Dark Blue Organic Cotton Graphic Tee - Oversized Short Sleeve for OEM

A dark blue short sleeve tee from Damson Madder in a super soft organic cotton, cut with a relaxed oversized fit and a round neck, with a large preserves graphic across the front and a smaller motif on the back, listed at 40 GBP, the cheapest reference in this run, with all six sizes in stock. It publishes pit to pit, sleeve and length for all six sizes, and the chest column is the interesting one, because it is graded in two different steps, two centimetres for the first two sizes and three for the last three, and it is worth asking what that does to the fit. The answer is that it very nearly holds the ease constant at about ten and a half inches across the whole range, which is the second time this run has found a grade that was engineered rather than applied, and it makes a useful contrast with the blouse from the same house published alongside it, where a single two centimetre step took the ease to nothing. The length column is where the page gives up, because it reads 70 cm on all six sizes. The reference is the House Preserves SS Graphic Tee in Blue. Dongguan Bafinasa Garments Co., Ltd. develops comparable knit tops on OEM and ODM terms, from yarn and cloth selection to print development and retail or FBA ready packing. We publish this as a development reference and build your own version of it, and we do not supply the branded original or reproduce anyone else's label.

Key Features

• Chest graded in two steps, two centimetres then three, which holds the ease at about ten and a half inches across six sizes. See the note below
• Oversized silhouette as stated, and the measurements support the word, which is not true of every relaxed garment in this run
• Short sleeve published at 20 to 23 cm, the only short sleeve measurement in this run, though it does not move for the first three sizes. See the note below
• Total length published at 70 cm on all six sizes, the third column in this run not to grade. See the note below
• Graphics on the front and the back as stated, with no print method and no fastness figure. See the note below
• Described as organic cotton in the copy and as 100% cotton in the specification tab, the second time this house has done that in this run. See the note below
• 40 GBP as listed, the cheapest reference in this run, with all six sizes in stock

Customisable Options

• Cloth: organic cotton jersey to the reference, with the weight in grams per square metre set to your market since none is given
• Certification: organic claim to the reference description, with GOTS or OCS certification and a transaction certificate quoted as an option
• Fit: oversized to the reference at about ten and a half inches of ease, or brought in by four to six inches for a standard tee
• Print: screen, water based, discharge or digital, each quoted separately with its hand feel and wash test
• Artwork: your own artwork developed from a brief, since we do not reproduce another brand's graphics
• Neck: round neck to the reference, with the rib or the binding specified, or a V or a boat neck
• Cloth weight, print method, neck trim, ease, body length, sleeve length, size set, colour development, private label and care labelling

Specifications

Size Chart as Published by the Reference

The chest figures are flat half measures taken with the tee laid down, doubling to 106, 110, 114, 120, 126 and 132 cm around, or 41.7 through 52.0 in. Against a body bust that runs 31, 33, 35, 37, 39 and 41 in, the ease is about ten and three quarter inches at a UK 6, about nine and nine tenths at the 10 and about eleven at the 16, so it holds to within about one inch across the whole range. It does that because the flat grade is two centimetres for the first two steps and three for the last three, which averages just over the body grade of two inches per size. The sleeve is published at 20 cm for the first three sizes and then grades one centimetre at a time, and the total length is 70 cm on all six sizes.

Our Proposed Body Chart

Occasions and Styling

Suits everyday wear, weekends, travel and layering. An oversized tee at ten inches of ease is the piece that goes over leggings or under an open overshirt, and it is long enough at 70 cm to be worn out rather than tucked, which is how a graphic on the front is meant to be read.

Production and Quality Control

The reference publishes three columns for all six sizes, has every size in stock, describes the fit, the neck, the sleeves and both graphics, gives a care instruction and states the country of make. It is the cheapest garment in this run and one of the better specified. Three things follow: why this grade holds the fit and the blouse from the same house does not, what an ungraded length does to a tee that is also getting wider, and the fibre claim that contradicts itself.

Two centimetres, then three, and the grade that holds, and that is the first thing. Write the differences between consecutive rows out, which is the check this run recommends on every table, and the chest reads two, two, three, three and three centimetres of flat width. Now convert them, because that is where the point is. Two centimetres of flat width is four of circumference, or 1.57 in, and three centimetres is six of circumference, or 2.36 in, and the body chart moves two inches per size. So the first two steps undershoot the body by about 0.4 in each and the last three overshoot it by about 0.4 in each, and the errors very nearly cancel: the ease runs 10.7, 10.3, 9.9, 10.2, 10.6 and 11.0 in, dipping slightly in the middle of the range and recovering. The graphic tee from this same house published earlier in this run did the same thing the other way round, alternating three and two, and held its ease to within half an inch. So this house is setting its grades by looking at the outcome, which is the right way round, and it is worth naming as such because almost nothing else in this run is. Now the contrast, which is the useful part. The blouse from this house published alongside this one uses a flat grade of two centimetres throughout, and that single decision costs 0.43 in of ease at every step and 2.15 in across the range, which took it from two inches of ease to minus one tenth, and on a non stretch woven that is the difference between a blouse and a blouse that does not close. The trench in this run went further the wrong way with a one centimetre grade and lost six inches. The general rule is worth stating once, plainly, because this run has now seen four grades and none of them is this one: against a body chart that moves two inches per size, the flat grade that holds ease constant is 2.54 cm per size, which is one inch of flat width and two of circumference. One centimetre loses six inches of ease over six sizes, two centimetres loses two and a fifth, three centimetres gains one and four fifths, and 2.54 is the only one that neither gains nor loses. Nothing in this run has used it. That is not because 2.54 is a magic number, it is because the body chart is in inches and the garments are graded in round centimetres, and the rounding accumulates. It is also worth saying what ten and a half inches actually looks like, because the word oversized gets used loosely in this run. On this tee it is true: a UK 6 measures 41.7 in around on a 31 in body, which is a genuinely oversized garment, and it sits a little above the boxy tee from this house at ten inches and well below the hooded top at fifteen. Compare it with the trench coat published in this run, which also claims an oversized silhouette and measures eight and a half inches of ease at its best and two and a third at its worst: the same word, two completely different garments.

Seventy centimetres six times, on a garment that is also getting wider, and that is the second thing. This is the third column in two batches that does not grade at all, after the sleeve of 64 on the long sleeve tee and the length of 115 on the trench, and the argument this run has made about both applies here: a column with no variation carries no information about the size you are buying. On a tee there is a defensible version of the decision, and it is worth giving the reference the benefit of it, because an oversized tee is often deliberately cut to one length so that it looks the same on everybody, and a designer who wants that look will hold the length and grade only the width. But holding the length while the chest grows is not a neutral act, and the arithmetic shows it. The chest goes from 41.7 in around at a UK 6 to 52.0 at a UK 16, which is ten and a quarter inches wider, while the length stays at 70 cm throughout. So the size 6 is a garment 70 long by 41.7 wide and the size 16 is 70 long by 52 wide, and those are visibly different silhouettes: the first hangs longer than it is wide and the second is nearly square. A customer who tries the 6 and orders the 16 on the strength of it is not getting the same shape. Then there is the sleeve, which reads 20, 20, 20, 21, 22 and 23. It is the only short sleeve measurement in this run, which is to the page's credit, since most short sleeved garments publish no sleeve at all, and 20 cm is a long short sleeve reaching well down the upper arm. But it does not move for the first three sizes, and this run has now met that signature four times in two batches: a column that is flat at the bottom of the range and then starts grading, which is the shape of a column filled in from one measurement and then adjusted, rather than of six garments measured. An arm does grow between a UK 6 and a UK 10, and a shoulder does widen. And 70 cm of length is a long tee, sitting below the hip on most bodies, and no model height is published, so as with almost every garment in this run the one length figure that would let a customer place the others is missing.

Organic in one place and cotton in the other, and a hand described without a weight, and that is the third thing. The copy says the tee is crafted from a super soft organic cotton, and the specification tab on the same page says made from 100% cotton with no mention of organic. The long sleeve graphic tee from this same house, published earlier in this run, does exactly the same thing: organic in the description, plain cotton in the specification. So two of the two tees examined from this house leave their fibre position ambiguous in the same way, which is a pattern rather than an accident, and it matters because organic cotton carries a premium and a paper trail. No certifying body is named in either place on either garment, so even taking the description at face value there is no way to tell whether it is certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard or to the Organic Content Standard or asserted on a supplier declaration, and this run has now met that shape of claim five times with the same recommendation each time: name the standard and hold the transaction certificate. Then there is the hand. Super soft is the sixth unnumbered cloth description in this run, after heavyweight, finest, soft, reassuring weight and crisp, and on a tee it is the one that matters most, because a jersey at 140 grams per square metre and one at 220 are different garments at different prices, they drape differently, they print differently and they last differently, and a tee is the garment where the cloth is nearly the whole cost. Then the print, which is the reason anyone buys this tee and which is specified by nothing at all. A large graphic on the front and a smaller motif on the back is two placements and two artwork setups, and no method is given: a plastisol screen print sits on the cloth with a plastic hand and cracks eventually, a water based or discharge print sits in the cloth with almost no hand and is the premium choice, and digital suits short runs and behaves differently again in the wash. They cost differently, they feel different and they age differently. Two things follow for anyone developing a version of this, and both were made in detail on the long sleeve tee earlier in this run, so they can be stated briefly here. The first is testing: a printed garment needs a rub fastness and a wash fastness result on the print itself, and no fastness figure appears here. The second is placement across sizes, which is the one that catches people out: artwork is sized for the sample and then placed at a fixed distance from a seam or a neck point, so across six sizes the print occupies a different proportion of the front on every size, and if the placement is not specified the graphics land in different places. We specify placement from named reference points, we approve a printed sample in two sizes rather than one, and we develop artwork from your brief, since reproducing another brand's graphics is not something we do. Every bulk shipment gets a measurement report against your approved chart.

Optional upgrades include grading the body length across the size set so the silhouette stays the same as the width grows, grading the sleeve from the first size rather than the fourth, naming the certifying body behind the organic claim and holding the transaction certificate, stating the cloth weight in grams per square metre, specifying the print method and quoting plastisol, water based, discharge and digital separately, testing rub and wash fastness on both prints, specifying print placement from named reference points and approving printed samples in two sizes, developing artwork from your own brief, a closer fit with four to six inches less ease, a V or a boat neck option, a longer and a shorter body length, size set, colour development, private label, hangtag and care labelling.

Pre-production sample approval, in-line inspection during cutting and sewing, and a final AQL inspection before packing, with measurement reports and photos shared before shipment.

Send us your tech pack, a photo or a reference garment and we will quote within 24 hours. Contact bafinasa@bafinasa.com or WhatsApp +86 13827222469.