I’m looking for a website that can make a custom patch for me, with velcro backing. I’ve googled high and low, and I can’t seem to find one that offers both no minimum order and allows custom sizes, without being crazy expensive. Anybody know of one?
Look up patches for pilots–a lot of fighter/bomber/helo/etc. pilots (and missile geeks too) have Nomex suits with the looped velcro patch sewn on. They then take their unit (or “flight patches”) and have the hook velcro sewn onto that.
I’m sure there are plenty of places that will do the embroidery for you. All you need to do is have them sew on the hook stuff for you afterwards.
Tripler
I’m not a pilot, nor a missileer. I’m just surrounded by them.
Back in the '80s I tried to have a custom patch made. I had a nice colour copy of the original, which I sent with the order. What came back was… sub-par. The aircraft on the patch was vaguely aircraft-shaped, but it looked like someone had tried to duplicate a nice pen-and-ink drawing with a Magic Marker. I did get a refund, but damn! They could have at least tried to make it accurate!
As far as Velcro, I used to put it on my patches. I’d get 2"-wide rolls and sew a couple of lengths together on a sewing machine. Then I’d sew the patch to it and trim the excess with scissors. Super-easy.
I don’t think that is quite what I was looking for, but cool nonetheless.
I need custom printing done on the patch, and I don’t think they really do that.
Instead of trying to find someone who can make a custom Velcro patch, just get a patch made, then go to the nearest Boy Scout store, buy some Badge Magic and use it to attach the Velcro. The stuff works really well.
In the service I wore 3 of those patches every day for years. The unit got the patches as the typical embroidered cloth with a thick glue-y backing.
Then they took a 2" roll of velcro hook tape & sewed it to the patch. The sewing was done on a heavy duty machine, and just around the edges. It usually took 2 widths of tape to do a patch. The more conscientious seamsters would tack the center seam down someplace near the middle where the sticjhes wouldn’t be obvious. Then the velcro was trimmed to the patch outline & you be stylin’.
Bottom line: It’s a simple 5-minute DIY for anyone with a typical sewing machine & a thick needle.
So my advice is to ignore the velcro part & concentrate on the patch part. It’s trivial to get shirts & such embriodered from a jpg these days. They often charge a setup fee, but that just reflects the reality of their costs. I haven’t researched patches, but there’s no obvious reason they should be any harder/more expensive than shirts.