Isn’t Christmas such a merry season to be jolly? Yes, pun intended. On a more serious note, Christmas is a celebration of gratitude and gift-giving – how can one not love it! Okay, well the Grinch is another story AND he had his reason. We, on the other hand, just love Christmas.
Unfortunately, for many common peeps, with Christmas comes a tacky, 80s-looking matching pullover set for the whole family. Not only do you have to wear it, but if your family is the type to enjoy embracing every little tradition, you may find your family’s personalised Christmas cards with your picture (of course, donning the pullover) on the cover of the card. If your parents are tech-savvier than many others, it is highly likely you will see that same photo on a bunch of relative’s Facebook walls. How very exciting!
If you are not familiar with the term, pullovers are the type of sweaters that are worn by being ‘pulled over’ your head – so no front zipper or button, and definitely no hood because then that would be called a hoodie and that is not what we are here to talk about (we’ll save that one for another article, though).
Going back to the topic, do Christmas pullovers always have to look tacky or gaudy? Not at all! Sure, the term ‘ugly Christmas sweater’ is supposed to live up to its name, but it does not have to be an eyesore.
First off, a Christmas pullover is simply one of the best pieces of clothing item. You may cringe as you wear your Christmas pullover, but the pictures that come out afterwards always turn out adorable. So, why not, right? Plus, if designed properly, that pullover can be one awesome-looking apparel that looks amazing on you. Of course, you may want to go ‘DIY’ with this one. Don’t worry, we’ll guide you throughout the whole process!
Mistakes to avoid with pullover printing
If you are going with the most popular pullover fabric material, i.e. fleece, perhaps we will have to cross off several printing methods. Simply printing your design onto the surface of a fleece material will not look good at all, and your design will look like it cracks – mainly because it actually IS cracking.
Another common mistake when it comes to designing Christmas pullover is that you are making it solely for the Christmas season.
‘Well, it IS a Christmas pullover. You can’t really design it to not look…Christmassy, right?’
Yes, but also no. What is the point of printing a pullover if you only get to wear it once a year – and for some people, only once in their whole lifetime! You should design it to look generic enough, but with a little hint of Christmas. This way, you can don it at some other time other than Christmas season and it wouldn’t look like you have completely lost track of time!
So how do you start designing a more versatile-looking Christmas pullover? Read up to find out!
What to take note of
- All-Over Design
- Bright Colours
- Suitable Material
- Short Text
- Design Placement
All-Over Design
Compared to hoodies, you can have more fun when designing a pullover. A pullover typically does not have additional elements like a hood and muff. This means they do not have those extra elements on them that can cause the pullovers to look ‘full’ and complete on their own. Hence, an all-over (also called full-coverage) design will not look too overwhelming.
Raglan sleeves also look better on most pullovers, so if that’s your preference, opting for it is certainly not a bad idea. Create the sleeves to be filled with design as well so it will cover from the neck down to the sleeves. The typical centred design will not look bad, but since it is a pullover, you can place some design around other areas as well.
With a pullover, less is not always more. More can also be more. In fact, the key point of ‘ugly Christmas pullovers’ is their all-over design print. They are known to have an overbearing design covering almost 100% of the surface and they have no ‘waste of space’ in their dictionaries. Now, would it be a bad idea to mimic this point for your pullover? Not necessarily.
You can still opt for ‘all-over’ printing and produce an attractive design. Not to mention, our generation has a way to make this sort of design look unironically good. If you manage to pull it off, you would look like you are making a fashion statement – another thing the current generation totally loves doing.
Bright Colours
This plays a huge role in any Christmas pullover. If your pullover is almost entirely black or filled with earth tones, it is not a Christmas pullover. It has to be louder. With the seasonal theme colours being green and red, Christmas pullovers are also normally designed to include those said colours.
Now, as if those two are not enough, some also insert the colour gold. Are these colours unsuitable to be used together? Not really. In fact, red and green match one another perfectly. It is simply the fact that these colours remind you of Christmas that many deem this combination to be ‘unsightly’.
To minimise the Christmas feel of it so you can wear it all year round, stick with one main colour that will be the colour of the base – basically the main fabric. Then, add a bit of the other colour(s) here and there, such as in the design itself or parts like the sleeve cuffs and collar.
Suitable Material
The reason why it says ‘suitable’ material and not thick material is because thick materials do not always suit your pullover or where you are planning to wear it. Wool is possibly the best material to keep you warm, but if you are going to be outdoors most of the time and you live in a humid place (like Singapore), it will only make you sweat buckets.
Go for fleece material made up of cotton and poly blend (with 50-50 ratio). This would be the most suitable material for a pullover and it would have both sweat absorption and sweat-wicking properties. If you are going to wear it outdoors in Singapore, these two properties are extremely crucial.
Short Text
You’ll notice that while text is a great part of a design, it does not always look good. Would it be a mistake for you to include one in yours? No, but it can be. The mistake may occur when you choose to include letters without any regards to other aspects like the font’s size and its thickness. When it comes down to it, both the text and font that will suit your pullover may vary depending on your material and printing method. Of course, most of the time, placing too many words does not translate well on a piece of fabric as thick as that of a pullover.
Design Placement
One way to make sure your design is placed at the right spot is by reviewing it through mockups. It is better to deal directly with the team that is also going to print your pullover. There may be certain ‘mockup review’ applications or websites that can help display how your pullover will look like with your design placed on them.
You may try them on your own at first, but the result can differ compared to what the printing team shows to you right before the printing process. That is why it is often best to work with only one team from the start so no unexpected issues or conflicts would arise later on. Plus, you can make your expectations clear from the beginning.
Designing a pullover should be a fun activity, so remember to keep it that way. You may apply various elements to spice up your design. Additionally, you may also come back in the future to check whether you have everything crossed off for a complete pullover printing. For a complete hoodies pullover printing Singapore services that will go beyond your expectations, just talk to us at Custom Prints & Apparels!
