Tee Shirts ?

[Gail LaPorte]

When you feel a tee shirt and it feels like a rubber coating is this a special paper? I want to add tee shirts to my product line. I did one and it was smooth to the touch.
Thanks
Penny

[Larry Bratton]

Penny, I do a few shirts and have been studying the different processes of which there are several. If you felt of a shirt that had a rubbery feel to the graphic, was it a dark shirt? The transfers for dark shirts are opaque and have a rather hard "hand". Light colored shirts are transparent and they have a totally different feel. (This is assuming you talking about doing transfers). There is a good forum online for shirts, but the rules don't allow me to post the link. If you would like the link, PM me and I'll give it to you. If you are planning on doing inkjet or laser printer transfers, the Jet Pro Soft Stretch paper is very good, especially for white shirts.

The thing that is getting a lot of attention these days is rhinestone application to garments. You can use your laser to make templates, buy the hot fix stones and put them on with your heat press. We are toying around with that idea and will probably start doing it. Hope that answered your question.

[Mike Null]

Larry is correct. On a dark shirt the transfer may even be plastic which gives you the feel you're describing. I've used laser transfers and there is a slight "feel" to them. Dye sublimation will give you a shirt with absolutely no feel of the transfer but it requires a shirt made of polyester. It won't work on cotton.

[Darryl Hazen]

Gail,

Check out Versatranz. You can request a sample pack. Then heat transfer them onto a surplus tee to see how they look & feel.