How are T-Shirts Made?

Ahhh… The Beloved T-Shirt

Most people would concur that t-shirts are so nice to wear – so comfortable, easy and convenient not to mention a great fashion statement especially if printed with a trendy cool logo or design such as our SunFun logo. But… How are t-shirts made in mass quantity? Surprisingly, most people are unaware of this information. Well, here at SunFun Florida we want to enlighten you on that exact question and after reading this blog post you will never look at another t-shirt the same – even at a wet t-shirt contest. VA VA VOOM!! Happy Grin. So every time you put on a t-shirt you will know how much work goes into something that seems so simple yet in reality it’s quite impressive. Let’s get started and learn something new today shall we. Also feel free to use this interesting information at a party to make yourself seem smart and knowledgeable.

Note: This post is not about how a t-shirt is made from cotton into fabric. We will have another post on that subject at a later date.

Fashion is constantly changing but the basic t-shirt design has not changed much in the last 50 years. However, from the runway to your closet t-shirt designs have hit a new high when it comes to variety and styles. T-Shirts have come a long way since actually being considered as “underwear” by the U.S. Navy in 1913. Now T-Shirt manufacturers such as Bella+Canvas have helped to promote this type of clothing (aka underwear) to one of the most popular styles of clothing of all time. FYI, Bella+Canvas is one of the world’s top t-shirt makers with a huge catalog of t-shirt styles and colors and it’s one of the main brands of t-shirts that we use here at SunFun Florida. Bella is simply one of the largest suppliers of t-shirts to top brands around the world. One reason for Bella’s success is that many people don’t have perfect run-way model bodies and thus Bella shirts aren’t quite as fitted as other t-shirt suppliers such as Next Level shirts. Thanks to Bella’s “side seam” style, their t-shirts look great on humans that have average bodies with different shapes and sizes. Bella shirts feel lighter at 4.2 oz. because their fabric isn’t woven as tight as other manufacturers. We like Bella shirts because they are lightweight and thus perfect for hot and humid Florida weather. Another reason we like Bella is the look and feel of the fabric which we think is important for our customers.

But getting back to (How T-shirts are Made) we invite you to watch the short video below by Bella+Canvas.

If you watched the video then you now know that making quality t-shirts is quite impressive. Bella’s Representative Carissa did a great job explaining the entire process of t-shirt manufacturing. Let’s recap the overall video so that we finish up remembering all the important steps involved.

According to Bella they produce 1,000’s of shirts monthly all while being environmentally friendly by saving, filtering and recycling 24 millions of gallons of water per week. Wow that’s awesome! Bella also caters to “Fast Fashion” by keeping track of “runway fashion” and then implementing concepts on the fly and sending them over to their concept sewers. Overall the manufacturing process involves the following:

• • Design – Where all the magic begins.
  • Sample Creation – Making designs into reality.
  • Production – Taking approved Samples and then mass producing them.
  • Color Creation – Dyeing shirts with thousands of colors.
  • Cutting – Using large scale cutting machines to cut out millions of styles of shirts.
  • Recycling – All un-used cut fabric is recycled.
  • Sewing – All cut fabric pieces are hand sewn by specific sewers for specific shirts.
  • Quality Control – Check all shirts for defects.
  • Storage and Shipping – All shirts are stored in a warehouse and then shipped to customers around the world.

Thanks to Bella+Canvas we now have an idea of what goes into making and mass producing t-shirts.