# Screenprint across the front of a button-down jersey?



## falckoner (Apr 9, 2010)

We have a customer who wants button-down baseball jerseys with the team name across the front. We do screen printing in-house but do not have a heat press setup yet. Is it possible to print a full-front design across the split in button-down jerseys? Otherwise I'll have to talk the customer into a left-chest design or send it out for heat pressing. Here's an idea of what they're looking for:


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## Greatzky (Jan 28, 2009)

you might need to pick up a zip hoodie platen. I'm not sure if that's what it's called but it's basically a platen that has a groove cut out of the middle. This allows you to lay the zipper of a hoodie in it so everythign is level. I assume you could get away with the same thing with this type of jersey.

If not you could add some type of cardboard/material to your platen except in the center to raise everythign else up a little bit to even up with the button section. THis way you can just throw everything out after you are done with the job and you wouldn't have to damage your platen.

I just did a quick search.. try here:
http://www.actionengineering.com/zhp_081.htm

ALSO:
Ryonet (www.silkscreeningsupplies.com) offers a Zipper pro upgrade to all of their platens now. So any size platen they will add the recessed groove to make it a zipper hoodie platen... I'm not sure if this will be wide enough for the buttons, but it's something!


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

i've been trying to think of away to do this properly and haven't found a solution yet. The main request for that project is to simulate that it's done as an appliqué like the MLB ones, where the logo continues under the over lapping material. 

If there's away to do it efficiently without having to do multiple prints on the same garment i'd love to hear it. A custom platen would probably work but i don't think the print shop will want to invest in these platens when they don't plan on printing more of these.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

Greatzky said:


> I'm not sure if this will be wide enough for the buttons, but it's something!


this is what i'm thinking too. if the buttons are recessed into a zipper groove then so is the material between those buttons. If my print goes in that area it won't print well. You'd have to fill in those sections between the buttons on the platen. This seems possible for a one off but to produce a couple dozen or more would be very time consuming.

I've been considering Vinyl for this project.


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## thutch15 (Sep 8, 2008)

The only way that I could come up with is to make a platen like the zip-up hoodie one, but make the opening wide. Then unbutton the jersey and touch the two sides of the jersey together (dont over lap) and lay it down in the platen groove. Then just make your screen like the attached picture. It would take some prep, but once you got your measurements down then I think it would go pretty good.

If you leave it buttoned and lay it in a groove you are going to have problems with printing the side that goes under the buttons ( pic attached)...it is just the height of the two layers will be hard to make the print look good.


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## buehrle (Jan 14, 2008)

before i discovered vinyl (super easy to do split front) i used to cut my positive in half and make two screens. i would then take off the two buttons that were closest to the logo and then line it up. this was a pain in the butt. with vinyl you can cut it (with the extra tail) and press it in one step. if it doesn't stick under the seam just open it and press it again. i can make 10 vinyl ones in the time it takes to make one screen one.


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## macmiller (Jul 23, 2007)

First question is how many of these? if it's just a few, I'd sent out to get them heat pressed w/ vinyl. Save yourself the trouble.

I just did 90 for a little league a couple of weeks ago. I learned A LOT!!

There's a lot to consider.....

Matching up the block lettering I used wasn't that hard, the word "GRANDVIEW" split into "GRAN" on the side w/ buttons and "DVIEW" on the side with the buttonholes. Having a tail makes it tough, see if you can come up with a way that has a break in the script, but still flows and looks nice. Luckily you have a little wiggle room because of the width of the buttonholes, but only about an 1/8" up or down. 

I lucked out that it was just one color. About half were black with white and the other half was grey w/ black print. For the white, I used a double coated 86 mesh w/ union's poly-1070. They were super bright w/. one hit, just a couple of strokes to make sure it cleared the mesh. Some ink will build up on the hem of each side and look kind on bumpy. I can't imagine doing 2 colors having to flash, there is no way to hold down the each half of the placket since it's two layers. the bottom layer will stick to your pallet, but the top layer wants to come up. It'd be tough to make sure it lands in the right spot for the next color. 

I seriously doubt the hoodie pallet would work, they really need to be unbuttoned completely and only rebuttoned up once they are done. I drew a centerline down the pallet, printed the pallet and flashed it so I knew where it would print. I used a mousepad for the side with the buttons to get the print higher than the button. I lined the edge of each half on the centerline, the first half was only eyeballed for placement since you could see the other half on the pallet. For the second side, I replaced the first side where it was first printed, folded the other half over and made sure the button holes lined up, moved the first print off the pallet and printed the other half. The half w/o the buttons does not need the mousepad.

Since these were poly I did not want excess heat giving me dye-migration trouble. All the jerseys were only flashed until dry to the touch. Since I had to press on vinyl numbers anyway, I did the final cure w/ the heat press.

Before I started this I searched here on the forum and found just about everyone suggested vinyl or plastisol transfers. I pm'd someone on one of those threads who was looking to do this, he ended up doing transfers with separate art for each half. If I were to do these again, I'd go that route. For as many as I needed all vinyl would have been expensive and more time consuming, but if it's not that many, say 12-24 jerseys, I'd vinyl them in a heartbeat. Hopefully you can profit enough on a job like this to be able to afford at least a used heat press and either print your own transfers, have them printed or have vinyl cut from someone like Stahl's. Also, be careful about heat pressing over the buttons, they will break under the heat and pressure, luckily I found that out a long time ago on a cheap polo instead of a $20 jersey blank!!

either way you decide good luck and pm me if you need any help, because now that I read this it's sounds more difficult than it is, but then again it is a PITA!!!


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## nation03 (Sep 2, 2008)

Your best bet is to outsource it someone who can do appliqué. We do that kind of stuff where I work. I don't see it working to well with screen printing (in terms of repeatability). Plus, the final product on appliqué jerseys is extraordinary.


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## Ccorliss (Apr 10, 2010)

Here's a great idea that I came up with and it works fine you need to fine a thin layer of soft type rubber foam about a1/8 to 1/4 inch thick that you can apply to the pallet. This will allow you to print over seems pretty well you may be able to find something at a hardware store. And apply it with some spray tack. Care full on how you use the flash I found some rubber that didn't handle the heat to well but it works like a charm.


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## macmiller (Jul 23, 2007)

Ccorliss said:


> Here's a great idea that I came up with and it works fine you need to fine a thin layer of soft type rubber foam about a1/8 to 1/4 inch thick that you can apply to the pallet. This will allow you to print over seems pretty well you may be able to find something at a hardware store. And apply it with some spray tack. Care full on how you use the flash I found some rubber that didn't handle the heat to well but it works like a charm.


tried it. it did not work well because of the two layers of the placket


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## falckoner (Apr 9, 2010)

Thanks for all the suggestions. After talking with our screenprinter, who wasn't willing to make much of an effort, I went to the project manager and recommended we send them out for heatpressing. And then this morning my other boss told me he bought a 6-in-one heatpress machine over the weekend for a different order, so I guess we're all set!


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