Incorportating Tackle Twill in your embroidery designs

The original concept of Tackle Twill came from a sewing technique called Applique. Applique originated from sewing patches of fabric over holes in a garment to extend its life. This was especially true when patches were sewn over the hole in the elbow of a gentleman's jacket. Applique is also widely used to incorporate different colors, patterns and texture to a quilt. Quilters have long been masters at the art of applique.

Tackle Twill was invented by R.J. Liebe, a company in my home town of St. Louis Missouri. Back in the 1920's R.J. Liebe created a PolyPro Twill used for names and numbers applied with a Singer sewing machine the same way applique swatches are applied to a quilt.

These PolyPro Twill letters were first used on professional football jerseys and later to the baseball uniforms of the St. Louis Browns and the St. Louis Cardinals. Eventually nearly all teams and sports began to use Tackle Twill names and numbers.

What is distinguishable to Tackle Twill is the light zig zag style stitching along the edge of the fabric tacking it to the garment.

Years later heat applied vinyl was invented as a more economical solution for applying names and numbers to jerseys especially among little league and high school teams. Vinyl lettering is also used for low to medium priced fan wear because the expense of applying vinyl is a fraction of the cost to produce tackle twill. Due to a lower demand for Tackle Twill fewer embroidery companies are capable of providing tackle twill.

Still, there is a market for Tackle Twill letters. They signify a higher end garment, mainly because Tackle Twill is more durable than heat applied vinyl, but also because Tackle Twill is what the pro teams wear.

The same techniques used for producing Tackle Twill are used for creating Applique designs such as this Starfish. Being able to produce custom Tackle Twill and Applique is a matter having the know-how to design for these two techniques, the equipment to precisely cut fabric and lastly the embroidery machine to successfully stitch the fabric according to the digital embroidery pattern.

If you need a quality applique design created call us at 314-991-0707.