Impress with Distressed

Stahls’ Distressed Appliqué

As the saying goes, “Everything old is new again.” Well, these days everything new looks old. “Distressed” is a hot look these days, on everything from boots to T-shirts. While designers are making a mint selling beat-up clothing, most people are looking to get this fashionable look on more common (and affordable) clothing.

If you like the distressed look or have tried to create it, you know that a bright new design on an old-looking shirt won’t cut it. So how do you achieve the look without running each shirt through the washer (or rock tumbler) 1000 times or driving over it repeatedly? With Stahls’ Distressed Appliqué and Distressed Flock, that’s how.

Distressed Appliqué is available in uncoated chino cotton twill; if you’d like to tack your design to the substrate before sewing, it’s also available in pressure-sensitive twill or acrylic felt. There are many font styles, sizes, and colors, and words can be applied with or without a tail. If you’d like to try it out, sample kits are also available for only $19.95 and include sew files.

With Distressed Flock, you can get the same trendy look without embroidery equipment.  Made with our heat transfer Flock, it doesn’t require any sewing – simply apply it with a heat press. Available in 19 colors, it features a velvety, suede-like feel.

Each of these offerings allows you to choose from three levels of distress: “distress it,” which softens sharp edges and mildly blends straight lines, “melt it,” which roughens straight lines, bites into corners, and provides an edgier look, or “destroy it,” which adds maximum distress to edges. The additional “Extreme Distressed” option makes each level of distress even more… well, extreme.

So, whether you embroider or not, you can offer your customers these fashion-forward looks on T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, bags, or any other new thing you want to make look old. You could even apply them to something old to make it look even older. The only limit is your (hopefully young) imagination.

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