by Courtney Matlick, CAD-CUT Direct
Imagine the scenario: It’s the day before a job deadline and you’re at your heat press, applying white numbers on the red polyester jersey of your customer’s choice. You finally make it through the entire team only to find that some of the numbers have now turned pink. Unless the material you are currently decorating with has chameleon-like qualities, you are more than likely experiencing a bad case of dye-migration.
This dilemma happens when the polyester dyes in the garment are released and bleed through the transfers. It can happen under the heat of a heat press, in a screen print dryer, or even in the home laundering cycle after the product goes out the door. Decorating polyester is difficult since you never know exactly how each garment will react without a lot of preliminary testing or guess work, especially since the stability of the dyes can vary from fabric lot to lot in the same shipment of garments.
So how can you beat dye migration and print with peace of mind? It’s easy with CAD-CUT® Thermo-FILM® heat transfer material. Thermo-FILM is designed to resist low-bleed dyes in fabrics such as the polyester jersey, unlike most other standard films.
Our video, “Tip Jar Production: Low Bleed Transfer Film for Dye Migration” breaks down the difference between sublimated fabrics and low bleed fabrics and how to decorate them to ensure your transfer stays true to its color. So take a few minutes to watch the video and take the headache and guess work out of decorating polyester.
Video: Tip Jar Production: Low Bleed Transfer Film for Dye Migration