50/50 shirts for sublimation

Hi Jimmy,

50/50 is not the best choice for dye-sub. If you will add a bit more spray the image will look a little brighter, but the sprayed area will have a rough, cardboard feel and if you stretch the fabric the image will appear cracked.
After a couple of washes the design will look dull and washed out. Unless you need to print a promo shirt that will be thrown away after a couple of hours - I suggest you'll consider some other options.
Fabrics with compositions of 65% poly/35% cotton or 70/30 will work much better for dye-sub.
My personal favourite is 100% polyester PERFORMANCE fabric (with moisture management and temperature control) - some of it actually looks and feels like cotton. Have you checked out the link "Dye Sublimation Info" on the left?

I have posted some pictures at this thread comparing the printing results on 50/50 and 100% poly http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=4773


There is a transfer fabric that will let you print on 50/50 and cotton - it's 100% polyester - you have to place it between a t-shirt and your design and press it. The transfer will fuse into the shirt fabric and will look like a patch.
I've done some experiments with this method - I'll try to take some pictures and post them a bit later.

Oh and 30 sec. is not enough in most cases. Try to hold it for 50-60 instead.

Here are some examples of using dye-sub on cotton.

1st case is done on 95% cotton/5% lycra long sleeve T.
I used some golden 3D fabric paint to make the artwork look...umm...deliberately outlined because the transfer fabric is thicker, slightly raised and the edge looked unfinished.
Potentially, there are a few ways to spice-up this type of printing - to overlock it with contrast colour, "frame" it with rinestones, fabric paint or ribbon, etc.

2nd case is on a denim shirt.
The transfer fabric is very stretchy and coud be tricky to cut if your design is anything but rectangle - so the process is a bit fiddly. I had to cut out the rose on the transfer paper as close as I can and then place it onto the transfer fabric and try and cut it too without moving and smudging the print. It was a challenge. The print looks porous but that could be fixed by adding more ink (as I found out after this experiment).

Hope it helps