, made cardboard cutouts, put the adhesive on the back of store bought fabrics with the heat press, and cut our letters out. I never could afford one of those computer cutters, or even the sign-cutters so prevalent now. Accucut has die cutters and I have lots of steel rule dies.
Smitty


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Wow Smitty, that seems like it would be very time consuming.


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## gmille39 (Oct 18, 2006)

st258 said:


> Before I bought a die cutter from a now-out-of-business company, My employees and I bought the thermo adhesive from stahls or Sunbelt Lettering, found the letters we wanted in magazines, blew them up on a copier, made cardboard cutouts, put the adhesive on the back of store bought fabrics with the heat press, and cut our letters out. I never could afford one of those computer cutters, or even the sign-cutters so prevalent now. Accucut has die cutters and I have lots of steel rule dies.
> Smitty


That does sound time consuming but at the moment, I'm not planning on producing these things in mass quantities...yet. I'm actually looking for the imperfect look, not something cut by a die cutter and sewn with an embroidery machine. Attached is the look I'm going for, incorporating both screen printing and applique' lettering. 

What I was planning on doing is doing my layout in Correl and reversing the layout then printing it. Taking heat n bond adhesive sheet and pressing it onto the back of the fabric. Using the revers layout as a template, cut out each letter. Kind of saying this in my head I already see some flaws in my thinking. I should actually use the layout to make thicker templates and then lay them on the back of the fabric and draw around the letters. This way I can use those templates over and over, and hopefully over and over some more. Anyway, you can't walk into an American Eagle, Abercrombie, or even Target, Kohls, or Walmart store and not see this style of hoodie, sweats, or tees on the racks. I think the one of a kind look would appeal to the younger crowd. I also plan on recycling a lot of some of our old shirts and sweatshirts by cutting them up and using the fabric. Going green in another way.


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## muneca (Sep 30, 2008)

Hey there...

let me know if what you come up w/on this. I'm looking for the same kind of thing. I saw some Aeropostle shirts where the letters had beading around the outer boarder of the letters. I can't seem to find any company w/the right kind of vintage/washed out lettering.

Thanks & good luck to you!


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## lizziemaxine (Nov 14, 2007)

I think those are done with a laser cutter. You stitch down a piece of fabric then the laser cuts out the parts you don't want. At the ISS Ft. Forth show there was a company there with a laser cutter that is an add-on to your embroidery machine that did just that. Pretty slick stuff.


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## muneca (Sep 30, 2008)

hey, 

thanks jane for the info. i will search around for that. i thought perhaps there was a place that you could purchase the letters/numbers in bulk w/out buying any equipment. thanks for your help on this one!


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## gardenrose (Apr 6, 2007)

There is also a method that you can do this with using some applique letters and a fabric of your choice. Try this link Starbird Stock Designs Catalog.


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## muneca (Sep 30, 2008)

thanks, i'll check this site out. i've been looking for these same style letters for the longest. stahl's & nobody else carries 'em. i know exactly what he's talking about. i just figured that gap, american eagle, etc. made their own.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Here is the easy way to get that affect. 

Get some fabric and cut out the letters like you want them. 
Place them on a scanner and Scan them into a graphics program like Corel or AI. 
Draw a line where you want your sewing to be in the image. 
Import that into your digitizing program. 
Set your stitch type for running and do a placement line. 
Place a stop. 
Set your stitch type to running again (or whatever you want) fro the top stitch
Put the thing on your machine and sew the placement line. 
Place your cutout.
Sew the top stitch. 

We do this with patches all the time. Use a little 505 tack to hold them in place and you are in business.


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