Subli-flock

Ah, that fussy cotton….

There probably aren’t any people who don’t like original and distinctive clothing. Nowadays There’s a myriad of different printing techniques that can be tailored to a specific project, still the biggest difficulty is multi-color printing on polyester or fleece. If you only need one or a few pieces, screen printing will prove to be a technique that is too expensive, while thermal transfer will make it impossible to print with tonal transitions (known as gradients) and with a structure that is too complex, consisting of many small elements.

The ideal solution would seem to be sublimation, this one, unfortunately, works only on white plastics, and not everyone likes to wear T-shirts with a touch of polyester, even though today’s products of this type are already really similar in feel to cotton and often just as pleasant to wear.

There is, of course, DTF or direct computer printing. You can print from one piece, on cotton and in full color, while there is still a technique that will provide a very original solution that will distinguish the look of your garment. Get to know subli-flock!

The cotton grail?

This technique is like a combination of thermal transfer and sublimation. The printing process in this case consists of 4 steps.

The first is to prepare and print with a sublimation printer a design, which will then be placed on a fleece, jacket, bag or any other product, including cotton. But wait, wait… after all, I just wrote that sublimation will not work with cotton….

…Therefore, the next step is to prepare a suitable substrate that will react with the sublimation ink. To do this, a thin plastic film is used, one side suitable for sublimation printing, the other for application to cotton, fleece or softshell using a thermopress. Now do you see why I stated that it is a combination of sublimation and thermal transfer? The appropriate shape of the film (so that it coincides as closely as possible with the planned print) is cut with a cutting plotter. The two parts of the print need to be very precisely aligned, otherwise you may find that the print will be cut in a strange way somewhere.

If everything is already elegantly fitted together, we move to the third phase, in which we need to transfer the print from the transfer paper to the sublimation substrate using a thermopress. This is the moment when we will know if everything went as expected and the print has sublimated in its entirety. If it has, we carefully peel off the subli-flock film with the finished print and….

…we move to the last, fourth stage. This one is practically no different from traditional thermal transfer. We have to place a T-shirt, fleece or softshell in the press, adjust the sublimation, set the right temperature and time and enjoy the final product with a crystal print.

Cotton counterattacks

Of course, cotton is a tough opponent and it’s not that this printing technique will satisfy everyone. First of all, the print is perceptible, because it is applied on subli-flock film, which is unfortunately a bit thicker than traditional flex. In addition, it is not possible to print small and complex shapes.

Summa Summarum

Subli-flock is a great technique if we want a durable print with our favorite motif, or simply one that incorporates multiple colors and gradients. We don’t have to worry about the colors washing out, a print made this way is virtually indestructible. Like Superman. Well, maybe that’s the idea for your first print using the subli-flock method 🙂