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doctordun · September 29th, 2009

Our primary business is a quilt fabric store. We just visited the Ft. Worth ISS and was introduced to the Sawgrass Booth.
The possibilities we envision for our business for dye sublimation is in this order:

Fabric, multiple gift items and various other materials to put photos on and last, T-Shirts.

This might all change once we embark on this new adventure. The economy being what it is, we hope to add a new dimension to our store. We already have a commercial embroidery machine that we use in the store.

It appears there is only one supplier of ink and one supplier of T-shirts. Should something happen to either, that part of the business is done.

We really liked the Hanes Soft link material and now hear they are stopping production. Bummer for us, since a cotton component to the material is great for quilting.

We especially like the soft feel and color fastness of dye sublimation. That is real important to quilters.

It's not a terribly high investment, but money is tight.

Thanks for any comments........

PrintMonkey · September 29th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctordun


	Our primary business is a quilt fabric store. We just visited the Ft. Worth ISS and was introduced to the Sawgrass Booth. The possibilities we envision for our business for dye sublimation is in this order: Fabric, multiple gift items and various other materials to put photos on and last, T-Shirts. It appears there is only one supplier of ink and one supplier of T-shirts. Should something happen to either, that part of the business is done. We really liked the Hanes Soft link material and now hear they are stopping production. Bummer for us, since a cotton component to the material is great for quilting. We especially like the soft feel and color fastness of dye sublimation. That is real important to quilters. Thanks for any comments........

Might be 1 supplier for dye-sub ink for "Desktop inkjet printers" (keyword desktop) here in the USA, but there are more then 1 supplier of dye sublimation ink.
Dye sublimation has been around for a long time, longer then desktop inkjet dye sublimation. You can get dye-sub ink in 55 gal drums. Move to a wide format printer and the door will open to more ink suppliers.
Also note that inkjet is not the only way to do dye sublimation but works better for small business (Sawgrass niche market).

Look at all the colorful uniforms like soccer, hockey, football, motocross, plus whole lot more are all done by dye sublimation.
Some of the major brands have a 80/20 (poly/cotton) tee that works very well with dye-sub.
Vaporware Apparel has a wide selection that works very well with dye-sub.
There are other brands of 100% poly shirts that will work.
Another note: most 100% poly shirts get their color by dye sublimation.

I can go on, but if 1 ink supplier and 1 shirt supplier goes away it will not be more then a little bump in the road.

Fisher Textiles (fishertextiles.com) used to carry the Softlink fabric in rolls and 12" x 12" cut panels (50 pack) which work great for the quilters. Not sure if they still do.

M

cprvh · September 30th, 2009

Doc,

We have several folks using dye sublimation for quilts. The issue I hear most often is finding the right fabric. Most quilters tend to work with cottons. Cottons shrink a bit after washing while poly does not...causing puckering of the poly panel. Many seem to be most satisfied with a blended fabric such as a 65/35 poly/cotton.

doctordun · September 30th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by cprvh


	Doc, We have several folks using dye sublimation for quilts. The issue I hear most often is finding the right fabric. Most quilters tend to work with cottons. Cottons shrink a bit after washing while poly does not...causing puckering of the poly panel. Many seem to be most satisfied with a blended fabric such as a 65/35 poly/cotton.

But everything I read is that the resulting design would be compromised in brightness by the 35%, since the cotton would not retain the colors.

Would the Hanes Soft Link fabric work for this?

BigBear · September 30th, 2009

"It appears there is only one supplier of ink and one supplier of T-shirts." If you mean one US manufacturer of ink, then yes. As far as distributors go, there are almost as many as a dog has fleas.

Don't worry about the mfg. going out of business. 1) It ain't gonna happen 2) If they did, 10 more would be instantly ready to take their place.

FYI - Different types of satin produce different and beautiful looks.

EnMartian · October 1st, 2009

Don't forget there is also Chromablast for cotton items. That might work quite well for quilting, although you would have to use light colored fabric.

As for sublimation, there is one manufacturer of ink in the U.S., but they're not anywhere near going out of business. There are several manufacturers who make polyester t-shirts that would be suitable for sublimation. There are also several manufacturers that make sublimatable blanks like mugs, mousepads etc., so there should be no worries about finding blank items.

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