Print faults in lawn: smudges, lines and crooked prints

Recognising each one

Lay the fabric flat in daylight and look at it from a little distance, then close up.

• Smudges and smears: a blurred patch where ink was dragged across the surface.
• Stray spots: small dots of colour where none belong, often in the background.
• Out of register: each colour is printed separately, and when one shifts you see a white halo beside the outlines or a doubled edge. Screen prints are more prone to it than digital prints.
• White or pale lines: an unprinted streak running across or along the cloth, usually where a crease went through the printer.
• Banding: repeated lighter or darker stripes, most often a fault on digital prints.
• Print off the straight: the pattern runs at an angle to the selvedge, or curves across the width, so stripes and borders slope.

What can be cut around

A tailor lays pieces out with some freedom, so a single mark can sometimes be placed where it disappears: inside the neckline cut-out, which is thrown away, in a facing, on the inner leg of the trousers, or under the arm. A pale line across a shirt piece can occasionally be hidden in a yoke seam or under a border. All of this needs spare fabric, and a three-piece pack often has very little, so measure first.

Hand block prints are a special case. Slight irregularities, visible joins between block repeats and small variations in depth of colour are part of the method, not faults. Our guide to block, digital and screen print explains why.

What cannot be fixed by cutting

Colours out of register across the whole length change the look of the print everywhere, so the only question is whether you accept it. A print off the straight is harder still. Cut the pieces on the grain and the pattern slants across the body; cut them to follow the pattern and the garment is off grain, so it twists after washing and the side seams start to spiral. A printed border that runs off the straight is the clearest case: as a hem border it will slope, and no amount of careful cutting changes that.

What to photograph before anything is cut

Sellers usually deal with a fault only while the fabric is uncut, so collect the evidence first. Our guides on judging the quality of an unstitched suit and photographing fabric go into more detail; for lawn in particular, daylight shows faults far better than indoor light.

If you still want the suit made, mention the fault and attach the photos when you ask for a stitching-only quote. With Stitching Only, we confirm that the fabric is suitable before you post anything, and where a mark should go is agreed in writing.

• The whole piece laid flat, in daylight.
• A close-up of each fault with a tape measure in the shot for scale.
• For a crooked print, a tape laid along the selvedge and a second straight edge across the pattern, so the slope is visible.
• The selvedge print or label showing the brand and article number.
• The packaging and proof of purchase, kept together.