Transfer Pattern to Fabric

STEP 1

Turn on Calendar Press

The Calendar Press takes roughly 45 minutes to heat up from cold so be sure to plan accordingly. We will use the following settings:

Speed: 30

Temperature: 185 degrees C

Pre-Heat Treatment: 2x Pre-Heat

STEP 1

Prep your Illustrator File

We start by prepping the PDF that was saved by the Design Software to make sure it is the best for our Dye sublimation printer.

  1. First, separate the panels into their own file in Illustrator.

  2. Set the color of that document to RGB

  3. Orient them to minimize vertical height of the print.

  4. Scale each of them by 2% to account for the shrinkage of the heat transfer process.

  5. Save the files as a PDF/X-4.

STEP 1

Setup Print in Epson

Load the Epson design software and import our PDF. It will provide us with a preview of the job. Don’t worry if the preview looks blurry. The software doesn’t display the full resolution image.

Position the prints as desired.

Click on Settings window to load the color options. We will use the default Chromelux unless you have a particularly dark print, for which we will want to adjust to 50-75%.

STEP 1

Print Design to Transfer Paper

Once we have the files complete, we will press print like any other printer and it will begin processing the file and sending it to the printer.

STEP 1

Cut out Transfer Paper Design

Once complete, we will cut out the design from the transfer paper using the red cut lines. We will ultimately use Kapton tape to mount the cutouts to the fabric, which should keep it in place while we run it through the calendar heat press.

STEP 1

Pre-Heat Fabric

In order to remove moisture from the fabric and prevent shrinking when we transfer the ink, we want to start with a couple blank passes with the fabric. We want to run it through twice before we attach the paper to shrink it to size.

STEP 1

Run Fabric through Press

With our two pieces taped together, slowly feed the fabric through the calendar press, being sure to keep fingers and garments away from the rollers. The machine will slowly pick up the fabric and run each piece through in approximately 30 seconds.

STEP 1

Run Fabric through Press

Turn off the Calendar press. The machine will take approximately 90 minutes to cool to a safe level so be sure to check on it periodically while it cools.