As you all probably know out there, I have been putting all of my blogging efforts toward Pimpashirt.com. For those of you who don’t know what Pimpashirt.com is, it is a web site that features a new customized t-shirt every week accompanied by a blog post and, best of all, a video of the shirt being made form start to finish. This site is a collaborative effort of myself and Josh Ellsworth where we focus on creating unique designs and decoration techniques with a vinyl cutter, a heat press and heat transfer vinyl. Each week, we give away each creation to one of our subscribing members. So if you haven’t, check it out and be sure to subscribe for you chance to win a free tee and stay up to date on the latest design and decoration techniques.
In my efforts to re-vamp and get my own personal blog up to date (you can subscribe to me here), my goal is to talk more in depth about the materials and methods used in our Pimashirt videos. So this week, we used a new heat transfer vinyl called SPECTRA® Gloss. This material is the latest addition to the SPECTRA® line of heat transfer vinyl at Imprintables Warehouse. SPECTRA® Gloss works just like any other heat transfer vinyl, but it has an extremely glossy finish. While most vinyl applications demand a matte finish, a glossy finish has been in high demand in European markets as well as street wear here in the states. In talking with customers, I have been getting more and more requests recently for this type of finish. While this material probably won’t be your go to heat transfer material for day to day use, it does have it’s place in the market. In my opinion, SPECTRA® Gloss heat transfer material is perfect for street wear, club wear, dance wear, and for tone on tone designs for extra pop as you will see in the pic to follow.
SPECTRA® Gloss is currently available in four colors…red, black, white and pink. It works just like all of our heat transfer materials. You will cut all designs in reverse on your vinyl cutter of choice. Weed away the excess material from the mylar carrier, leaving only the design to be applied to the garment(cotton, polyester or poly/cotton blends). Once weeding has been completed, SPECTRA® Gloss is applied with a heat press at 302° F for 15 seconds with a medium pressure. After heat pressing, allow design to cool completely before removing the mylar carrier. Below is a pic of a t-shirt that was created with this new heat transfer material.
Customized T-shirt with SPECTRA® Gloss
In the photo above, we used two colors of vinyl, red and black and applied it to a 100% cotton t-shirt. I would like to go over the process on how the design was created and applied. Our design is very simple and was created in Corel Draw. You can use your design program of choice to create your cuttable designs. Remember, vector based programs such as Corel, Illustrator, etc. are best suited. The design was broken down into two parts…the word PEACE and the rest of the text.
With there being two colors, it will require us to cut and heat press each material separately. In our case, it doesn’t really matter which one is cut or pressed first as there are no overlapping parts, so lets just start with cutting the word PEACE out of the red first. Once the cutting is completed, the black is loaded into the vinyl cutter, and the remaining message is cut. While it is cutting, the red is weeded to save time. After the black has completed, weeding is once again performed on the black vinyl.
Now that the cutting and weeding have been completed, load the desired garment onto the heat press. As always, when doing any heat application, pre-press your garment for about 4-5 seconds. This will remove any moisture or wrinkles that could interfere with adhesion. Now its time to smash it on the t-shirt. As I stated before, it doesn’t matter which portion of the design is pressed first or second since there are no overlapping parts. In our case we applied the black first, then followed with the red. Each application of SPECTRA® Gloss is 302° for 15 seconds with a mdeium pressure. Be sure to let the garment cool before removing the mylar carrier.
There you have it folks…a simple customized t-shirt with SPECTRA® Gloss heat transfer vinyl.
A couple things before I leave you this week. With every post from here on out, I will be offering sales specials geared towards the topic of the post…after all I am a salesman. So with that being said…this week’s special is $6.25 per yard on SPECTRA® Gloss Heat Transfer Vinyl. To take advantage of this offering call me @ 800.347.0068 x240 or email mike@imprintables.com. Special will last until my next post. And as always, be sure to subscribe for email updates.
Until next time…
