# Skewed DTG print after wash?



## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

Hi,

I just got this picture from a customer; after the print was washed it became skewed and off center...

It was printed on an Anvil 980 or 780 garment...

Any ideas?










-Rob


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## 23spiderman (Jun 26, 2008)

cotton shrinks. depending on the weave of each shirt, they can move a little. not to be too critical, you can tell the print is a little off center by looking at the top of the print. the bottom portion is skewed to the left based on shrinkage.


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

RobP614 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I just got this picture from a customer; after the print was washed it became skewed and off center...
> 
> ...



Have you been using the Anvil for some time now? Have you received a complaint from other customers? Was this a single shirt order or did you print a bunch of the same design on the same type shirts?

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## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

We have used anvils in the past; we printed 5 of them. I am waiting to hear back on if it was just one of them that skewed or if was on all of them.

We normally print in Gildan 2000, PC61 or Keya's.

But the customer wanted more of a fashion fitted garment.


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

RobP614 said:


> We have used anvils in the past; we printed 5 of them. I am waiting to hear back on if it was just one of them that skewed or if was on all of them.
> 
> We normally print in Gildan 2000, PC61 or Keya's.
> 
> But the customer wanted more of a fashion fitted garment.




If the shirt shrinks it would shrink the entire shirt, not just some portions of the shirt. Wait to hear, and see, about the other 4 shirts. Also, were the 5 shirts given out to 5 different people who did 5 separate washes or did one person wash all 5?

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## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

Ha...I asked the exact same questions to the customer!

It's very odd...we've been doing this for a few years now and odd things like this all ways throw me for a loop!


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

RobP614 said:


> Ha...I asked the exact same questions to the customer!
> 
> It's very odd...we've been doing this for a few years now and odd things like this all ways throw me for a loop!




In the end, the most probable reason for it is something the customer did to the shirt. 

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## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

Damn customers! Lol...


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

RobP614 said:


> Damn customers! Lol...



Agreed. But where would we be without customers. 

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## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

I was just think they actually skewed a little bit between the printer and heat press; which we hadn't seen before...

We printed the shirts over a month ago so hard to remember the specifics...


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

RobP614 said:


> I was just think they actually skewed a little bit between the printer and heat press; which we hadn't seen before...
> 
> We printed the shirts over a month ago so hard to remember the specifics...



If this were something that happened when you printed the shirt you would have noticed it when you took the shirt off the printer or off the heat press. And the customer certainly would have mentioned it when they picked up the shirts.

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## RobP614 (Jun 26, 2011)

Very true! Thanks for all the input...you guys are always so quick to support and provide input and it means a lot to me know there is such a great support community to DTG printing!


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

RobP614 said:


> Very true! Thanks for all the input...you guys are always so quick to support and provide input and it means a lot to me know there is such a great support community to DTG printing!



Happy to help. Please post later on what you ultimately found the cause to be. Curious.


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## 23spiderman (Jun 26, 2008)

i've seen this twisting many times before, and chalked it up to the weave pattern and how tight/loose the weave was. it could be a bad batch of shirts, as i haven't seen the 980's do this, and the 780's are getting good reviews from those who are using them. i have some shirts that twisted, and they were just washed/dried with other shirts that didn't twist.

if they were all the same size, then you would think they would be from the same batch and would behave similarly, but maybe this was the "wild" one in the bunch.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

I have seen two things that cause this or similar. First is shirt was stretched during printing, usually you will notice this before wash. The other is it was sewed crooked on the side seam, your clue on this is a pucker, wont fold flat without a wrinkle on the side. Just had an Anvil 780 sewed crooked.


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

I guess here's where direct to garment printing really shows its benefit. Bad shirts unfortunately happen. But unlike screen printing where, in order to give the customer one replacement shirt, you would have to set up a screen (or multiple screens if it were a multicolor design), register it, ink it - in other words a lot of labor and time - while d-t-g printing lets you do a replacement shirt in just a matter of minutes.

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