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OCTOBER 2015 •
PPB
• 65
THE ABCs OF GARMENT DECORATING
Choosing The Right
Process For The
Right Fabric
The type of decoration process you use
depends on the type of garment. For
example, dye sublimation requires a gar-
ment with some kind of polyester con-
tent. When heated with the press, the
inks that are printed on dye-sub paper
go from a solid to a gas—i.e. they subli-
mate—which is infused into the poly-
ester content to reproduce the image.
This infusion cannot happen with cotton.
The more polyester your shirt contains,
the more color is infused and the richer
and brighter the image will be. The best
fabric choice for the dye-sublimation
process is 100-percent polyester.
When it comes to cotton fabrics,
there are all types of weights, weaves
and other options that affect the feel of
the shirt. These different characteristics
also affect how smooth a shirt is to the
touch. Fibrillation occurs when the fibers
of the garment do not lay flat and
smooth but rather stick up, creating an
uneven texture. This results in a print
that is not smooth, and fibrillation can
also affect the evenness of the color.
Fibrillation can occur in
screen printing and
direct-to-garment print-
ing. Using a heat press
to flatten your garment
before direct-to-gar-
ment printing can help
smooth out the fibers.
Printing a good under-
base will help smooth
the fibers for screen
printing as well.
Because just about
all of these processes
use heat, whether it is a
dryer for curing a screen
print or a heat press to
apply a graphic, pay
particular attention to
polyester and other
plastic-based
components of fabrics. Some fabrics will
not work for all processes and can be
burned or scorched. Check with your
printer to see which fabrics can or cannot
be used with your decoration process.
Heat Transfer Vinyl
Stretchy athletic wear that is becom-
ing increasingly popular is particularly
sensitive to different processes. Special
vinyl materials are made to adhere prop-
erly and stretch along with the fabric,
unlike standard vinyl that does not
stretch.
When choosing a garment, consider
not only the fabric but the color of the
garment itself. Since the paper is printed
through an inkjet printer in the dye subli-
mation process, white ink is not printed.
Therefore, you’ll want to use this process
on a light-colored garment, preferably
white, particularly if your image contains
a lot of white. Otherwise, the shirt color
will show through the image and affect
the design.
Fibrillation
When it comes to cotton fabrics, there are
all types of weights, weaves and other
options that affect the feel of the shirt.
These different characteristics also affect
how smooth a shirt is to the touch.
Decorating Concerns