So you’ve decided to expand your clothing line by adding a few all-over products.
In this video, we’ll help you get started by going through our must-follow guidelines,
and show you how to create designs for all-over products completely free, without buying or
installing extra software.
All-over, or cut & sew products, go through a printing process where your design is printed
on paper with dye ink and then transferred directly onto the fabric with heat.
Then it gets cut and hand-sewn into the product you ordered.
With direct-to-garment printing, your design is printed on a specific area of the product,
but with all-over printing, your design can cover the whole product.
Now let’s go over the ground rules you should follow when creating designs for all-over
products.
Make sure to stay until the end, where I’ll go over an actual example created with our
graphic design team and show you how to easily create custom pattern designs in Printful’s
Mockup Generator.
But before we begin, subscribe to our channel and tap on the bell icon to stay updated about
our latest videos.
Submit files in PNG or JPEG format with at least 150 DPI.
If you want your design to have a transparent background, then PNG is the best way to go.
This way you can add any of the background colors available in our mockup generator.
Otherwise, use JPEG if you want to avoid any transparencies in your design.
Create files in the sRGB color profile.
To make sure your design looks the same when printed as it does on screen, create your
print file with the sRGB color profile.
We also have a short video on our channel about color correcting for print, so check
that out after.
Don’t use adjacent colors.
Adjacent colors are also called analogous, and refer to neighboring hues on the color
wheel.
On products that are made of thicker fabric like fanny packs, backpacks, and bean bags,
designs tend to look darker when printed, and colors that are too close to each other
in value can end up blending together.
We recommend increasing the contrast for better exposure and avoiding colors that are too
close in value.
Use full-bleed images.
For maximum coverage, use full-bleed images with graphics that span across the entire
dimension of the file.
However, if your design covers only a part of the print area, make sure it has a transparent
background and submit the image as a PNG.
Any space that isn't covered by your design will show the bare fabric.
That’s why patterns and full-bleed images usually turn out the best.
Pay attention to the safe print area.
All-over product files are scalable, which means that depending on the size, the design
will be proportionally scaled down.
So keep all important graphics or text within the safe print area to avoid missing design
elements on the finished product.
This will also prevent important design elements from being sewn into the seams.
Remove print file template guidelines.
If you use our downloadable templates, delete the guide layers before saving your files.
If you don't delete them, they'll show up on the print.
Now some products might come with an inside or an outside label.
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind:
Don’t submit white inside label graphics without a background color since the inside
label print area is white by default.
We suggest using the entire inside label print area to avoid any blank white spaces on the
product.
If you want to add your logo, but the product doesn't come with label options, then include
branding within your design.
When it comes to inside and outside labels for all-over products, you don’t need to
include size or material information.
They're also included in the product price, so you don't need to pay extra.
Use these tips as a foundation when you create your designs.
You can always refer to our guidelines for the particular product you're designing.
How to order color swatches for all-over products If it’s your first time creating a design
for an all-over product, you need to make sure that the colors in your design match
the actual product as close as possible.
You can do that by ordering a color swatch.
Here's how: Once you log in to your Printful account,
click on “New order”, select your store, and click on “Sample order.”
From there, select an all-over product from the available quicklinks and proceed to checkout.
You can also upload your own custom color swatch with the colors specific to your brand.
Now let's learn how to create a design for an all-over product with Printful’s Mockup
Generator using free clipart.
You'll find the Mockup Generator on our navigation bar here.
The first thing you’ll see is our product catalog.
Here I’ll choose “Women’s clothing,” then I’ll click on “Leggings,” and select
“All-Over Print Leggings.”
Pay attention to the left side of the screen.
Here we have an option to select the stitch color.
Choose a color that matches your design before you order or add the product to your store.
For example, if your leggings have a design with light or pastel colors, you'll want the
stitches to be white, but for designs with darker colors, select black for a more cohesive
look.
I’ll select white for now, and then switch over to the design tab.
Since I’ll create a design from the elements available in the mockup generator, and I don’t
want the white fabric to show on the finished product, I’ll need to fill the entire work
area with color.
By selecting “Print area background color” I can do just that.
On some products, like the All-Over Fanny pack, you’ll notice the “Apply to all
placements” checkbox that’s selected by default.
This means that the chosen color will be applied to the entire design, like you see here.
Next I’ll click on the “Add clipart” tab, and from the “Holiday shapes” I’ll
select this element and drag it over to my print file view.
On the left side of the screen you can see that a new layer was created automatically.
Now I can start making adjustments to this element directly in the print file view.
I’m going to scale it down and rotate it manually.
This can also be done by using the sliders located here.
Don’t forget to pay attention to the print quality information when scaling the design
elements.
Now I’ll choose a brighter hue for the square element.
With that done we can see how the pattern tool looks in action.
I’ll click on “Make a pattern.”
This will open up a new window where I can select a different pattern type and adjust
the spacing between the repeating elements.
For this example, I’ll choose the block pattern type and leave the spacing at zero.
Now let’s go back to the design tools, by clicking here, and add another clipart element.
I’ll change its position, size and color and then make a pattern out of it as well.
This time I’ll adjust the spacing and change the pattern type to “Half drop.”
And just like that, in a few clicks, we have ourselves a pattern design that covers the
entire surface without any empty areas.
When it comes to Printful’s pattern tool there are a few things to consider:
Patterns can be created using an uploaded file or any of our clipart.
It’s available for all-over products, wall art, mugs, and phone cases.
Pattern layers can be duplicated on multiple placements.
In addition to that we have a new flip functionality that can be used to mirror your designs on
other placements.
Next I’ll add a few more things to complete the design.
I’ll add another element, this heart clipart, scale it down, reposition it and change its
color to white.
I want to place it on the shin area, which would be located somewhere around here.
I need to make sure that it doesn't go over the safe print area.
Next I’ll duplicate the layer with this clipart element, by clicking here and place
it on the other leg.
To ensure the identical placements of both elements I just need to follow the smart guides
that appear when I move the file in the preview area.
As a finishing touch, I want to add a line that goes diagonally above the heart clipart.
I can do that by selecting a rectangle element and scaling it down, duplicating, and repositioning
it until it forms a perfect line on both legs.
This seemed like a good idea at the time, but thanks to our new addition we can see
how our design looks in 3D by clicking on ”3D view.”
We can immediately see that the lines I created go in a spiral and end abruptly.
As an alternative we can use two shapes, rotate them diagonally, and make sure that they intersect
with one another in the middle of the safe print area for each leg to create a wrap-around
effect.
However, despite how your design looks in the 3D view or in the generated mockup images,
we don’t recommend using wrap-around graphics, because:
We can't guarantee exact placement.
It's not possible to perfectly align patterns or images from front to back.
Elements outside the safe print area are not guaranteed to fully appear on the finished
product.
This helps to prevent misalignment, which can happen due to the fabric moving while
being hand-sewn together.
So if you want to add any extra elements to your design the best option is to include
them within the safe print area and make sure that they do not wrap around the product.
But be aware that on different product sizes, these elements will be placed slightly differently
due to proportional scaling.
If you prefer to create your own full bleed designs in other software, remember to look
up the file dimensions of our sample images; you can see them here.
In case anyone in our audience is using Krita, we have a video on Facebook where our illustrator,
Eric, shows you how to create a design from scratch and incorporate it into our Mockup
Generator.
I’ll leave a link below, so make sure to check it out!
That’s all for today.
Hope this video will help you create amazing best-selling designs for all-over products.
If you have any more questions, then leave a comment and we will answer.