Custom scarves or scarves designed for a special occasion are very much part of the corporate world.
It is a skill for a designer to design custom scarves simply because the designer must always keep in mind, while designing a corporate scarf that the scarf needs to be representative of current fashion aswell as the company the custom scarves are being manufactured.
Custom scarves can be made from either silk, which is not possible in South Africa but is possible in the far East or parts of Europe, or polyester which is what just about all custom scarves are made from in South Africa.
Custom scarves are generally made of high level polyester and in many cases, the general idea is to make sure that the look and feel resembles that of silk.
The polyester is usually fairly soft and can vary from a fairly thick fabric which can only be printed on one side to chiffon which is extremely light and allows for the print of custom scarves to filter through so it shows on both sides.
The cost of fabric which does not allow for the print of corporate scarves to show through is generally cheaper than that of say chiffon which is specially woven to allow for the print to show through on both sides of custom scarves.
The process used to print custom scarves, because of the application, colour spectrum and boldness of design is called sublimation onto custom scarves.
This is a process where by through the use of heat, a print is transferred from paper onto fabric, the fabric is then cured to allow the design to blend into the fabric ensuring that custom scarves are well printed and bold.
Once the panels are printed for the custom scarves, they are then cut from the fabric or panel and sewn using an over locker as general use.
Unless the scarf is very large in dimensions, one will normally find that custom scarves are cust out of a panel which is printed and contains more than one scarf ie: depending on the size, not all cstom scarves are printed individually as this is just not cost effective or feasible.
The sizes in general for custom scarves consist very much of 2 sizes, these being around 7ocm x 70cm and for long scarves around 1.3m x 300 to 400mm.
Long custom scarves are easy to work with as they can be wrapped more than once around the neck and ties in various ways.
Similarly, square custom scarves are also fairly flexible but do not have quite as many uses as long custom scarves.
For this reason, it is safe to say that the majority of custom scarves are made as long scarves.
These types of custom scarves are generally washable provided one is careful, it is better to was custom scarves by hand in warm water, not in a machine with very hot water, so at least in the event of a polyester custom scarf being stained or marked, this can most likely removed with some careful attention.
Custom scarves are excellent for uniform purposes, where I said earlier that these type of custom scarves are normally made from the slightly cheaper fabric called pongee which does not print right through, so it is important that the wearers of these corporate scarves spend some time tying them tidily and ensuring that the back part of the scarf is not prevalent or visible.
In short, custom scarves are an excellent addition to any uniform or to any lady wishing to finish off her dress neatly with some style.