A couple things to look out for:

1. The polyester could be discolored on the press area. This will usually happen with reds and blacks. There are some tips and tricks to make it less noticeable.

2. A bigger concern may be dye migration. Reheating the polyester at a high temperature could restart the sublimation process and dye your design.

Unless you can find someone else that has already tried it on the garments you're looking to apply to, you'll have to test it.

 

If you are working with white/light synthetic garments, find someone who will print dye-sublimation transfers for you - this method is perfect for athletic wear

 

Sublimation ink transfers are a great way to go when working with polyester fabrics. Since you are transferring ink only and not transferring polymer film with a heat transfer paper, you will retain more of the moisture-wicking properties that polyesters fabrics are known for.

However, Neenah makes very good products and they try to be cross-compatible between different fabrics. You will be able to use the Neenah 3G Jet Opaque with polyester fabrics. If you are working with light color shirts, give the Neenah Jet Pro Soft Stretch for Active Wear a shot, this heat transfer paper is made specifically for synthetic fabrics.

 

Thanks, guys. Went ahead and tried the 3G on a red poly shirt. you were right. I did have marking from the press. Will a pillow prevent this from happening? This may sound stupid to you pros, but would simply covering the entire shirt with a towel prevent this problem?

 

did using a towel help stop the press marks? I tried to do some moisture wicking polyester dri-fit shirts and need all the advice i could get on how to get the press marks out? anything would help

 

Hello Yeti. No, the towel didn't work so well. In retrospect, it may have not been completely dry so whatever mositure was there may have affected the outcome. Still trying.

 

I tried to do some moisture wicking polyester dri-fit shirts and need all the advice i could get on how to get the press marks out?

 

If you've already got the press marks on a shirt - you can't really get them out. Better to avoid them to start with.

Some tricks mentioned in previous threads are:

1. Make sure you are pressing at light to medium pressure. You may need to increase dwell time to get the best result. Get some cheap poly fabric and experiment with different settings. Different types of fabric may require some tweaking in temperature, time and pressure to get optimum result.

2. Tear off the edges of your transfer - this creates much "softer" edge and leaves less impression.

3. Use a teflon/foam pillow to elevate pressing area on the garment and make sure your transfer is a little bit bigger: this way the edges of the transfer will hang over the edges of the pillow and will not get pressed.