# Questions about discharge on 50/50 tee's



## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

I read a lot of threads about the possibilites of doing discharge on 50/50 blend garments. I understand that only the cotton will discharge and the finished garment will have a different look. I did a test run of multi-color print on 50/50 cotton/polyester blend shirts and have a few questions.

-The shirts looked pretty vivid until I did a wash & dry, then the colors faded out , (as I expected it to look like right away)

1)Is there a way to accomplish this without doing the wash ?
2) if the customer does this wash at home is there anything to worry about as far as ink bleeding out or anything else ?


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

Discharge ink is for 100% cotton not blends as it discharges the dye into the cotton. Polly's is plastic and can't absorb the dye. Plus you have to catch a lot of Polly's to make a shirt. John


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## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

Uncle John said:


> Discharge ink is for 100% cotton not blends as it discharges the dye into the cotton.



I understand that discharge only works on the cotton, the effect you get when discharging a 50/50 shirt is an aged, washed out look, which looks fine with the design I am doing. If I wanted a vivid bright color I would use a 100% cotton shirt. I can't imagine nobody has used discharge this way on a 50/50 garment before


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

I have tried it. It works for the distressed look. I used a plain discharge for one screen and another screen with discharge with red pigment added on a black shirt.
The red bleed into the plain discharge part of the design after the first wash. So what was white became pink.
This was only true for the 50/50 shirts I did, the 100% cotton had no bleed. My guess would be the poly doesn't grab the pigment and it released in the wash thus migrating into the white.


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## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

I've got the samples done, they look good for the distressed look i am going for, my only concern is that it wont continue to bleed colors over time that could bleed onto other garments in the same wash load.


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

dptk said:


> I've got the samples done, they look good for the distressed look i am going for, my only concern is that it wont continue to bleed colors over time that could bleed onto other garments in the same wash load.


Are you using pigmented discharge? If you are I would not worry about it running into other garments in the wash, just bleeding into white areas of the same garment.


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## Dan K (Nov 15, 2006)

We think the distressed not completely opaque prints on 50/50's look cool, as a matter of fact, I am attaching a picture of a discharge print on an American Apparel Tri Blend shirt. 

To get it more distressed looking, if that is your goal, add a filter or distress the art before you print your films.

If cured completely you should not have to worry about colors or pigments migrating in the wash for sure, or in the print...


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

Dan K said:


> We think the distressed not completely opaque prints on 50/50's look cool, as a matter of fact, I am attaching a picture of a discharge print on an American Apparel Tri Blend shirt.
> 
> To get it more distressed looking, if that is your goal, add a filter or distress the art before you print your films.
> 
> If cured completely you should not have to worry about colors or pigments migrating in the wash for sure, or in the print...


Dan,
Do you think my bleeding could have been because it was a 50/50 sweatshirt? It is a very. very small tint of pink in the white but it happened. Maybe it could have been not fully cured but all of the cotton garments I did in the same run had no bleeding.


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## Dan K (Nov 15, 2006)

auggieboy said:


> Dan,
> Do you think my bleeding could have been because it was a 50/50 sweatshirt? It is a very. very small tint of pink in the white but it happened. Maybe it could have been not fully cured but all of the cotton garments I did in the same run had no bleeding.


It could be a result of not curing it long enough, water base takes longer than plastisol since you must cook all of the moisture/water out of the inks printed. I was thinking that if it was not cured long enough, maybe that is why the color migrated in the wash a little.

I am not sure of that though, we have not had this problem.

However, since you say they were sweatshirts, there may lie part of the problem... Since you're driving the WB/discharge inks into the fabric, and since that fabric is pretty thick, it may take longer to cure since there is more ink deeper in the fabric.

Were the black 100% cotton garments t shirts, or were those sweatshirts too?

It also depends a lot on the garment. We are very cautious printing WB/discharge on fleece. The best results we've had are American Apparel fleece, and the very best is the Independent Trading Company eco series (organics). These are higher quality sweatshirts with a tighter weave. Some of the lower quality, and especially 50/50 sweatshirts have a pretty loose weave, and we try to encourage customers to print plastisol only on those, or we try to direct customers to the sweatshirts (AA and ITC) that print best with water base, and are 100% cotton...

Your guess as to it being a poly specific issue is most likely right on, compounded with the fleece thickness and weave issue...


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

I agree with the thickness of the fleece needing more cure time, excellent point. And no, the other garments where t-shirts, I tried some cheap black 50/50 sweatshirts at the end of the run.
As a side note let me ask you this: are you washing these garments before you deliver to your customers? and if so how?


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## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

I also have big question as to if these need to be washed before sale


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

Well, from my understanding, and talking to reps at the ISS show in AC this weekend they do. I'm just not to sure of how this would be done logistically.


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

Just a thought, fleece vs t-shirt is like a cotton ball vs a paper towel. If a lot of moisture was in the sweats, that's water and could cause migration. Next time try running the shirts thrugh the dryer first to get the excess moisture out.


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## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

auggieboy said:


> Well, from my understanding, and talking to reps at the ISS show in AC this weekend they do.


I presume you are saying they do need to be washed ? Is this for all discharged garments or just 50/50 , luckily I have a commercial laundry that will do a wash, just additional expense, I found an industrial laundry & uniform service that will do a wash , should be similar business in most cities, just hard to find if they will do it.


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

We have never washed a shirt that we printed on and I think most printers do the same, we just embellish them not wash and iron...lol


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

John I agree, I don't want to do that much laundry either, who wants to iron that many shirts? but from my understanding it is highly recommended to wash discharged garments after printing because some people may have an allergic reaction to the discharge.
This last weekend a rep also told me that if a discharged garment is not post-washed it could effect the fabric if stored for a long period of time, meaning if you print it and put them on a shelf for a few months the fabric could discolor or degrade (this was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing, I have shirts from 6 months ago that I did not wash after printing and they look fine).


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## dptk (Aug 14, 2009)

auggieboy said:


> but from my understanding it is highly recommended to wash discharged garments after printing


I have heard the same thing, but does anybody actually do it ? I havent ever talked to a printer who actually does a post-wash, although I think really should


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

auggieboy said:


> John I agree, I don't want to do that much laundry either, who wants to iron that many shirts? but from my understanding it is highly recommended to wash discharged garments after printing because some people may have an allergic reaction to the discharge.
> This last weekend a rep also told me that if a discharged garment is not post-washed it could effect the fabric if stored for a long period of time, meaning if you print it and put them on a shelf for a few months the fabric could discolor or degrade (this was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing, I have shirts from 6 months ago that I did not wash after printing and they look fine).


Len. were a contract printer and to wash the thousands of shirts we print a month we would have to charge a ton to do it. I understand some people may have a reaction but they know this and they pre-wash there clothing.


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

dptk said:


> I have heard the same thing, but does anybody actually do it ? I havent ever talked to a printer who actually does a post-wash, although I think really should


DP, if you wash a shirt it's not new. Just my opinion. John


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

Wow John, you print thousands of discharged T's a month? Then I guess if I have any questions on discharge your the man.
I need to run 100 discharged ring spun shirts next week and I'm kind of freaking out over the whole "wash it, don't wash it" thing.


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

Len, we print plastosol ink, Discharge sometimes but to wash a shirt after printing would be a nightmare.


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## auggieboy (Mar 22, 2008)

Uncle John said:


> Len, we print plastosol ink, Discharge sometimes but to wash a shirt after printing would be a nightmare.


I'm sorry I guess we where unclear we where discussing washing a shirt after discharge printing, I would never think of doing post wash for regular printing (what a nightmare)


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## Dan K (Nov 15, 2006)

No need to wash, especially if they are fully cured, all moisture cooked out. You'll notice that if they are fully cured you can't really smell it either, if your printed shirts smell like rotten eggs after the first pass through the dryer, they're probably not fully cured.


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