I am currently looking into running a small t-shirt fashion company and I've come across a few questions with terminology. I've had read of most of the forums but with some contributors coming from the US and some from the UK I still am a little confused.
I now know plastisol transfers and heat transfers are one and the same thing which effectively give you a screen printed finish on the tshirt. I am leaning towards this type of method for my tshirts because I can batch up my transfer into smaller runs. I've figured that if I can't shift a smaller number of certain designs then I know not to transfer the rest of the same design onto the my blank t stock. Seems like a good way to stop myself printing up a few hundred designs that no one wants.
Are heat transfers, especially for a fashion line going to offer me the quality I need? Do they wash well? And more importantly, can I heat transfer at home with a iron or am I just pushing my luck? I suppose I am asking whether a heat transfer needs to be done professionally or not to give it longetivity.
All my designs are single colour at the moment.
And is anyone using any company in the Manchester area for relabelling? I am thinking of doing limited runs of 50 in a design so I'm tempted to get the sewing machine out and label my them myself.
And is anyone buying '30 singles' tshirts from anyone in the Manchester area? Struggling to find a decent supplier and most likely going to go with Continental who seemed to be popular, as good as American Apparel but much cheaper.
So single colour and small limited runs (50 to 100) at fashion level quality is my gut feel for starting up. If anyone feels that I should be investigating other options then please chip i.e. vinyl?
Some specific questions in there and some thoughts on getting started. I'd be happy to listen to any advice you may have to offer.
You can't apply a heat transfer/plastisol transfer with an iron, it just won't work because you need a lot of pressure and consistant heat. If you don't want to buy a press then lease one from Target Transfers, Xpres or similar. If you are using transfers you can get labels done as well on the same sheet and heat press those in as well.
__________________
trying to help, sometimes i don't!
Yeah, sorry guys. What I meant was that you can get plastisol transfer that have a similar if not identical finish to screen printed t-shirts and the heat process is part of getting those applied.
But there are other types of 'heat transfers'. Right, got that. Cheers.
Newbie Questions - Technique and Terminology 
