Customer wants to Tye-Dye their own shirts...

[Gilligan]

Should they do this BEFORE or AFTER we screen print them?

[mk162]

AFTER

[jvanick]

Definitely after.

[Gilligan]

I know that printing them sucks... just wasn't sure if there would be an issue with dying them after putting plastisol on them.

[Frog]

I've actually done it both ways sucessfully. Though I usually print the dyed shirts, due to a scheduling problem with a local Boy Scout troop getting the dying done,
we gave it a try and it was fine. Probably didn't get tied as tightly as blanks, but fine, nonetheless. This was plastisol, white and black. The tricky part for me was trusting that the white was down nicely.

And what sucks? I've never had a problem.

[kingscreen]

After.  Gildan makes a PFD (Prepped For Dyeing) option.

[Frog]

So, all of you who would rather print blanks before dying, do you have problems with the commercially dyed ones as well?

[mk162]

we do both...but i don't want shirts back that have been handled by the customer...

what if they wash them to set the dye?  fuzzier shirts = harder to print.  less handling from the customer is easier.

print the design in white & black in case a shirt or 2 doesn't dye all the way, it will still look good.

[mimosatexas]

I've only done this once, and they dyed them before I printed.  I had them bring me the dye though and after some testing and research online figured out it was dischargeable.  I actually printed white discharge over the tie dye on half the run and it worked awesomely, and waterbased black on the other half, again without issue.  Not sure about migration since I didnt use plastisol on them...

[Sbrem]

We've done both, but definitely prefer to print before the dyeing...

Steve

[Ripcord]

I'd rather print first, but I've done it both ways. If they dye it first or if I get already dyed shirts I use low bleed ink.

[Gilligan]

print the design in white & black in case a shirt or 2 doesn't dye all the way, it will still look good.

Brad, expand on what you are saying here please.


They are wanting to the print to be Teal and Light Blue.  I'm willing to advise them that they are stupid (because they are) and tell them what they SHOULD do.  Just want to know what I should be telling them before I do.

[mk162]

that should be fine...i can't tie dye for sh!t, so the outside of my shirt always ended up heavily dyed and the print area was left pretty much white.

we usually print them in white so the print shows up no matter what color is used...but when you are like me...it doesn't work too well to have a white only print.

[blue moon]

by using two contrasting colors for the art you are making sure there is enough contrast to see it regardless of the background (white ink on the part that's very light in color would be hard to read. By adding a dark stroke around it the problem is eliminated). We always outline the art going on the TD garments and usually print after dyeing.

pierre

[Gilligan]

Here is what they are WANTING.

We are about to throw some tye dye images under to see how it looks.

We aren't feeling like it's gonna pop the way it is now.