DSF

Now that we're managing to get about a year of machine washing twice a week out of the dye subbed cotton shirts with the only noticeable change being a bit of whitish fluffing up of the fibres from the washing machine and tumble dryer, we're looking at going Dye Sub for all our cotton.

Over Christmas we experimented with hot water soaking in NapiSan and hot water hand washing, and the results are so far spectacular.

As much as I like JetProSS, and IronAll, I find they just don't stand up as well as a dye subbed shirt. And people are now asking for the dye sub on cotton for casual wear and dye sub poly for sports wear.

So it looks like heat transfer will be a thing of the past for us - and I still have all this JetPro and Ironall paper

Is this onto 100% cotton t's?

Yes, 100%. I've given up arguing about it - now I just do it. I'm still perfecting the process. This pic shows an A4 scene on the left printed on JetProSS back around Jan/Feb last year and machine washed / hot tumble dried about 30 times, and the orange looking sunset on A3 dye subbed (100% cotton) about Jan/Feb last year and worn two or three times most weeks and hand or machine washed (so close to 100 times), depending if the machine was being used that day.

You can see the JetPro shirt is losing its black writing and the clear carrier has copped a hammering.
The A3 dye subbed sunset just shows some brushing up of the cotton fibres because of the friction from machine washing and tumble drying.

I'm still sorting the problems with linking the carrier to the cotton, but it is a bit like what goes on with Chromablast I suppose, except it does not use a special paper.

But it works, it does not wash out, there is no hand, it is getting cheaper as I work out different ways to make the carrier, and we can now make saleable items.

To be honest, I only do it because it is supposed to be impossible

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Here's another. Both shirts were pressed on Christmas day. The one on the right was a failure because I messed up the carrier, and it is only darker because it ended up pressed for about 2 and a half minutes - and you know what that does to dye sub ink.
The shirt on the left has been worn for exercise until soaked in sweat 7 times, and after each time, soaked in hot water and NapiSan stain remover. Then it was hand washed in hot water, and either hung out or tumble dried.

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Very interesting - what happens if not soaked in NapiSan?

And this is one I did today. Pic on left is hot off the press, still in the workshop. Pic on the right is after I wore it in town and at the airport this morning, then did the hot soak in NapiSan, hot wash, then dry. It is not really brighter, just looks that way because it is outside.

I think another year to perfect the formula and be 100% certain, and it could be viable for other people to do. But for now, we are turning ALL our white cotton printing to dye sub, unless we have a major fail. We have a backup plan. 100% guarantee. If someone has a serious problem that is not caused by stupidity, we'll do one in heat transfer for them, as long as they send back the original and can prove they didn't mistreat the shirt.

But with the exception of chlorine bleach and concentrated truck wash detergent, so far we've had a good run.

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Very interesting - what happens if not soaked in NapiSan?

Not a lot. I just use NapiSan becaus it is a pre-soak stain remover. I like my white shirts 'white', and chlorine bleach is a little severe. OMO, Surf and the rest is fine so far.

But we're still perfecting it. I've watched some demonstrations on the web for methods that people claim don't work. We took that idea and took it a little further by finding a way to lock the carrier into the cotton. It isn't rocket science. And just because it can't be done is no reason not to make it happen

Before I got ill I thrived on impossible challenges. Now every day is 'only' a challenge.

rossdv8;81509 wrote:Yes, 100%. I've given up arguing about it - now I just do it. I'm still perfecting the process. This pic shows an A4 scene on the left printed on JetProSS back around Jan/Feb last year and machine washed / hot tumble dried about 30 times, and the orange looking sunset on A3 dye subbed (100% cotton) about Jan/Feb last year and worn two or three times most weeks and hand or machine washed (so close to 100 times), depending if the machine was being used that day.

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The print/colours on the JetProSS shirt look better than the sublimation one on the right,which looks washed out/faded, and certainly not the same quality as a sublimated 100% polyester fabric.

Exactly right pisquee, but colourwise it is an illusion. What happens is that after the first 50 or so washes we're getting cotton fibres 'brushing up' from the friction in the washing machine and tumble dryer. A bit like what happens to denim. Where it was lovely dark blue, you get brushed fibres showing through.
So far hand washing seems to prevent that altogether, but you know what customers are like. They will chuck stuff in a commercial laundromat with 6 pairs of jeans and a dozen towels.

And therein lies the problem of sublimating into 100% cotton. What 'we' are doing is dying the cotton deeply with a compound that accepts sublimation dye, but is still inert. so as I've said often in this forum - it is more like sublimating a ceramic mug than sublimating polyester cloth.

But it is now working well enough that people who hand wash, even in hot water, get at least half a year of one day a week wear before they notice any difference. I'm happy with that. We're putting a $2.00 process into a $4,00 shirt and selling it for $20.00 that now takes only a little more time than sub into polyester.. I do not intend to complain about the economics, and by end of next year if I'm still alive I think others will be doing this.

And it is simple comments and observations like this that you have made on other posts that have helped make this successful.

pisquee;81515 wrote:The print/colours on the JetProSS shirt look better than the sublimation one on the right,which looks washed out/faded, and certainly not the same quality as a sublimated 100% polyester fabric.

I see your point but you have to take into consideration the wash times given for each. It would have been better if the same photo had been used on the two shirts to test colour fastness. I am very interested in this carrier experimentation, what are these videos you refer to?