How to Add Sublimation to a Cotton T-Shirt
Learn how to easily add sublimation or Infusible Ink to a cotton base.
Equipment
- Pair of scissors
- Heat press
- Heat-resistant tape
- Teflon sheet or parchment paper
- Sublimation printer
- Sublimation paper or laser copy paper (or pre-printed sublimation print)
- Cricut machine (optional)
- Lint roller
Ingredients
- 1 cotton t-shirt any color works
- 1 12" sheet glitter htv white or very light color is best
Instructions
- Select the image you want on your shirt and size it. For a full front image on an adult size shirt, I size my image at 10.5"-11"
- Mirror the image and send it to print on the sublimation printer
- Either by hand or on your cutting machine, cut out the shape of the image from the glitter HTV. This can easily be done using the "hide contour" or "offset" features in Cricut Design Space. (Don't forget to mirror)
- Follow the manufacture's instructions for the glitter HTV and set your heat press to the appropriate temperature. For Siser Glitter HTV, I set my heat press to 320° F.
- Lay your shirt on your press and use a lint roller to remove stray fibers, lint, and other debris
- Press your shirt for a few seconds to remove moisture and wrinkles
- Place the glitter piece on the shirt and press for just a few seconds. Your goal here is to simply tack it down. Peel warm.
- Place your printed design on top of the glitter HTV, ink side down. Use a couple of pieces of heat resistant tape to hold it down.
- Set your heat press a little higher, to about 385-400° F.
- Place the teflon sheet or parchment paper over the design.
- Press for 35-45 seconds.
- Carefully remove the transfer sheet.
