Cap and left-chest placement, and when to mirror a design

Placement is the difference between a shirt that looks made and one that looks decorated. The numbers are not secret, but they are rarely written down in millimetres, and caps have rules of their own that come from how the frame holds the fabric. This guide is the placement sheet a shop keeps by the machine, with the mirroring cases at the end.

Left chest

Size. 75 to 100 mm wide, 60 to 90 mm tall for a logo. Text alone: 8 to 12 mm cap height, one or two lines, under 100 mm wide. A design that arrives at 120 mm wide is a jacket-back size scaled down in someone's head; scale it with density correction (resize) or ask the digitiser for a left-chest version.

Position. Centre the design horizontally between the placket edge and the side seam: on an adult medium that is 100 to 120 mm from the centre of the placket. Vertically, the top of the design sits 15 to 20 cm below the shoulder seam on a shirt, or level with the bottom of the placket on a polo (a little above for a short placket). For women's cuts, 2 to 3 cm higher. For youth sizes, scale the distances by the shirt.

Marking. A placement template (a printed outline of the hoop at 1:1) and a fabric marker are faster than measuring each shirt. Fold the shirt to find the placket centre, mark the design's centre point, hoop with the mark in the hoop centre. The hoop fit checker shows the design's size against the hoop's field so you know how much room the mark has.

Which hoop. A 100 × 100 mm hoop for logos up to 94 mm; anything larger needs the 130 × 180 mm hoop, hooped so that the placket does not fall in the field.

Cap front

The frame. A cap frame holds the front panel in a curved clamp, tight at the band and looser toward the crown. The sewing field is about 60 mm tall and 110 to 130 mm wide, less on a low-profile cap (50 mm tall) and less again on a six-panel unstructured cap where the centre seam runs through the field.

Size. 55 to 65 mm tall, 100 to 110 mm wide on a structured cap. Keep 10 mm from the band seam at the bottom. Unstructured caps: 50 mm tall, and avoid a design with a fill that crosses the centre seam, which shows as a ridge.

Order. Cap designs sew bottom-to-top and centre-outward. A design digitised for a flat hoop usually sews top-down or left-to-right, and on a cap that pushes the slack fabric into a pucker at the top. Ask the digitiser for the cap version, or check in the viewer's sew-out simulator: watch which part sews first. Re-ordering colour blocks is possible in editing software; re-ordering within a block is re-digitising.

Stabiliser. Structured caps have buckram in the front and need only a tearaway; unstructured caps need a firm cutaway. Both want a slower speed than a flat hoop, 600 to 700 spm.

Cap sides and back. Sides take 40 mm tall by 60 mm wide, set 20 mm from the front seam. Backs above the closure take 40 × 90 mm on a structured cap. Both are sewn in the cap frame rotated, so the design file is the same; the machine's rotation setting handles it.

Other placements

| Placement | Size | Position | |---|---|---| | Full back (jacket, hoodie) | 250–300 mm wide | Centred, top of design 15–20 cm below the collar seam | | Sleeve | 50–65 mm wide | Centred on the outer sleeve, 50 mm above the cuff or 60 mm below the shoulder seam | | Breast pocket (over pocket) | 60–75 mm wide | Centred on the pocket, top edge 20 mm below the pocket's top | | Polo collar back (yoke) | 60–90 mm wide | Centred, 25 mm below the collar seam | | Towel (bath) | 100–150 mm wide | Centred, 100 mm above the hem, above the border band | | Bag front | 100–150 mm wide | Centred on the flat panel, clear of the zip by 25 mm |

When to mirror

A design is mirrored (flipped left-right) before stitching in these cases and only these:

1. Sewing from the back. Free-standing lace and some patch methods stitch on the reverse of the water-soluble or the twill, so the front shows a mirror image. Mirror the file.
2. A design digitised mirrored by mistake. Text reads backwards in the viewer. Mirror it; the stitch order is unchanged.
3. A pair. A left-sleeve and right-sleeve design that should face each other; a pair of collar points. Mirror the second copy.
4. Transfer-style methods where the design is applied face down.

Mirroring does not fix a design that was digitised for the wrong side of the placket; that is a placement change, not a flip.

The converter has mirror and rotate options that change the stitch coordinates and write a new file in any format; the stitch order, trims and colour changes stay as they were. Check in the viewer that text reads correctly after mirroring, and re-check the hoop fit if you also rotated: a design that fitted a 130 × 180 mm hoop upright may not fit it sideways.

The sheet

Write the placement on the run sheet in millimetres from a seam, not as "left chest": "top of design 170 mm below the shoulder seam, centred 110 mm from placket centre, hoop 100 × 100". That is what makes the second operator's shirts match the first's. Colour and run sheets has the rest of the sheet.