How to make screen printed patches for hats and beanies | RIZNWILD

Time to scour the internet and find a legit web site that sold affordable blank patches in different sizes. We also wanted to make sure our embroider could sew them, so that was a factor too (like sticky back or not sticky back) We bucked up and made our first purchase in hopes that they would be legit and that we could screen print on them. We pretty much went into this blind. It’s always a gamble when you’re doing something for the first time like patches wondering if your vision is what’s about to arrive.

When we received our patches, we posted up on the RW Snapchat page and revealed of them to our fans, (make sure you follow us on SC). To our surprise, they looked not what we expected in all honest and they had a dab of glue which they used to pin down the extra threads (or tail) on the back of the patch. We knew the glue was going to create a little issue when we screen printing them because it’s not going to lay flat. Which won’t give us the cleanest print. But we’re not going down like that we have lots of DIY experience so thas not going to stop us one bit.

We were dedicated by now and began designing artwork to the exact size of the patches we received in the mail. Once that was done, we made the screens and set up a dedicated platen just for patches so in the future it will be faster and quicker to set up and print them. We also used a thin piece of cardboard that we attached to the platen to raise up the spots where the patches would be printed on so you get that even layer of ink when printing them. We also ordered patches that seemed to be a standard size so in the future no matter what happens we know we can get these sizes forever.

After we printed our first patches, we realized the glue on the back of the patches was melting when we ran them through the dryer which heats up to 360+ degrees. So, we had the genius idea of running them through using foil underneath which worked but was time consuming and ghetto. Overall the patches came out great and we were happy with them but there must be better patches somewhere for the next run.

RIZNWILD quickly ran out of patches so on our second batch we spent quite a few hours online searching for better quality yet still affordable patches. We came across another web site who offered different colors and a much larger selection. But this time we called them before ordering with a few questions we had on things we learned the first time. We told them about the glue on the back of my first patches and was wondering if their’s came like this as well? I was told those were probably made in China which makes sense and that the patches they sell are all made in the USA and are of high quality almost in an arrogant tone like her patches were the bomb is how the woman spoke over the phone to us lol. I kind of believed her but we would have to see… She also told me they are made to order so it might take a few days longer before they ship. I was totally fine with that who wouldn’t be!!

We immediately set up the screen and started screen printing the patches and instantly we could tell a difference in many ways but mostly the smoother screen print on these patches was amazing. We are super stoked on these better quality patches we found and have lots of plans to do all kinds of things not just hats and beanies. After all, the screen printing was done (we always print in batches) we then applied the patches with an adhesive spray just to get them to stick onto the beanies and drove them to our embroider right down the street from us who applies the final patch stitch to the beanies.