hockey jerseys are some of the most expensive items of sports clothing that you can buy
and they're expensive for a reason because it takes an absolutely mammoth amount of work to
actually make one so you've got embroidered layers sewn onto other embroidered layers
it usually takes a team of anywhere between 15 and 30 people to actually make one of these things
and what's even more expensive is if you want the name and number of your favorite player
sewn onto the back not only does the material have to be cut with lasers everything has to be
done by hand so it has to be cut by hand it has to be sewn by hand it has to be pressed
by hand and once it's pressed it has to be sewn again by hand this is a labor intensive process
and as you can imagine they have to make that cost back up somewhere which is why hockey teams charge
an extreme markup on their jerseys but what if i told you that you could do this at home
for a fraction of the price well now you can and i'm going to show you exactly how ninh explains
the complete hockey jersey cresting guide sewing custom names and numbers onto hockey jerseys
step 1 buying the lettering you'll need to acquire the letters and numbers somehow
unfortunately for you there are companies out there that will make up whatever name
and number you want in the style of your favorite team but the one i trust the most
is kevin at custom sports his prices are very reasonable and his products are top draw
he actually has his own ebay shop and if you do decide to buy lettering from him
let him know that you saw this recommendation on youtube and he might cut you a great deal
quick side note here some nhl teams official stores like the vegas team store in vegas
or real sports in toronto they are actually licensed by the nhl which means that they have
authentic letters and numbers that don't require sewing i.e they just press it into
your jersey and the glue is strong enough to hold it there permanently because of this the cost of
lettering at these places is sometimes cheaper than buying kits from kevin or somewhere else
but obviously if you're like me and you live across the sea and there's nowhere to buy it
you're pretty much stuck with buying kits and sewing them yourself which isn't necessarily
a bad thing now i have this old hartford whalers authentic jersey i've had this jersey for a while
but it's blank it doesn't have a name and number on the back to make it look cooler and to increase
its value a little bit i actually decided to buy a pack for beat kit from custom sports
so for those of you who don't know pat the beak is the former captain of the now defunct whalers
the kit is pretty much exactly as he would have worn it back in the day
but the kit comes on its own and that's to kind of drive down the cost a little bit
so we're gonna have to do a little bit of sewing to actually sew the layers together
before we put it on the actual jersey i've also got a couple of vegas golden knight patches to
put on my vegas golden knight jerseys and i'll show you how to do that too step two
acquire a heat press now ordinarily i would tell you that you could do this
with an ordinary household iron but i highly don't recommend that in fact i strongly urge
you to acquire a secondhand heat press on ebay because they go for next to nothing these days
not only is the pressing consistent but you'll also need the temperature from a heat press in
order to activate the glue on the letters you'll also need to press uniformly on the letters
so that the letters don't warp or stretch whilst you're trying to glue them down into your jersey
with an iron it's easy to warp the letters and make a mess of things so i strongly recommend
that you acquire a heat press somehow either borrow one or buy one second hand on ebay
step 3 information whereabouts do you put the lettering on the jersey in short most sports
organizations and leagues will actually tell you the lettering specifications
of their specific team but if you can't find that out for whatever reason i simply followed the one
inch method the one-inch method is dead simple you measure an inch from the bottom of the shoulder
seam to the top of the letters and from the bottom of the letters to the top of the numbers
and with all these authentic adidas jerseys that i've got they all follow the one-inch principle so
one inch there one inch there and it also happens to be an inch between the numbers so if you follow
the one inch formula i very much doubt that you'll ever go wrong step four it's time to sew
the layers obviously if your lettering kit arrives pre-sewn you don't need to do this but because my
letters came on its own i'm going to have to sew the layers in myself this is a good opportunity
to practice with your sewing machine especially if you're a little bit rusty like me and this video
assumes that you have basic knowledge of how to use a sewing machine if you don't there's plenty
of youtube tutorials that will teach you how to set one up so after about half an hour of sewing
i've managed to sew all the letters and two of the layers together on each part of my numbering kit
step 5 dry fit before you turn the heat press on i want you to put the letters in place
and see if it actually looks right so let's measure an inch there that's correct an inch
between there that looks good and an inch between the numbers yes that looks fantastic
and this will also preempt any potential problems such as this i'm going to have to sew through the
fight strap in order to sew the lettering on so that's a little bit of a headache but overall
the one-inch formula generally works here and it actually looks like it's in the right proportions
just like a picture of this path for beat jersey right here i'm pretty happy with the layout
step six place the jersey place the jersey in place and actually use the heat press to iron it
flat this will ensure that the letters will remain flat when you actually press the heat plunger down
step 7 press the name plate pro tip for you fold the name plate exactly in half and use
the crease that you've made and line it up with the center seam of the jersey
this ensures that the nameplate is exactly in the middle where it's supposed to be if you do this
correctly there's no way that you actually get this wrong and when you're placing the
nameplate make sure that it follows the one-inch formula so one inch there one inch there and
yes that's fine one inch there all the letters are one inch below the shoulder seam right here
you might have to make some micro adjustments especially if you're moving the jersey around
but i'd rather you get this right rather than permanently glue in a nameplate
where it's in the wrong position once you're happy with the position press down on the nameplate
you're going to use roughly 170 degrees celsius and you're going to press for roughly 30 seconds
if the instructions with the lettering kit are any different follow them obviously
but you can't really go wrong with 170 and 30 seconds once that 30 seconds is up it's time to
lift the heat press up and make sure immediately that the name bar is actually glued down
i'm checking this by using my finger and making sure that the glue has actually stuck the name
plate to the jersey and that nothing's lifting off 8 press the back numbers if you've got
the nameplate right and if you followed my instructions you should do it's pretty easy
to get the back numbers right also place the back numbers where they're supposed to be and
measure an inch from the bottom of the letters to the top of the numbers
and also make sure there's a gap of one inch between the numbers if there's more than one
sometimes you'll need to adjust and readjust again especially if you accidentally move the numbers
but i'd rather you spend your time with this rather than gluing the numbers permanently in the
wrong position i've measured an inch everywhere that looks pretty good to me so i'm pretty happy
with that let's press down so once the pressing's finished once again i'm checking to see that the
glue has actually worked and that no area of the letters is actually lifting away from the jersey
because this is a three color kit it's going to take several pressings so i
actually had to do this twice but after the second pressing absolutely everything
was stuck to the jersey everything was pressed flat and it does look pretty much pro
if in doubt always check with your fingers to make sure that the lettering isn't lifting off step 9
press the sleeve numbers so i want you to fold the sleeves in half and actually use the heat press to
form a crease just like that now this will give you an imaginary line in order to put your sleeve
numbers and to make sure that they're actually straight on the sleeve as opposed to pretty much
wonky now usually you're meant to go four inches below the shoulder seam but this won't work for
this particular jersey so i'm making the executive decision to move the number 16
to the middle of the sleeve right between this grey area and the shoulder seam and i'm making
sure that there's an equal distance between the numbers the silver stripe and the shoulder seam
i'm also moving the six over the middle because the number six is so big and
the number one is so tiny so i'm making sure this actually fits the channel of the sleeve
i'm happy with the position there so what i'm gonna do is i'm going to press down
i also forgot to mention that there should be about a half inch gap between the numbers
right this pressing looks good none of the letters are lifting off
and i'm pretty happy with that it does look like the one in the picture step 10 press any patches
if you've got any other additional patches such as a captain c patch or a commemorative patch
use the exact same formula heat the jersey place it in the right place press it down
and once you lift off make sure that the glue is actually set and that nothing's lifting away
i also did the same with this vegas golden nice patch exactly the same procedure not lifting away
now if you absolutely have to use an iron because you don't want to use a heat press
you can do it but i highly don't recommend it simply get your patch i'm using an apache here
for this golden knights jersey and what you want to do once you measure it and get it into place
is you want to put a sheet of paper over it and set your iron to the hottest setting
and i want you to press down onto the letters with constant motion and you're going to iron
for about 30 seconds with maximum heat because the iron doesn't generate as much heat as a heat press
nor does it press as hard you're going to have to repeat this process several times
but overall if you have to use an iron you can do it but i highly don't recommend it
the end result is the same if you're careful enough and finally step 11 zig zag stitch
so once all the lettering is in place it's time to go back to the sewing machine
making sure that your tensions are correct and that you've oiled your sewing machine and have
enough thread in the bobbin and remember once again this isn't a sewing tutorial per se there's
plenty of youtube tutorials on how to set up a sewing machine one thing i will say when you're
zigzag stitching your jersey is to make sure that there's plenty of room for the jersey to move
because you want the sewing machine to do the work you don't actually want to push the jersey through
the sewing machine otherwise you'll end up with uneven stitching ideally you want to use two hands
and remember you're not trying to push the jersey through the sewing machine you're actually letting
the machine do the work but after a little bit of practice this should be relatively second nature
and obviously if you're ever stuck or you need to stop i highly recommend that you stop
it beats making a mistake and having to unstitch everything and re-sew everything from scratch
sleeve numbers are the worst and that's because there's so little room for the jersey to move
around the sewing machine but as long as you're patient it's actually very doable
once you've finished sewing the jersey and cut off all of the loose threads this is the end result
i'm pretty happy with that the sleeve numbers look exact they look pretty much pro and sewn in and
all completely flat there's no weird creases or wrinkles in the lettering it all looks pristine
i'm happy with the c patch also and on the back the lettering looks pretty good and i'm
pretty sure i got the spacing right because that does look like this game one jersey
right here overall i'm very happy with the results of this customization project and so long as you
follow the instructions that i've laid out here i'm pretty sure you'll get the same results
i also managed to do a couple of golden knights jerseys whilst i'm here
so i managed to saw on some patches and this hundredth anniversary patch
and i've saved myself a whole boatload of money and i've not had to waste extra money sending
my jersey across the pond for it to be sewn and to pay for that jersey to be sent back to me if
you found this video at all helpful please be sure to like share and subscribe comment on the comment
section below and if you've got any questions feel free to ask me in the comment section below
Ninh Ly = www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK