BELLA+CANVAS MEANS SOFT, STRONG AND SMOOTH

 

IDENTIFY QUALITY INSTANTLY AND SAY NO TO CARDED OPEN ENDED (C.O.E.) FABRICS

Viewing images of t-shirts, side by side, could you quickly identify the softest? How might you tell without touching and feeling them? We will show you what to look for when searching for the best cotton!

 

But before we do, we’ve rounded up our favourite BELLA+CANVAS t-shirts, all of which are soft, strong and smooth for an excellent decoration surface.

 

 

 

IT’S IN THE DETAILS

The softness of a shirt has everything to do with the small details that improve the quality of the fabric. In this blog, we contrast cotton types and ask what the difference is between carded open end (C.O.E.), ringspun, and airlume combed and ringspun. We’re about to explain why cotton selection matters, as well as what to look for, the next time you shop for your ideal t-shirt.

 

IDENTIFYING LOW QUALITY

Let’s start with an inferior product to airlume cotton – carded open end. This type of cotton is super-cheap, making it the cotton of choice for the £1–£2 tees of the world. It’s scratchy, heavy and stiff – like the love child of a burlap sack and a t-shirt!

 

THE OK COTTON: RINGSPUN

More and more customers are becoming aware of C.O.E. cotton and are demanding higher quality. So, in response, manufacturers are making ringspun cotton. Sometimes, the terms ‘combed ringspun’ and ‘combed’ are used interchangeably, but these types of cotton are different.

There are many impurities in cotton’s raw form, once picked. As a plant, it consists of soil and plant matter – so, by nature, it’s dirty. If cotton is ringspun, rather than combed and ringspun, all those impurities are spun into the yarn.

 

THE GOOD COTTON: COMBED AND RINGSPUN COTTON

With combed and ringspun cotton, the raw cotton is refined to eliminate impurities; and, although this results in a loss of cotton yield, it ultimately results in a superior product.

 

 

Compare the two halves of Image B. On the left is ringspun cotton, while the right-hand view shows combed and ringspun cotton. If cotton isn’t combed, it produces a coarse tee with an uneven print surface.

 

 

THE BEST COTTON

BELLA+CANVAS go one step further with their airlume cotton to achieve optimal softness, strength and the ideal print surface. First, they comb out 25% of the cotton they begin with, to meet their high standards of clean cotton.

 

Then, using only the longest staples of the best cotton, they spin yarn containing fewer stray fibres, resulting in the smoothest print surface possible (see Image A).

 

When choosing between several t-shirts, check the type of cotton used and opt for airlume – the highest quality blend of combed and ringspun. This is just one of the factors that distinguishes BELLA+CANVAS from other manufacturers.