Welcome class! Please make sure you pull out your syllabus..
Tell me you don’t miss hearing those words every semester!
When I started Discreetly Greek in 2009, I thought I had it all figured out. I knew which shirts I wanted to print on, my price point, my demographic and audience, even how I wanted to BRAND our company as the go to in Greek Inspired ‘nalia but around every corner we learned some new and very humbling experiences.
I wanted to help some new designers and possible future clothing line owners with the some small details and key terminology in the apparel and clothing industry that we are ALL scared to ask what the terms really mean because we assume everyone knows these answers! Remember: there are no stupid questions!
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- Decorated Apparel
As frilly and dated as it sounds, that is our industry. It is anything connected to embroidery, digital garment decorating, and screen printing. It can cover many areas, but if it’s on apparel or PUT onto any type of wearable material, it technically is decorated!
- Combed / Ring Spun / Tri-Blend
Combed ring spun cotton Bella tee above.
There are lots of different types of garments to print on, after a while it gets overwhelming to decide on a shirt to print with. Here is a small list of the most general terms you will hear when choosing a garment to print on.
Regular cotton is made from soft vegetable fiber, obtained from the seed pod of the cotton plant, that is made into strands of fiber. These strands of cotton fiber are twisted together to make yarn that is then woven together to make a section of material.
Ring-spun cotton starts with the same cotton fiber strands, but in the Ring-spun process the yarn is made by continuously twisting and thinning the strands making a very fine rope of cotton fibers. The twisting makes the short hairs of cotton stand out, resulting in a stronger yarn with a significantly softer hand.
Combed: When cotton is harvested, it is cleaned to remove dirt and seeds, and then carded. Carding separates the fibers and roughly lines them up, so that they all lie in the same direction. When cotton is combed, fine brushes are used to pull out any remaining impurities, along with short cotton fibers. Approximately 15% of the volume is removed, leaving behind only long, straight fibers which are even and aligned allowing for an even more soft hand. Screen Printers usually prefer it because how easily and consistent the ink lays down due to fibers being aligned and combed.
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- Types of inks and when to use them.
Since we are on the subject of printing and laying the ink, lets discuss inks and some of the most used ink types. The only other overwhelming variable connected to printing besides selecting your blank shirt is the ink. Now if you never knew there were different inks or processes to get ink onto/into the shirt then you might want to speak to your current screen printer to see about alternate options or it’s time to switch!
Discharge inks: Discharge screen printing is becoming very popular in today’s market. Through it is not as environmentally friendly as the Water Based Inks, discharge water based screen printing inks offer a unique solution for garment decoration. This ink can be printed as direct discharge, dye discharge, or used as an under base for water based or plastisol inks. Discharge water based inks generate a softer feel on garments and give a unique vintage look that customer’s love. It actually dyes the area of the shirt where the ink is laid and changes the garment color, allowing for no ink to be felt on the shirt.
$$$ Most expensive
Water Based inks: Water-based inks produce ultra soft prints and are the most eco-friendly inks available. Water-based inks are used by organizations with a desire to maintain a green profile and fashion-oriented companies looking for a soft-to-the-hand feel. With the consistency of water and a translucent base, designing for these inks should be reserved for minimal detail and color. A great shirt to use this method would be dark color print on a light tri-blend garment.
$$ Medium expense
Plastisol: Super durable and looks great on any color garment. Formulated to achieve superior opacity and color matching accuracy, plastisol inks are the most commonly used inks for screen printed apparel. Made of PVC with an oil base, the hand, or the feel of ink left after it is printed is definitely noticeable, and sometimes can almost seem shiny because of the PVC used and how it is printed ON TOP shirt fibers rather than embedded.
$ Least expensive
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- Types of tees
Of course we know that t-shirts and other garment use cotton, but what else is out there to print on?
100% Cotton: It’s said that the real advantage of 100% cotton fabrics is their smoothness – some claim it feels better to the skin, have a finer drape, are more breathable, etc. A major disadvantage for many natural fibers is their tendency to wrinkle, and cotton is no exception. Pure cotton garments need a lot of attention to keep them looking their best.
Tri-Blend: Usually with a cotton, polyester, nylon blend in many cases, blending cotton with other fibers produces garments that are stronger, more breathable and more eye-catching. Synthetic fibers like polyester and rayon can add a more lustrous shine and texture to a shirt that would be impossible to achieve with just pure cotton. Usually limited with the types of inks you would want to print with. Due to not being 100% cotton, it wouldn’t breathe as well as its alternative. A plastisol ink will feel heavy compared to the thin flexible material of the tri-blend, however a water based ink or discharge would compliment a tri-blend very well.
Side seam vs Tubular: The majority of modern T-Shirts have a body that is made from a continuously woven tube, so the torso has no side seams. This is accomplished with special weaving machines called circular looms, which produce seamless fabric for tube tops, stockings, and the like. More high-end t-shirt blanks lean toward side seams, it allows for the body of the tee to stay in its classic shape without any twisting.
That should give you a good head start when sending emails or quotes to a printer. Always keep in mind, there are lots of variables to printing that totally change how you want the end product to look like. Make sure you work close with your printer and have examples ready of the type of product you are looking for to give them a better idea of which shirts and inks that will work best for your project.
We are sure we missed another few thousand things, but this will definitely get you from behind the eightball! Any questions contact us!Sales@discreetlyGreek.com
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