How to Sublimate a Shirt Complete Guide

Sublimation printing on t-shirts is getting more and more popular for many good reasons. It is a cool technique that adds value to your crafts and lets you make customized t-shirts and apparel. Sublimation printing is among the most popular DIY activities, and that is why we have decided to make this guide on How to sublimate a shirt? Along with the easiest method, I’ve shared some tricks and hacks that you can apply to make the whole process perfect and impressive.

How to Sublimate a shirt?

What Do You Need To Sublimate A Shirt?

1. Sublimation Printer

Sublimation paper or transfer is, of course, is essential to this process. A high-quality sublimation paper will enhance the print quality and let you perform the job in a cleaner way. A-sub is my favorite choice for t-shirt sublimation. We use dedicated sublimation printers for t-shirt printing.

2. Lint Roller

A lint roller is used to remove any lint or dust from the shirt to get the best quality prints. If you don’t use a lint roller before transferring your design to a shirt, it will not give you a vibrant look.

3. Design

You can use design software like Silhouette Studio or Photoshop and also use the previously created designs. There are plenty of websites from where you can download hundreds of designs free of cost.

4. Shirt

A 100% polyester or a mixed cotton-poly shirt is the best shirt for sublimation printing. Polyester gets the best result for sublimation, so you must look for a shirt containing at least 50% polyester. Sublimation printing is possible on 100% cotton, but it requires special treatment before.

The cotton fabric offers less adhesiveness for sublimation dyes and results in poor-quality prints. However, you can add a special polyester surface coating on cotton to make sublimation shirts. Also, you can use a particular type of transfer paper that transfers the print in a second step on the cotton surface.

5 Heat Press Machine

A heat transfer machine is like an iron through which we transfer our design printed on sublimation paper to our shirt. Basically, the heat transfer machine provides temperature and pressure to our sublimation ink which converts to gaseous form and gets stuck with fabrics or any other material.

How To Do Sublimation On Shirts?

Taking Print:

1. Open the printer’s ink tanks and connect them with the right sublimation ink bottles.
2. Once the ink tanks are filled, connect the printer with the computer.
3. Open your created or downloaded design on the computer.
4. Here you need to make necessary design adjustments like size and orientation to make it a perfect fit for the sublimation paper. Also, you need to mirror your design before taking its print.
5. Take the design print on sublimation paper. The colors will appear a bit dull on sublimation paper but don’t worry; it is supposed to look dull. It is heat that activates colors and gives you a vibrant print.

Transferring To Shirt:

1. Cut the butcher paper and Teflon paper into the size of printed sublimation paper. You will need three pieces of butcher paper.
2. Now choose a flat, heat-resistant surface and place a heat press pad/mat on top of the surface. Then place a Teflon paper or butcher paper on the heat press pad.
3. In the next step, remove any dust or list from the shirt you are going to sublimate. If the shirt has wrinkles, press it to remove any wrinkles.
4. Then place the shirt on the surface. Make sure the shirt offers a smooth surface.
5. Place Teflon paper inside the shirt. This paper will block the dyes and prevent them from transferring to the other side of the shirt.
6. Now flip the printed sublimation paper and place it precisely on the part of the shirt where you need to print that design. Place butcher paper on top of the sublimation paper.
7. Activate the heat press and wait until it gets the required temperature. The required heat press temperature for a sublimation t-shirt depends on the type of sublimation paper you are using. Carefully read the manufacturer guide and then adjust the temperature accordingly.
8. Now press the design with moderate pressure for around 30-50 seconds. Make sure paper does not move while pressing.
9. Now remove the heat press straight way up. Carefully remove the butcher and sublimation paper, and your print is ready.

Sublimation On Dark Shirts

1. The sublimation on colored shirts or sublimation on dark shirts is quite different from the sublimation on white or light-colored shirts. Sublimation on dark shirts follows the same process with some modifications.
2. You cannot sublimate dark shirts like back with a regular sublimation paper. For this purpose, you will need a Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV).
3. Since you are directly printing your design on vinyl, there is no need to mirror the image.
4. Unlike sublimation paper, you do not sublimate the whole HTV sheet. Instead, you need to cut the design from Heat Transfer Vinyl, and only the parts containing designs will be sublimated.
5. You can use scissors, a circuit, or any cutter to cut the vinyl design.
6. Carefully put the vinyl in the sublimation printer. Adjust the design so that it fits within print boundaries and take a print.
7. The required heat press temperature for vinyl is also different. For best print quality, adjust the temperature according to the requirement of the HTV you are using.

Sublimation On Shirts With Circut

You can use Cricut Design Space to create your design. After making the design, print it using Circuit Infualble inks and cut the design with a Cricut machine. Now sublimate the designs in the same as you do with sublimation paper or an HTV.

FAQs

How do you put sublimation prints on a shirt?

Get a sublimation-ready printer and add a fully compatible sublimation ink to it. Take the print of your favorite design on a high-quality sublimation paper. Put a heat press mat on a flat surface and then put butcher paper on top of it. Also, place butcher paper inside the shirt to prevent the sublimation ink transfer on the backside. Put the sublimation paper with printed design on the shirt, with the printed side facing the shirt.

Apply a heat press with moderate temperature and pressure without moving the paper. After 30 seconds, remove the heat press straight way up. Carefully remove the sublimation transfer paper and butcher paper.

How do you sublimate a shirt at home?

If you have sublimation printers or inkjet printers converted to sublimation, you can easily sublimate a shirt at home. Use a high-quality, fully compatible ink and sublimation transfer paper to get high-quality prints on poly-cotton and 100% polyester shirts.

What is needed for t-shirt Sublimation?

For T-shirt sublimation, you need a sublimation ready printer, a heat press, sublimation ink, design, sublimation transfer paper, butcher paper, Teflon sheet, a heat press mat, and a lint brush roller.

Can you sublimate on black shirts?

Yes, you can sublimate on black shirts. However, this process has specific requirements. You cannot use a regular sublimation transfer paper that we use for printing white and light color shirts. To sublimate on black shirts, you need a Heat Transfer Vinyl(HTV). Get your design printed on HTV and then sublimate the design via a heat press to the shirts.

How to sublimate a whole shirt?

To sublimate a whole shirt, you need a large format sublimation printer like Epson SureColor Large format printer. Also, you need a bigger size heat press to transfer the big design to a wider substrate.

Final words

So we have shared the easiest method to do sublimation on t-shirts. Using a wide format sublimation printer and a flat hat press is the best idea to make sublimation on shirts. A wide-format printer works great for all types of sublimation printing, including overall sublimation printing. Finally, it is recommended to use fully compatible sublimation inks for your printer to avoid ghosting or low-quality print.