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Has anybody here attempted cutting their own twill numbers?


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I'm curious about this. Lots of blank replica CCM and Koho jerseys can be obtained for very cheap, anywhere from 5-15 dollars. Obviously if you're paying that little for a jersey, in most cases you're not going to want to pay 60+ to get it customized.

Has anybody here ever attempted to buy wholesale twill, create patterns for letters/numbers, and cut/press/stitch their own? Of course it would not be completely accurate pro stitching, but it seems like a fun project for cheaply obtained replicas. If you end up "ruining" a jersey you paid 10 dollars for, it's not a huge loss, can likely be stripped off, and is all in good fun....

I'm looking around at wholesale twill. Could anybody point my in the right direction? Tips, tutorials?

Keep in mind, disregarding the time investment of doing it yourself, am I crazy for even entertaining this idea?

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I'm working on something right now where I cut everything by hand. What do you mean by pro stitching exactly? All the shops do is a zig-zag stitch which can be done by pretty much any sewing machine.

I can tell you getting bulk twill in Canada is a big time pain unless you have a business license.

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I'm working on something right now where I cut everything by hand. What do you mean by pro stitching exactly? All the shops do is a zig-zag stitch which can be done by pretty much any sewing machine.

I can tell you getting bulk twill in Canada is a big time pain unless you have a business license.

I guess I meant the zig zag pattern, I am a manly man who has never touched a sewing machine before......so I wasn't familiar with how easy it is.

Assuming you obtained the twill, were you just going to make large templates for the letters or numbers out of strong cardboard or MDF to trace on to the twill?

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I am a manly man who has never touched a sewing machine before......so I wasn't familiar with how easy it is.

My girlfriend's family thinks its funny that I can sew her ripped clothes, while I also welded her fathers tow hitch to his truck in the same day!
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I guess I meant the zig zag pattern, I am a manly man who has never touched a sewing machine before......so I wasn't familiar with how easy it is.

Assuming you obtained the twill, were you just going to make large templates for the letters or numbers out of strong cardboard or MDF to trace on to the twill?

You can learn how to do anything by watching youtube. Cue cards work good for letters and arm numbers, I used plain 8.5x11 paper for the back numbers.

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You can learn how to do anything by watching youtube.

He's right y'know. I learned the Cyrillic alphabet and basic Russian when I was hammered as a teen by watching YouTube lessons.

TMLFan, have you got a font for the pre-'97 Leafs font or did you just do it by eye/hand? Been searching for months to make up a few Potvin sets.

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He's right y'know. I learned the Cyrillic alphabet and basic Russian when I was hammered as a teen by watching YouTube lessons.

TMLFan, have you got a font for the pre-'97 Leafs font or did you just do it by eye/hand? Been searching for months to make up a few Potvin sets.

No, I don't have the pre-97 font but the post '99 regular and alternate font are available online if you google them. What I'm working on now I did the numbers by hand looking at a pic of gamer.

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Yeah, got both of them. :thumbsup:

Would you be able to tell me what height the letters were pre-'97? They look too short to be 3'' - 2 1/2'' or 2 3/4'', perhaps?

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No, I don't have the pre-97 font but the post '99 regular and alternate font are available online if you google them. What I'm working on now I did the numbers by hand looking at a pic of gamer.

Since we're both in Ontario, may I ask where you're getting your supplies?

Did you find an alright place for wholesale online, or do you just go somewhere like fabric land and buy it as you need it?

Thanks.

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I can't vouch for their NHL letters and numbers, but I've bought non-specific letters and numbers from Eastern Lettering before. Good prices, despite them charging me three times what the shipping actually was (the envelope said $5 S&H and I was charged $15, but I'm in the UK).

On the bottom section on the left there's also 1' x 2' cuts of twill for $12.99 each.

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I can't vouch for their NHL letters and numbers, but I've bought non-specific letters and numbers from Eastern Lettering before. Good prices, despite them charging me three times what the shipping actually was (the envelope said $5 S&H and I was charged $15, but I'm in the UK).

On the bottom section on the left there's also 1' x 2' cuts of twill for $12.99 each.

Somebody mentioned this site www.stahls.ca/ in the thread about spotting fakes.

I think my project for the summer is going to be making custom crests for some Ottawa Senators Peace Tower jerseys.

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I figure, grab some blank CCM jerseys in those patterns if I can find them, force my grandmother to teach me to sew, and I could probably make some decent custom jerseys in that design.

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If you plan to purchase twill from stahls just be aware that you have to have a business license to do so. I've been able to purchase 12x12 sheets of twill from gameday though but I've never asked him for anything bigger then that.

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If you plan to purchase twill from stahls just be aware that you have to have a business license to do so. I've been able to purchase 12x12 sheets of twill from gameday though but I've never asked him for anything bigger then that.

Do you have a link to Gameday's website, I can't seem to find it via google, and I'm not familiar with them.

Thanks.

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Gameday kinda creeps me out. I know they're good, but their website looks like it was designed by a 5 year old in 2001.

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Gameday kinda creeps me out. I know they're good, but their website looks like it was designed by a 5 year old in 2001.

Maybe he/she is trying to fly under the radar or something. (I'm not sure if player names/numbers would be considered theft of intellectual property.) But the fact that their website doesn't have all their items listed, along with a shopping cart, probably loses them thousands worth of business a year.

Only people who REALLY want something, are going to bother e-mailing, waiting for a reply, and following up on the reply days later.

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I don't think any customizer would have a website with a shopping cart, unless they sell products other than customized lettering kits. Even if GameDay's website isn't the most modern and up-to-date looking, I like that samples of his work of almost every team are shown, and from different eras too. You can see right away what the customization will look like so you can avoid them if you think the font you're looking for is off, instead of finding out the hard way after you get your jersey back. How many customizers have that many samples of their own work on display on their website?

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  • 6 months later...

Have ordered twill from stahls.ca

I stongly suspect you don't need a business license - just a business name.

While I used my dad's old charitable company's business name (which I was listed as V.P. or something on) and my home address and home phone number for my Stahls.ca account, I doubt they checked to see if the business was registered or even if it had ever existed. If you come up with a somewhat plausible business name and use your own address and phone number that might work.

Before I ordered from Stahls, I once ordered from TwillUSA but the shipping costs to Canada were a fair bit higher. Before I got tackle twill (aka pro twill) from either one, I bought some from a local seamstress who does the sewn on customizations for all the local hockey shops.

Haven't done a lot of reproducing of number and names. Have done more of reproducing simple crests (canucks stick in the rink, minnesota nstars, etc.) and making other crests (Lakehead Invaders, Exeter Squirrels, and others: some can be found here - http://reignoferror00.blogspot.ca/)

Ones I did try to reproduce were a Bobby Clarke Flyers, Ken Daneyko Devils, and a Mike Liut Blues. Think I have the Devils and Blues ones on Photobucket: http://s1353.photobucket.com/user/reignoferror00/library/DIY%20hockey%20jerseys?sort=3&page=1. Orginally had a more jerseys (some DIY) up on Webshots before they screwed everyone over and haven't bothered finding and uploading pics off my computer (if they are all still there) to Photobucket.

I think I either found an online pic of a game worn jersey and cropped the back number(s) and enlarged the image to about the right size, printed it out, and cleaned it up the image for a template and/or either eyeballed it from a online pic and tried to get it close or modified an existing template I already had and tried to get it close. Have both printed the templates directly on cardstock andh have printed them on paper and glue sticked to thick cardboard (old cereal or pop boxes). For names on namebars I likely used some NHL fonts I downloaded. Might have got them from here:
http://eriqjaffe.50webs.com/

This site has some font resources for doing jersey concepts; some that would likely be transferable to making actual jersey numbers and letters for names: http://www.hockeyjerseyconcepts.com/p/templates.html

If I couldn't get fairly close to the font I was looking for, I have modified the letters after I printed them out for a template.

Could go on but think this post is probably long enough (or too long) already.

If want to try some DIY and you are on Facebook, I'd suggest checking out and joining the DIY Hockey Sweater/Jersey Army. Members can give you tips on getting started on your project and may help with fonts, twill, fabric suppliers, etc. Some may even trade or sell supplies (twill, blank jerseys, etc).

Are you "crazy for entertaining this idea"?

If so, at least you'll have some company if you get into the hobby.

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  • 5 months later...

Bumping this, rather than flooding the board with a new topic.

What's the best way to go about getting generic air knit type material for name plates? Mainly for older CCM replicas.

Is there any outfit within Canada that sells that sort of thing? Stahls doesn't appear to carry anything like that, and I don't want to use twill for name bars. Am I better off just finding cheap XXL air knit jerseys to cut up?

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Bumping this, rather than flooding the board with a new topic.

What's the best way to go about getting generic air knit type material for name plates? Mainly for older CCM replicas.

Is there any outfit within Canada that sells that sort of thing? Stahls doesn't appear to carry anything like that, and I don't want to use twill for name bars. Am I better off just finding cheap XXL air knit jerseys to cut up?

If your looking for generic air-knit just hit up your local sports store (sportchek, national sports, etc.) and buy a blank practice jersey for around $20. Buy the biggest size they have which will give you a ton of material to use for nameplates.

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i can get letters for like half of the price of customization so i tried sewing my own ..aannnddddd it looked like s*** ha, cant get the tension right when sewing

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Bumping this, rather than flooding the board with a new topic.

What's the best way to go about getting generic air knit type material for name plates? Mainly for older CCM replicas.

Is there any outfit within Canada that sells that sort of thing? Stahls doesn't appear to carry anything like that, and I don't want to use twill for name bars. Am I better off just finding cheap XXL air knit jerseys to cut up?

I have some white, sunflower, and quite a bit of orange that I'd be willing to sell!

Edited by JunkyardAthletic
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