Anatomy of a patch

ANATOMY OF A PATCH

What makes a good patch?

Designing and creating patches is no simple matter.  Everything has to be done correctly and professionally or the patch will fall apart and won’t look good.  A perfect example of poor craftsmanship is having the velcro pull off the back of a  patch - that makes a velcro patch pretty much useless.   At OMLpatches.com, we take the time for each and every patch to ensure the highest quality.   We take the time to manually digitize the patches,  stitching and processing is hands on,  and each patch gets merrowed by hand and checked for quality throughout the process.

Patches are all about details

The patch itself must start with high quality fabric as a backing.  Here at OMLpatches.com, we take the extra time to search out the proper fabric.  Our multicam fabric line is direct from the manufacturer and is a quality RIPSTOP material.  I have seen quite a few patches out there that do not use RIPSTOP material and instead use a cheap substitute multicam material.  I can tell the cheap material immediately because the stitches are not sitting properly on the material and do not form proper lines and definition, and overall looks crappy. The stitching on the patch itself has to be tightly set and have no loops or loose places, or have any white bobbin showing.   Again, we use the highest quality threads in the proper colours to make our patches stand out.  Moving on to the merrowing.  The merrow is the thick edge that you should find on most patches.   Merrowing is the detail that makes the patch - none of the material or the backing is showing through, no trimming errors show at the sides, and merrowing gives the patch the final professional look that finalizes the patch.  It is the last step in patch processing and takes a large amount of time to do it properly.   Lower end manufacturers usually skip this process and save themselves lots of time;  however, the patches are not high quality and will not last long.  Granted, there are some shapes of patches that you cannot marrow, however those are few and far between, and there are many ways of taking more time to make the patch professional.  I have seen far too many patches where there was no merrowed edge, and they used a bright colour to sew on the velcro, and you can see every sewing mistake that they made.    That brings me to the next point - velcro.    It is very easy and a lot cheaper to get off brand velcro - you can buy it at your local sewing store and it doesn’t cost very much compared to the real Velcro brand.  If a manufacturer uses off brand velcro, the patch will have hardly any staying power.  Velcro brand makes a softer and stronger velcro, and you can see the difference and feel the difference.  High quality makes all the difference if you want your patch to stay where you place it. 

So now you know some of the details to look for in a patch - why settle for anything less?  You should be able to wear your patch proudly, and be able to create “patch envy” wherever you go!

Until next time, 

OMLpatches