Transfers on Lycra Swimming Costumes?

[Stitch Up]

Hi guys

A local lifesavers group have asked us to print/transfer on to Lycra swimming costumes. They had some done recently by a local firm, but the transfer just came off.

Is there any special transfer/vinyl to press on Lycra?

John

[djhutton]

Yes there are but having tried a few there are problems with it 'grinning' (splitting) when the fabric stretches so you have to be a bit careful which one you use. I ended up doing it with dye sub print (as this is how most are coloured/printed anyway) The only problem there is that you can't print light on dark, but if the design allows for a dark colour onto a light (ish) fabric then it's no problem.

I found the standard flex from BMS worked as well as any on swimsuit fabric, but I can't vouch for it staying on as I ended up printing it.

The problem with it coming off might have been to do with the fabric, I had a similar problem with some jackets I did a while ago with nylon flex. Perfect result, except that a few months later the transfer came clean off, so clean in fact that I was able to peel the rest off and embroider instead! The only real answer after a bit of research was that there was some sort of 'dressing' on the fabric (in the case of the jackets probably silicone) which must have affected the adhesive.

If you want a bit of plain white swimwear fabric to experiment , let me know as I have some here.

DJ