Maybe its referring to at home DIY transfer vs commercially available transfer?
Yeah, the Avery brand that you get at walmart, office depot, Etc which are printed on an inkjet and applied with an iron and ironing board at home absolutely stuck and do not last.
You want to use real HTV, a vinyl cutter and a heat press for standard HTV.
Pretty much the same with the dye sublimatable HTV.
If I was in your position, I would get one of the shirts that you’re going to use, go check out a place called Joinus off Harry Hines (look it up on google maps) and get a few different variations of HTV and check it out.
I believe they even have the sublimatable HTV.
Can you post a picture of the logo?
Would give a better idea of what you trying to accomplish.
Ah that makes perfect sense.
So high quality HTV cannot be printed on an Ink-Jet?
No regular inkjet ink is for paper. It’s not intended for the kind of wear you get with clothing.
Dye sublimation is Dye, not really ink. And it will print on HTV. You have to cut HTV with one of the 3 vinyl cutter options we have in creative arts.
Overall though:
I agree W/ @Hardsuit … it’ll be cheaper & faster to order them from Custom Ink or a tshirt company of your choosing.
When making 15-20 black shirts
Airbrush + stencils:
you’re looking at an hour per shirt, and $40-50 just for the paint, basecoat & topcoat, plus 3-4 stencils.
I made these hoodies awhile back and they looked good for 5yrs. While there’s only ‘two colors’ there, There’s also a base coat and a top coat that needed to happen for the hoodie to look good & last.
Silk screens: Probably averages to 1hr/shirt.
$35/screen x 3 or 4 screens= 105-140 in screens.
Then you’ll need transparencies for each screen, to expose and dry each screen and additional colors.
THEN you’ll need to align each of the screens in the carousel, THEN screen print and dry.
If you’re determined to do home-made black shirts, heat transfer vinyl and dye sublimation is the way to go.
Plz keep in mind: I teach dye sub painting & have a background in graphic design, and @Hardsuit has been doing printmaking for decades.
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Why don’t we just print up some mechanic patches for your shirts? We can do that in dye sub for around $5 in ink (total) + $2/patch.
Its more of time constraint than cost, although is a fsctor is a factor as well.
May i see an example of the patch?
Here are some examples from online-
You buy blank sublimation patches, we heat set the color images into them, you sew them to the shirt.
Design considerations- I would do your logo on a white background. Edge to edge color seems to fade right at the stitching and looks weird.
These are patches I made. You can see the fading near the stitching.
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This is the logo:
Its approx 11x4 on the back of the shirt and the other print on thr front of the shirt.
Yes, dye sublimation
So you will cut white vinyl, apply to shirts. Printout dye sub, and apply that to the htv in the shirt.
You need to take classes in vinyl cutting and dye sub printing to accomplish this.
Sisser glitter white or sisser white are good htv choices
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I have a plotter at home, so im familar with cutting, just not sublimation
After seeing the logo, dye sub all the way.
That fade/gradation in the grey is basically impossible to replicate by a newbie printer in screen printing, and not easy even with a pro running full up professional gear way beyond what we have at the space.
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Is there anyone that may be able to give me a quick explanation of the ironing machines, or are they fairly self explanatory? The DTF for the test shirts is suppose to arrive today.
Sign up for this class - hurry they fill up quick… But he covers everything you’ll need to know and more.
Done, Im not even sure where the heat press is located. Is the equipment in creative arts or Print making?
Creative Arts - actually a room off of the Creative Arts area.
Cary covers a lot in the class, it is mainly about Dye Sublimation but will cover the heating press as well [the do’s & don’ts]. He should be able to answer some of your questions for your application.
Just another option, Createx ‘wicked’ airbrush paints are great for painting directly onto fabric. Incase you wanted more option. You don’t technically need a base for it, but their 5601 is recommended.
Creative Arts owns the heat press.
Thank you!