A Closer Look at Decorating Ladies Apparel
Decorating T-shirts with heat transfers has been around for decades but today’s market includes hundreds of ladies’ apparel styles made with a wide range of fabrics including poly/cotton blends, tri blends, performance wear, burnout materials, and more. Ladies’ fashion wear has become a fast growing market and picking the right type of heat transfer for decorating these fabrics is important!
Women’s wear still includes T-shirts but fashion trends have changed ladies’ tees to incorporate scoop necks, v-necks, and pleated detail. Women’s T-shirts are typically made with 100% cotton and poly/cotton blends and our standard and specialty type transfers work great on these materials. Don’t forget to offer our trendy glitter and rhinestone transfers!
Decorating heat sensitive ladies polyester performance wear requires a heat transfer that is stretchy and has a low application temperature in the 275 to 300 degree (F) range. We recommend our Elasti Prints® and Stretch Litho™ transfers for these types of apparel.
Ladies’ interlock polos made with ring-spun cotton are great for casual dress and corporate wear. Ring spun combed cotton is a process where the cotton yarn has all the irregular pieces combed from the yarn and spun into fabric creating the softest feel in ladies’ apparel and can be heat printed with our standard Goof Proof® and Hot Split transfers, rhinestones and more!
Modal fabrics are commonly used in women’s apparel and this type of fabric is derived from a rayon synthetic fiber that is made by spinning cellulose giving the fabric an ultra soft feel, perfect for the construction of pajamas and underwear. All of our standard and specialty type transfers work on modal fabrics.
Burn out fabrics are also popular in the construction of ladies’ apparel and are knitted with two types of material – 100% cotton and synthetic fibers and treated with an acid based chemical that attacks and degrades the cotton giving the material a worn in softness that has a vintage feel! It’s recommended to use Hot Split transfers with burn out fabrics since this type of transfer provides a soft hand feel to match the softness of the apparel.