Dilema for Dark Garments ................

[AdamB]

So,

I really want to start offering Dark Garments in my shop and online.

I have had many requests for them and to know I have avoided using t-shirt transfers due to the fact that you can't tumble dry them and (from what I've heard) they fall apart after a couple of washes .............. not a good thing for what I want to do (unique designs).

Obviously, I would love a DTG printer but my pockets are not that deep so I have been looking very intensely at printable vinyl that you run through a printer with pigment ink (epson durabrite ink is reccomended) and then cut the outine with the vinyl cutter then press.

I have aproached many people asking for a sample of the printable vinyl - printed with an image as I don't have epson durabtite inks in my printer - to no avail!

What does everyone else do when someone wants stuff like this on a dark garment?

I have overlaid vinyl on dark t-s up to about 4 colours and it looks the job but I am on about designs on t-shirts that will be contained in a circle and are multi coloured.

Anyone using printable vinyl at the moment? Or is anyone using an epson printer with durabrite inl that could print a sample if I send it to them (I'll pay obviously).

Many thanks

Adam

[bms]

How about a piece of white material that is like printable flex (or OBM for the colour laser) but you use your sublimation printer? You print onto paper then heat press this to the white material, then remove the backing and heat press it onto your garment? With a cutter you could cut around the image as well. If this is of interest then remind me of your postcode and I'll send an A5 sample piece to you for testing (and feedback...?).

[AdamB]

I'm interested Martin, but just thinking ................ how would I cut it with the cutter?

Thinking outloud, I would have to cut the shape out first on the cutter, then sublimate the image onto it flex.

Once this is done I would then press this onto a t-shirt as per normal flex?

I'll PM you my address now Martin.

Adam

[AdamB]

Hopefully, I will be able to stick a review and some images of the flex very shortly ............... big thanks to Martin for the reply and suggestion.

[draig]

I've tested some of the Subli Flex, it does a good job but seems to be a bit on the heavy side (not the BMS one but one of the competitors). Then again this was a while ago and hopefully the vinyl is not as thick now. Timing is of the essence to get a good deep print so follow the instructions to a tee.

Sharon

[AdamB]

Timing is of the essence to get a good deep print so follow the instructions to a tee.....

hopefully these will be included!

[bms]

Thinking outloud, I would have to cut the shape out first on the cutter, then sublimate the image onto it flex.

This is the way I would go with this as well as subli-flock. The complication is the mirroring of the image...

[DREAMGLASS]

I evaluated lots of ways to print up onto darks.

The subli vinyl is just far too heavy and feels like an old raincoat welded to the tee. Prints up well and washes well though.

Subli flock. Creates a fuzzy image because of its surface texture. Gives the impression of a poor print quality, which just isn't merchantable for many goods.

Inkjet transfers. Avoid the cheap ones as they'll give you nothing but grief. As a general guideline expect to pay upwards of £80 per hundred for a decent usable product.

DTG. To print on darks you have to print a heavy white underlay to lay the regular inks into. This can lead to cracking of the image after just a short period of use. Last print show I went to, a couple of tees had cracked almost as soon as they'd left the demonstration machines. Whilst DTG's are good with light coloured tees, white ink can be real pain and has a reputation for clogging in the ink supply lines, on the print heads and on the dampers.

Vinyl. Can be time consuming to weed and unsuitable for many detailed multi colour designs.

Although we have put man on the moon, there are still NO cost effective and trauma free methods for putting images onto dark tees.

The conclusion I came to was to create your designs to match the print methods you have at your disposal.

[JSR]

It seems that all of these methods - using special papers, printable vinyls, and other "stick it on" items - are "square peg in round hole" solutions, as though we're all trying to find the most difficult way of achieving that which should be so simple.

Why doesn't a supplier sell a range of coloured garments that have an A4 or A3 white "patch" on the front that we could print to with dye-sub?

Wouldn't that answer one particular issue for dark garments (i.e., printing a photo on them)? We'd be able to print photos onto coloured garments, and have no problems with alignment.

Does anyone sell such a range of garments? And, if not, why not? Sounds like there'd be a market for them.

[NASH]

here you JSR, Patent this idea