Printing on Sleeves, Hoods, Pockets and Zippers

Every extra location is its own print

A front-and-back shirt has two print locations; add a sleeve hit and a neck print and it has four. Each location usually means its own screens, its own pass through the press with the garment loaded again, and often a different platen. That is why small extra prints add more to a job than their size suggests, and why the details matter: small areas come with tight limits.

The print placement and size guide covers the main body placements these spots add to.

Sleeves

Sleeve prints run on a narrow board that the sleeve slides over, so the ink lands on a single layer of fabric. On manual presses this is a sleeve platen; on automatic presses, makers sell single-sleeve pallets for the same job. Left and right sleeves are separate locations, each with its own load.

Short sleeves take a small hit: a logo, a word, a flag, typically centered on the outer sleeve and a little above the hem. The hem stitching is a ridge the screen bridges badly, so keep the art a short distance above it. Across a size range, the sleeve on a Small can be several inches narrower than on a 3XL, so a sleeve print sized for the big garment can wrap around the arm on the small one.

Long sleeves can carry a vertical strip of text or graphics down the outside of the arm, from near the shoulder toward the cuff. Width is set by the platen and by the flat width of the sleeve at the forearm, its narrowest point. Settle the reading direction before you design: text can read from shoulder to cuff or from cuff to shoulder, and the printer needs to know which. The ribbed cuff stretches and will not hold a clean print, so stop the art above it.

Raglan sleeves, with a seam running diagonally from the underarm to the collar, give a different shape to work with than set-in sleeves, and a print near the shoulder may run into that seam. Prints that deliberately cross from the body onto the sleeve are over-the-seam work, covered in all-over print vs over-the-seam printing.

Hoods

A hood print usually goes on a side panel, roughly where the ear would be, or on the back of the hood. Lined hoods are two layers of fabric that slide against each other, so printers clamp them flat with a frame hold-down or use a platen built for hoods; without one, the layers shift and smear the print. The top of most hoods has a center seam running front to back, and a print across it is over-the-seam work with the usual skips.

Think about how the hood is worn. Most of the time it hangs down, folded against the shoulders and upper back, and a side print ends up sideways or partly hidden. Look at the real blank with the hood down before you fix the size and rotation of the art, and keep clear of the front edge, where the drawcord channel and eyelets sit.

The hood also changes the back print. Because it drapes over the top of the back, hoodie back prints usually start lower than on a tee, often around 5 inches below the collar seam, and a yoke print that works on a tee can disappear on a hoodie. Hood construction varies too (single or double layer, flat drawcords, cordless hoods), and how to choose a blank hoodie explains what to look for.

Kangaroo pockets

On a pullover hoodie, the front print area is the space between the collar seam and the top of the pocket, minus a couple of inches of clearance from each. On a small size that is much less height than a tee front offers, so a design made for tees often has to shrink or change shape for hoodies. Measure that gap on the smallest size before the art is final.

Printing across the pocket is possible, with trade-offs. The pocket's top edge, its side seams and the opening are ridges and gaps, so the ink skips along them the same way it does over any seam, and when hands go in the pocket the design pulls apart. Some designs embrace this, with a graphic that carries on down onto the pocket; others simply stop above it. A small print placed entirely on the pocket face is a third option: it is a single layer once smoothed flat, but the pocket edges cap its size.

Zippers

A zipper is a hard ridge of teeth and tape that a screen cannot print over cleanly, and ink on the teeth or the pull can stop it working. Full-zip hoodies and jackets leave three choices:

1. Avoid it. A left-chest print on the front and a full print on the back is the standard zip-up layout because neither crosses the zipper.
2. Print the halves separately. The art is split at the zipper and each side is printed as its own location, so the design lines up when the garment is zipped. Registration across the gap varies from piece to piece, so a design with a clear break at the center forgives more.
3. Print across the closed zipper. Pallets with a trench for the zipper, or a cushioned surface, let the screen reach the fabric on both sides. On an exposed zipper the print stops short of the teeth, leaving a gap down the middle; a zipper hidden under a fabric placket allows a more continuous print, after testing.

Jacket hold-down pallets keep heavier zip-ups flat while printing, and zipper pulls are taped or tucked away because they can puncture mesh. For short runs where screens for every awkward spot would not pay off, heat-applied transfers such as DTF can reach some of them with a heat press and shaped pads; DTF vs DTG explains how those transfers compare.

Inside-neck prints and tagless labels

A printed label inside the back neck replaces the manufacturer's tag and is one of the simplest ways to make a blank read as your own product. The print is small, often one color, and is either screen printed or heat applied.

• Tag removal. Blanks with tear-away labels come off cleanly. Sewn-in tags have to be cut out, which can leave a scratchy stub unless they are unpicked.
• Show-through. On thin, light-colored tees, a dark neck print can be visible from the outside. A light ink or one close to the garment color avoids it.
• Required content. Under the Federal Trade Commission's textile labeling rules, garments sold in the US must disclose fiber content, country of origin and the identity of the business responsible (its name or its RN number). On a garment with a neck, the country of origin belongs on the inside center of the neck, or close to another label attached there. If you remove a label that carried required information, the replacement has to carry it, naming the business that made the change.
• Care instructions. The FTC's Care Labeling Rule also requires care instructions, and it allows them to be printed directly on the garment as long as they stay legible for the garment's useful life.

This is a summary, not legal advice; read the FTC's guidance before you design the label. Private label: neck labels, woven labels, hang tags and packaging compares printed and woven labels in more depth, and the retail finishing page covers relabeling as a service.

Before you design for these spots

1. Which blank, and which sizes? Measure sleeve width, hood panel and pocket gap on the smallest size in the run.
2. Does the printer have the platen or pallet for this location on the press the job will run on?
3. Is each location priced as its own setup and pass?
4. One art size for every garment size, or graded art for the larger sizes?
5. Which way should sleeve text read, and how does the hood print sit with the hood down?
6. Can you see a mockup of every location and approve a strike-off before the run?
7. For neck prints: is the original tag tear-away, and what label information has to appear?

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