Mockup. A sample site built as a design concept, not affiliated with any real embroidery or sign shop. Crossbar Stitch & Sign is an invented name, and the phone number, address, hours, minimums, prices and turnaround times below are placeholders.
Crossbar Stitch & Sign Excelsior Springs, Missouri (816) 555-0174

Every place a logo can go, and how big it can be there

The question that costs the most time on the phone is not what it costs. It is whether the artwork will fit where you want it. So here is the whole answer up front, position by position, with the real size limits we work to.

Positions 1 to 8

Diagram of decoration positions A shirt front, a cap and a truck door with eight numbered markers. Every marker is written out in the list beside this diagram. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  1. Left chest

    Up to 4 inches wide. Embroidery or screen print. The default for polos, work shirts and anything anyone has to wear to meet a customer. Small text under about a quarter inch tall will not stitch legibly, so it gets dropped.

  2. Full front

    Up to 12 by 14 inches. Screen print or transfer. Embroidery this size is possible but heavy, stiff and expensive, and we will talk you out of it.

  3. Sleeve

    Up to 3 inches wide, 3.5 on a long sleeve. Where the sponsor or the year goes. Youth sizes lose about half an inch.

  4. Full back

    Up to 13 by 16 inches. Screen print. Names and numbers can be added over a printed back and are priced per garment, not per order.

  5. Cap front

    Up to 4.5 by 2.25 inches on a structured cap. Embroidery. An unstructured or trucker cap loses about half an inch of height because the fabric collapses. 3D puff needs a bold typeface and it needs to be decided before we digitize.

  6. Cap side and back

    Up to 2 by 1.25 inches. Embroidery. Not available on a cap with a seam running through the position, which is most five panel caps.

  7. Truck door

    Typically 18 to 24 inches wide. Cut vinyl or a printed panel. Measure the flat area between the body lines, not the whole door. Both doors and the tailgate is the usual order.

  8. Lower door, contact block

    Phone at 3 inches tall minimum. That is the height a number stays readable from two lanes over at 45 miles an hour, and it is the only part of a truck lettering job that actually has to work.

Which method, and why

Most shops let you pick and then quietly hope it works. These are the honest trade offs, including the ones that cost us the sale.

Decoration methods
MethodBest for MinimumWhat to know
Embroidery Polos, caps, jackets, bags, anything worn in front of a customer. 6 pieces Lasts as long as the garment. One-time digitizing charge per logo, and after that the file is yours and reorders are cheaper.
Screen print Tees and hoodies in quantity. Team, church, reunion, festival. 24 pieces The cheapest way to do a lot of shirts and the worst way to do six. Each ink colour is a separate screen, so a two colour design is far cheaper than a photograph.
Transfer (DTF) Small runs, full colour art, one-offs, adding a name to a printed shirt. 1 piece Full colour with no screen charges. Slightly heavier hand than screen print, and we will show you a sample before a big order.
Cut vinyl Truck doors, trailers, windows, yard signs, numbers. 1 piece Solid colours only, no gradients or photographs. Rated seven years outdoors, and it comes off cleanly when the truck is sold.
Printed panel and wrap Full colour vehicle graphics, banners, backdrops. Quoted Anything vinyl cannot do. Needs a walkaround with a tape measure before we quote, and the vehicle has to be clean and dry to install.
Signs Storefront panels, site signs, magnets, A-frames. 1 piece We fabricate and letter. We do not do electrical or permits, and we will tell you which city inspector to ring before you order.

How long it takes

Counted from the day artwork is approved and the garments are in the building, not from the day you call.

Embroidery
7 to 10 working days. Add 2 days the first time, for digitizing and a sew-out.
Screen print
10 to 14 working days. August and the two weeks before a tournament are the crunch.
Vinyl and signs
3 to 5 working days. A truck is usually in and out inside two hours.
Rush
Possible, priced at plus 35 percent, and only when we can honestly say yes.

Garment availability is the thing that actually breaks deadlines, not us. If you need eighty of one colour in one brand in September, ask in July.

Photograph to be shot

The six-head embroidery machine mid-run. Caps loaded on the frames, thread cones on the tree behind, shallow depth of field on the needle bar, shot down the length of the heads. Landscape, full bleed, at least 1600 pixels wide.

Six heads, six caps at a time. A hundred cap order is most of a day on this machine.

Send us the right file and this all gets easier

Nearly every delay on a first order is an artwork problem. It is fixable, it just costs a day and sometimes a fee, and knowing this before you email saves both.

What we can use straight away

  • Vector art: .ai, .eps, .pdf or .svg with the type converted to outlines.
  • A .png at 300 dpi at the size it will actually be printed, on a transparent ground.
  • An existing embroidery file: .dst, .emb or .pxf. Bring it and there is no digitizing charge.
  • Pantone numbers if the colours matter to you. Guessing from a screen is how colours end up wrong.

What needs work first

  • A logo pulled off a website. It is 72 dpi and it will look like a photocopy at any real size.
  • A photograph of a shirt you already own. We can redraw it, and redraw is $45 to $90.
  • A Word or Publisher document. The fonts are not embedded and they will substitute.
  • Anything you do not own. We will not decorate a logo that belongs to somebody else without written permission, and that includes school and pro team marks.

Who orders here

Contractors and trades

Eight shirts, four caps and two truck doors, then the same again every spring as people come and go. Reorders are the whole relationship.

Ball clubs and schools

Team sets with names and numbers, spirit wear, coaches' polos, banners for the fence. We keep your roster file from last year.

Churches and civic groups

Camp shirts, VBS, festival volunteers, fundraiser runs. Usually one big order a year on a fixed budget, which we will help you hit.

Restaurants and shops

Aprons, staff tees, window lettering and an A-frame for the sidewalk, done as one job so the whole place matches.

Families

Reunion shirts, a memorial run, a birthday, one embroidered robe. There is no order too small for the transfer press.

Other shops

Contract embroidery for print shops without heads, and contract printing for shops without a press. Trade pricing, no questions about your customer.

Starting an order

  1. Ring or come by with three things: how many, what garment, and where the logo goes.
  2. Email the artwork. We will tell you within a day whether it is usable as sent.
  3. You get a written quote with the garment brand named, not just "tee shirt".
  4. Approve a digital proof. On embroidery you also get a physical sew-out to look at before we run the order.
  5. Half down on orders over $500. Balance on pickup, and we hold nothing hostage.
Call the shop

The shop

228 S Thompson Ave, Excelsior Springs, MO 64024

  • Monday to Thursday8:00 – 5:00
  • Friday8:00 – 3:00
  • SaturdayBy appointment
  • Truck letteringBooked, not walk-in

Park in the gravel lot on the south side and come in the shop door. The front office is usually empty because everyone is on the floor.