New! Screen Printed Transfer Numbers that Stretch
Jan/110
Our new Elasti Prints® transfer numbers stretch with the apparel. The number comes in a new number style, Avalon, which is a unique block style. You can order your front logo print in Elasti Prints as well using the same letter style if you like for a professional look. Elasti Prints numbers can be applied to cotton, polyester, cotton/poly as well as other types of poly blends. The numbers apply at a low temperature, 275 degrees in 15 seconds. They are available in white, black, black with white outline, and white with a black outline in the 4, 6, 8 and 10” sizes. Elasti Prints numbers, as well as all Easy Prints® numbers, are on sale during the month of January for 15% off so give them a try and save!
Avalon typestyle for Elasti Prints® numbers are stretchable
Creating Custom Shirt Tags
Dec/100
You can have your own custom t-shirt tags printed that apply in just seconds to cotton, polyester and cotton/poly blends. To order, send us your own artwork laid out ready to print or use one of our t-shirt tag templates. Using our templates, each sheet will create 30- 1.75” x 1.6” tags. Different shirt sizes can be placed on the same sheet. The minimum order is 5 sheets. For example, each sheet may have tags for 6 Small, 6 Medium, 6 Large, 6 XL and 6 XXL—and you may order 5 sheets giving you 30 tags for each size. Or if you order 10 sheets you will have 60 shirt tags for each size. Each tag has room for 3 lines of text in addition to the size that can be customized for your needs.
If sending your own artwork you will set it up similarly to the tag layouts, however you can add custom art or customize your own size. The minimum order if sending your own artwork is 10 sheets. Create all artwork in an image area of 11.25″ x 14″
One of our customizable shirt tag layouts
Printing Reversible Jerseys
Dec/100
Reversible jerseys can be polyester or nylon—don’t worry about the mesh, which is the holes; we are printing on the material which determines the type of transfer that will work best.
If the jersey is polyester, you will want to use screen printed transfers, names and numbers. The mesh creates one extra step but is not hard to deal with. When printing reversible jerseys you are typically printing 4 sides for one jersey – the front and back for one side, and then the front and back for the other side. The key to success is to have only the side you are working with on your press. This means you will want to dress the machine by putting the jersey on the bottom platen like you were dressing a mannequin. The shirt will be upside down when pressing. If the shirt has an open bottom, open so only one layer of material is on the platen. If the bottom is sewn, you will just put the side you are working with on the platen. Follow the instructions provided with the transfer, however, the holes will poke through, the ink only attaches to the material. I like to use a Teflon Pad. As the holes poke through, the Teflon surface can be wiped down easily before starting the next shirt or back side. You can also use pellon—which helps pull out the holes, but a fresh piece will be needed for each print. Other release papers such as Kraft paper or Transfer Paper can also be used. Or even just regular paper can work.
If your reversible jersey is nylon, the screen printed transfer may work but you will want to test prior to ordering. Our screen printed transfers are guaranteed to work on cotton, polyester and cotton/poly blends but many customers have had success with them on this type of nylon shirt. If an alternative is needed, our Cad-Printz™ is guaranteed to work on nylon.
Reversible Jerseys
T Shirt Transfer with Tie Dye Questions Answered
Nov/100
A common way to energize a customer’s otherwise run-of-the-mill order is to use tie-dye shirts. The splashes of bright color bring designs to life whether it’s for sports, clubs, or family reunions. Because this style is becoming trendy again, it’s been the topic of several frequently asked questions to Transfer Express’ Dealer Services department. Many garment decorators have had questions concerning heat transfer adhesion, color choice, and general tips where tie-dye is concerned.
To better address these frequently asked questions we’ve done some tie-dying of our own. Our results have allowed us to come up with some tips to better help you in your quest for colorful, interesting custom heat printed garments.
Screen Printed Heat Transfer Applied to Homemade Tie-Dye T shirt
Q: Do your heat transfers adhere to shirts that have been tie-dyed?
A: Yes! Whether you purchase t shirts that have already been tie-dyed or you dye them at home, our transfers will adhere following the standard instructions.
Q: I bought a tie-dye kit from a craft store and it says to soak my shirts in soda ash water. Will this affect the transfer’s ability to stick?
A: No. The soda ash allows your t shirts to absorb the dye more thoroughly. It will not effect the screen printed or digital transfer’s adhesion
Q: What color should I apply to my tie-dyed shirts?
A: When choosing your screen print ink color, be sure to keep two things in mind. First, the shirt is still white under all that dye. Over time your tie-dye can fade and the white shirt will be revealed. Putting a white transfer on the tie-dyed shirt may look great at first, but could make the transfer hard to see over time. Secondly, take note of all the colors in your tie-dyed shirt and choose an ink color that has enough contrast to your tie-dye. If your dye colors are bright then black tends to be a good choice for contrasting ink.
Q: I am tie-dying my own shirts. Should I press the heat transfer on the white shirts first? Or should I dye the shirts first and then press the transfers?
A: Our suggestion is to dye your shirts first – then press your transfers. Your shirts will be easier to fold, twirl, scrunch and put rubber bands on if there are no transfers on them. This will allow you to make any cool, colorful design you want without obstruction.
Q: Should my tie-dye shirts be laundered any differently after I’ve applied transfers to them?
A: No. Your customers can follow standard washing instructions for tie-dye shirts. This will not harm the transfers.
Q: Do I have to wash the tie-dyed shirt before applying the transfer?
A: If you have purchased your shirts already dyed from a supplier (like Broder Brothers), then no. The shirts have been prepared and are ready for immediate decoration. If you choose to tie-dye your own shirts then most processes and instructions suggest that you launder the tie-dyed shirt before using it or wearing it. While this doesn’t appear to affect adhesion, it does wash out the excess dye in your shirt.
Prepared T shirts with Tie Dye Inks
Do you have a question that we didn’t cover here? Please ask us! Our Dealer Services department is happy to answer any questions you have! They are available from 8:00am to 7:00pm Monday thru Friday.
New Neon Colors added to Custom Transfer Possibilities
Oct/100
Neon Green Plastisol Transfer
If your customer is looking for bright colors, our new neon colors are just what you need. In addition to Neon Pink and Neon Blue, our Neon Green and Neon Yellow can be applied to any color apparel. We also have Neon Orange and Neon Lime that can be applied to dark colors as well but may have slight bleed in heavy ink coverage areas. Free samples are available to make sure the colors meet your needs.
Use one of our Easy Prints® layouts, or send us your artwork—just go bright!
How to Decorate Soccer Uniforms
Jul/100
QSO-58 on soccer uniform
Score this soccer season with increased soccer uniform sales.
Soccer teams will now be ordering for the fall season. We have hundreds of soccer designs your teams can choose from as well as the products to apply to these uniforms. Soccer uniforms are typically 100% polyester. All Transfer Express products will apply to this fabric. If they are labeled “dazzle polyester”, that is just a finish and will not effect the transfer application. One thing to watch for is “sublimated” 100% polyester. These still can be decorated with our Polytrans screen printed transfers, but you will need to order at least a 2 color print, with the dark color as the outline/background color to block the sublimated dye. For example, if you are using white ink on a red sublimated shirt, we recommend ordering white with a black outline.
Our digitally printed Cad-Printz™ are also great for soccer uniforms especially heart size crests that can be applied to almost any uniform. Cad-Printz ™ are full color so your teams can really stand out at a low cost this season.
Free Webinar-Profiting with Fall Sports
Jul/100
QFB-81 with personalization added
Now is the time to start preparing for the profitable fall sport season. Attend our free webinar on August 10 at 2:00PM EST. We will show you the popular looks for the fall football, soccer and volleyball season for both uniforms and spirit wear. Tips will be provided on easily printing on mesh with custom transfers and doing consecutive numbers in a clip art, easily and inexpensively. We will also discuss how easy it is to decorate dazzle soccer jerseys. Also learn how you can use full color Cad-Printz™ digital transfers to print nylon coach’s jackets and bags. Click here to register for this free webinar.
Customzied T-shirt Designs Now in Multi-Color Easy View™
May/100
QRN-58 Family Reunion Tshirt Design
We listen to all your comments and suggestions and are proud to introduce Multi-color Easy View™! This updated version makes it easier for our dealers to present an enhanced visual to their customers while making it easy to order 2 color Easy Prints® screen printed transfers online.
By using Easy View™, our 3000+ Easy Prints® design ideas can be customized as a one color design by changing the black areas, or Primary Color, to your choice of Transfer Express stock ink colors. You can see these one color designs on your customer’s choice of shirt color also. Simply clicking to the multi-color button transforms your preview to allow you to add a Secondary Color to any areas that were previously displayed as show thru.
Be sure to save your designs to your cart then show your customers a proof using the Printable Page option and pass on any tweeks or changes that need made in the “Notes” section of the ordering page. There may be some changes you’d like to make such as adding an outline to a line of text or altering the size of a clip art. Either way, the “Notes” are there for you to describe your changes. Keep in mind that the colors on the screen are just general representations of our ink colors. For true representations of our ink color make sure you get our Apparel Printing Color Selector that shows all our stock ink colors.
If you are just getting started and haven’t ordered from Transfer Express before, become a Dealer by placing your first order! We will set you up with a Dealer ID and Password for you to start customizing with Multi-color Easy View™.
Custom Earth Day Transfers
Apr/100
April 22nd marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day! Many groups, schools and organizations will be gathering to help clean up our Earth and spread the word about how important it is to keep our planet clean and healthy. Custom Earth Day t-shirts are worn by many of the groups and sold to the public to raise money to help their efforts. Since this year is an anniversary year many people will be gathering at parks, environmental fairs and rallies which is a perfect time to gain more profits or help raise money to give back to the environment.
Start with a few Easy Prints® designs and purchase organic cotton t-shirts to heat print them to with your professional heat press. Below are a few ideas to get your started. Keep in mind, during these events there are many volunteers and staff helping out. It is very easy to add a line of text or names to the back of your Earth Day t shirts with the word “VOLUNTEER” or “STAFF”.
Do your customers want to give away reusable bags for repeated trips to the grocery store? Polypropylene bags are popular for reducing the number of plastic bags in our landfills but they are very difficult to heat print on since they melt under high temperatures. Elasti Prints® screen printed transfers apply at a low temperature and are perfect for this type of application!
Earth Day T-shirt Ideas
100% or 50/50 Fabrics – Which works best for transfers?
Mar/100
Two of the most common types of t shirts and hooded sweatshirts customers request are 100% cotton and 50/50 cotton/polyester blends. For applying screen printed transfers though, which one works best and is there any difference in the finished product after the heat transfer is applied? For the finished product the answer is, “No, there is no difference in the quality or durability of the finished product if using 100% or 50/50 t shirts or hoodies”. The plastisol ink will attach itself to the fabric fibers in the same way.
Now, before the custom transfer is applied to the garment is where you may see a difference. The difference between 100% cotton and a 50/50 is the amount of moisture in the fabric fibers. The 100% cotton t shirt or hooded sweatshirt will hold more moisture and will need to be prepressed for a longer duration to remove the moisture. This is done before the transfer is applied.
Which screen printed ink formulas work best for the different types of fabric?
50/50 Cotton Polyester blends – Goof Proof®, Hot Split, Polytrans, as well as every other heat transfer that Transfer Express manufactures.
100% Cotton – Same as 50/50.
Recommendation:
Hot Split transfers will apply to 100% cotton however a longer prepress time is needed. All you need to do is pre-press for a few more seconds or until you do not see any more “steam” being released.
If you are unsure of which transfer type will work best for your type of fabric our Dealer Services Team is more than happy to give you suggestions.
