# American Apparel Style sublimation T shirts



## thehand (Feb 12, 2011)

Has anybody come across American Apparel Style sublimation T shirts available in the UK as the only t shirts I have found are not very nice shape wise and I need something that has a more fitted look?


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I just got a catalog from TSC apparel and they have a sublimation shirt in it. It's a unisex shirt and not shaped all that great. All you need is a 100% polyester white shirt for sublimation.


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## thehand (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks for the info, it's good to know that 100% polyester is good enough but, bad to hear that I can only use that material for fashion t shirts whille using sublimation


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

That's one of the drawbacks of sublimation. It only works with polyester. It may print on cotton but as soon as it goes in the washer the ink comes right off. I even tried using some of that polyester fabric spray.. don't waste your money. Oh it looked great, until I washed it. Image went down the drain along with the water. But if you have a different printer (preferably an epson with epson inks) you can print regular heat transfers or you can order some plastisol transfers and use them too. Both of those work on cotton.


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## thehand (Feb 12, 2011)

I do have an epson printer and I already use the 3G opaque for darks and SS soft stretch for whites but, I am not happy with the results.
The 3G has a heavy hand and is just marginaly better than much cheaper transfer paper found on ebay (still has that paper like quality and sound to it) which doesnt convince me of value for money and that my customers will go for it, while the SS comes out great sometimes but, the results are not always consistant and I can easily end up with failures using it as it cools very quickly and i intend to use A3 for a print run.
Also when heating the SS transfer for 30 secs on white tees it leave you with a slightly yellow border from the plate of the heat press, I may try a sheet of Teflon but, you have to be so precise just to get a usable result and I fear the Teflon will deflect some of the heat.

I have heard of the plastisol tranfer process but, always thought it would be expensive as I have a lot of designs and I would imagine you have to order a load of them at once. Do you have any experience with it, if so can you recommend any descent places I can get it done at a good price in the UK?


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I'm from the USA so I don't know any suppliers in the UK. But you can check with transferexpress.com. They have a minimum of 10 and will do custom orders. It never hurts to ask. There are other places that do plastisol transfers too. I'm even set up to do them, but have never made one before. I'm still learning screen printing. 

But I know what you mean about inconsistent quality with the heat transfers. One time they work and the next time you ruin a half a dozen shirts trying to get just one to come out right. I stopped doing them a long time ago. I love the way sublimation comes out on a shirt. Have you tried chromablast yet? That works on white cotton and has a feel similar to sublimation. But you have to weed it really close to the edge of your image because it leaves a yellow ring around the image. It does wash out but looks really tacky.

The attached image is of a shirt I made with chromablast ink and paper. The yellow ring is gone now and the image is still clear after dozens of washings and 2 years of wear.

Now someone on here was using chromablast paper with the claria ink that she had with her epson printer and was getting some good results.


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## thehand (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks, that may be a good solution to try out.

I stopped do screen prints a long time ago due to moving from a house to an apartment (very messy process) but the best results!


Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums


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