Beautiful T-shirts with colorful designs are no longer unusual. But if you yourself decided to start the production of such T-shirts, it is simply necessary to learn about the methods with which you can apply a pattern to knitwear. Some of them are suitable for individual production, while others are only suitable for industrial and mass production.
Instructions
Step 1
Screen printing is a great way to get great results. The problem is that it will require quite expensive equipment, but if you plan to produce T-shirts with one pattern in an edition of 100 units or more, screen printing will be a very good solution.
Step 2
There are special printers for printing on fabric. This is an interesting and promising method, but the price of the device and consumables is quite high. Nevertheless, the print is stable and colorful.
Step 3
Thermal Transfer - Printing using thermal transfer. The application of the image is carried out by transferring from the carrier to the fabric using a heat press. The cost of the press varies depending on how high-quality it is, as well as on its type: the press can be folding or swivel. Also, thermal transfer can be laser, inkjet, stencil or film. Depending on the subspecies, the quality of the pattern and the cost of its application will vary greatly.
Step 4
Jet transfer. With this method, printing is carried out with ordinary ink on a printer, sometimes even on household ink, but on special paper. The paper is placed face down on the fabric and placed under a heat press. This is one of the most affordable and cheapest ways to print a design on a T-shirt. But its disadvantage is that the image is unstable, it gradually fade and washed out in the process of wearing and washing things.
Step 5
Sublimation is another thermal transfer method that uses an inkjet printer, but unlike the previous method, special sublimation inks are required. From household printers, only EPSON is suitable, since only this brand has suitable printheads. If you use plain paper, the image on the T-shirt is worse, so it's better to use special paper. It is more advisable to use fabric with a high synthetic content, not less than 70%. For printing on natural cotton fabrics, special films should be used, otherwise the sublimation will not hold. However, sublimation printing has many advantages: the image is extremely durable, bright and colorful. It is possible to start a T-shirt printing business using the sublimation method with minimal cost.
Step 6
Laser transfer practically does not differ from inkjet transfer. You also need special transfer paper and paints, but you can print on both cotton fabrics and synthetics. The durability of such an image is relatively low. It is much lower than with sublimation printing.
Step 7
Screen transfer resembles conventional screen printing, but the transfer of the image is done first on paper and only then on fabric. This is more convenient, since you can prepare many stencil sheets in advance and then print on fabric, no longer thinking about the choice of colors and patterns.
Step 8
Thermal transfer by film is the method that produces the most stable image. The starting material is a film that has an adhesive layer. When the transfer is done, it melts a little and "tightly" passes onto the fabric.
