You’ll need a particular type of printer to make sublimation designs. Either purchase a sublimation printer (though they can be expensive) or invest in a cheaper Epson EcoTank printer and fill either with sublimation ink. Make sure your printer settings are correct. Select the matte paper setting and set the quality to “High” or “Best. " If your design has words, print it mirrored or flipped horizontally, so they show up properly later. Your design will look faded and dark when it prints. This is normal! The full color will come out when you expose it to heat. You can also choose a design and send it to a sublimation printer if you don’t have the equipment to print designs at home.
Choose a 100% polyester t-shirt. Polyester handles sublimation much better than cotton. If you can’t find one, you can go as low as 65% polyester and still get a good result.
The design area is where your sublimation will eventually go. Touch up the edges of the design area and look for any spots you missed as you paint the shirt. The goal is to create a solid bleached design space. It’s a good idea to outline the design with flour because it won’t damage your sublimation paper, whereas any bleach that gets onto it could wreck the design. Do your bleaching outside. Sunlight and a breeze help the bleach dry faster.
This alternative to creating a solid design area is helpful if you’d rather not risk bleaching your design paper or you don’t have a paintbrush on hand. Since the stencil will keep excess bleach from spilling over the side of the design area, you can get clean lines even while applying bleach with a spray bottle.
Wear protective rubber gloves while you handle a bleach-stained shirt. Make sure you don’t completely saturate the shirt with bleach. Just spritz it a few times to lightly dampen the exposed fabric. This is an optional design choice. If you like your shirt with just a painted design area and some spray patterns, that’s fine too.
If you don’t have a spray bottle on hand, you can also use your paintbrush to create a spray effect. Dip the brush in bleach and flick it over the shirt’s surface so that droplets of bleach fall onto the fabric.
Once your shirt is dry, the bleaching process is finished! It’s time to move on to sublimation at last.
You can leave the shirt in the press while you prepare it for the next step; just leave the top of the press open.
Remove the paper as fast as possible to avoid any image blurring. If you’re sublimating multiple shirts, don’t use the same sheet of butcher paper for all of them—the previous image might carry over onto a new shirt. Once your shirt is successfully sublimated, remove it from the press and spritz it lightly with hydrogen peroxide to help the design set quickly. After that, your shirt is done!
