# Bleaching



## Klannon (Jan 31, 2021)

Has anyone had a problem with a shirt not bleaching? I bought George brand from Walmart, 65% poly 35% cotton, gray color


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

What do you mean by 'bleaching'?


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Bleaching with chlorine bleach is just another form of discharge printing, and as with all discharge printing, results depend upon the dyes originally used to dye the fabric. Some dyes will not be affected at all, some not to the extent desired, while some will easily discharge/bleach away to nothing. YMMV, but will likely be better with garments intended to be sold as blanks to garment printers/decorators, such as Gildan, Tultex, Next Level, etc.

Most people seem to use the Heather colors of the Gildan 64000 (or shortened to G640) shirts. They are 65/35% poly/cotton. But Gildan inventories are low, as their supply chain was heavily impacted by the pandemic. At this point, you might have a hard time finding anything suitable.


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## Denim12 (Apr 15, 2016)

What brand of bleach are you using, and what bleach to water ratio mixture?


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Klannon said:


> Has anyone had a problem with a shirt not bleaching? I bought George brand from Walmart, 65% poly 35% cotton, gray color


Synthetic fabrics like polyester do not bleach.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

TABOB said:


> Synthetic fabrics like polyester do not bleach.


It depends on the dye used. Lots of crafter people are using 65/35 shirts like G64000 heathers to sublimate on (even dark shirts), and then they selectively bleach out the area with the sublimation print, and maybe splatter bleach all around too, depending on the look they want. Lots of videos on YouTube, which is why we are starting to see more new people interested in sublimation here. But typical of such trendy videos, they tend to be light on details, like the fact that many such fabrics will not bleach at all.


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## into the T (Aug 22, 2015)

the poly adds necessary strength when bleaching for longevity
here is an interesting tutorial from my 'bleach' folder



> 100% cotton will also work well, HOWEVER, bleach really weakens the material. If you get big, wet drips of bleach on 100% cotton, they will quickly develop into holes in the material. I do know that, for at least one clothing company, this is actually the desired effect but I prefer the stronger 50/50 blends for bleach designed clothing.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

NoXid said:


> It depends on the dye used. Lots of crafter people are using 65/35 shirts like G64000 heathers to sublimate on (even dark shirts), and then they selectively bleach out the area with the sublimation print, and maybe splatter bleach all around too, depending on the look they want.


It does not depend on the dye... it depends on which fabric content has been dyed.
Think about it. if polyester could be bleached, then the sublimation print would disappear as well.
You will never see this process done on a black shirt, because a poly-cotton fabric cannot be dyed black without dyeing the polyester content as well.



into the T said:


> the poly adds necessary strength when bleaching for longevity
> here is an interesting tutorial from my 'bleach' folder


It that very article "First: bleach will not work on most synthetic fabrics".
The strength part is true, as polyester is not affected by the bleach and the cotton part in these yarns is basically opacity filler holding the reactive dye.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

TABOB said:


> It does not depend on the dye... it depends on which fabric content has been dyed.
> Think about it. if polyester could be bleached, then the sublimation print would disappear as well.
> You will never see this process done on a black shirt, because a poly-cotton fabric cannot be dyed black without dyeing the polyester content as well.
> 
> ...


Sublimation dye is physically locked inside the fiber, so is (mostly) only subject to release by heating the poly enough to reopen its pores. That said, I don't know if commercially produced poly thread/garments are extruded with the color already inside the plastic, or if they are batch dyed. There are crafter dyes to do the latter, but industry may just make colored plastic to start with; in which case there wouldn't be any way to get the color out.

This video _seems_ to show at least one garment too dark in color for the poly content to have been white to start with (skip to 11:25). But perhaps it is as you say and the poly content is white to start with.





Whether it works on a 100% black, 100% poly shirt or not, it still doesn't get my Unicorn award, as the process is a little labor, time, space, and safety intensive, as well as probably weakening the fabric and shortening the life of the garments. Still interesting.

As to the thread-starter's original question, those George brand shirts from WalMart are a common complaint for people who try this.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

NoXid said:


> That said, I don't know if commercially produced poly thread/garments are extruded with the color already inside the plastic, or if they are batch dyed.


Let me make it really simple...
*Example 1:*
Print something on a milky translucent polyester film.
If you place that film over a black piece of paper, it will look dark grey and the print will be hardly visible.
If you place the same film over white paper however, magic happens and the print will be nice and bright.
The same thing is happening with that dark color shirt in the video. Bleach is turning the black cotton filler into white.

*Example 2:*
Print something on a black translucent polyester film (something like really dark window tinting film).
If you place that film over black paper it will look opaque black, and the printed image will be hardly visible.
If you place the same film over white paper, it will look less black (ie charcoal-grey) but the image will still be hardly visible.
That's a basically the issue with poly-cotton fabric where the polyester content is dyed. The cotton opacity filler may already be white so using bleach will have no effect.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

TABOB said:


> Let me make it really simple...
> *Example 1:*
> Print something on a milky translucent polyester film.
> If you place that film over a black piece of paper, it will look dark grey and the print will be hardly visible.
> ...


So what you are saying is that the poly is transparent, not white? Then I can see how a fabric that contains only 35% black fibers could appear to have a color value over 50% gray.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

NoXid said:


> So what you are saying is that the poly is transparent, not white? Then I can see how a fabric that contains only 35% black fibers could appear to have a color value over 50% gray.


Correct, and the same thing apply to sublimation mugs as well as everything else (the polyester coating is always clear).


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## tbonesthreads (Oct 26, 2010)

Klannon said:


> Has anyone had a problem with a shirt not bleaching? I bought George brand from Walmart, 65% poly 35% cotton, gray color


If you want to do bleaching and subbing, there are some good Facebook groups that focus just on that topic and that have resources like swatch examples of how specific brands and their shirt lines bleach (or don't bleach, as the case may be). Some poly/cotton shirts won't bleach - I don't remember the brand but I saw an example of it last night. From what I've seen in the group, the Gildan Heathers are very popular because they usually bleach well. I follow the group because I find it interesting and may at some point want to play with the bleached shirt thing, but it's not anything I'm doing now. Too many additional steps to get the finished product.


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## Turtlebaby (Apr 17, 2021)

Klannon said:


> Has anyone had a problem with a shirt not bleaching? I bought George brand from Walmart, 65% poly 35% cotton, gray color


I am having this issue right now as we speak. George Gray and it’s NOT bleaching


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