I love the vibrant colors of a good sublimation design. But I love Siser Rainbow White Glitter HTV more. The first thing people want to try is sublimation to cotton.
Siser glitter vinyl gives you the best Sublimation On Glitter HTV that you will find! And this HTV is the best way to do sublimation on cotton.
Sublimation On Glitter HTV is the best way to add sublimation to dark fabrics and cotton. All you have to do is use your vinyl cutters to cut out the white glitter heat transfer vinyl and you have an amazing design with vivid colors that will last longer than the shirt.
Can You Use A Household Iron For Sublimation?
No, a household iron doesn’t get hot enough for sublimation. You need high heat to activate sublimation ink.
In my step-by-step instructions, I show you the best, and also the simplest way to sublimate cotton blends. And the good news is that it will last a long time. If you sublimate on just cotton, it will come out in the wash.
For Sublimation On Cotton using Glitter HTV you will need:
- Sublimation printers, such as a converted Epson or sawgrass virtuoso
- Glitter heat transfer vinyl
- Sublimation Inks
- Full-color cotton shirt (black is my favorite)
Can You Sublimate On Cotton?
Can you do sublimation on cotton? That’s the magic question, right? Well, the answer is yes and no. First, let’s cover what sublimation is exactly.
What Is Sublimation, it is a method of printing that transfers a design to materials or fabrics using heat. For sublimation printing, you do need special ink, an inkjet printer, and sublimation transfer paper.
Sublimation generally works best on poly blends and also some other materials with a special coating. For traditional sublimation, you= need to do it on light-colored fabrics and materials.
I have a few methods I use to sublimate cotton garments. the one in this tutorial, however, is using a square piece of glitter HTV.
For this method of sublimation on cotton, I always use 2 programs. Cricut Design Space and Photoshop. I do it this way when I want to make sure to get the exact measurements of my image, but Design Space won’t let me print an image this large.
Over in Photoshop, choose your paper size to set up the canvas. And of course, you’re going to choose whatever size paper that you are going to be printing on if it is larger than what cricket design space can do.
Using Glitter for Sublimation On Cotton Shirts
So once your canvas opens, you want to go ahead and import your image in. And I just drag and drop from my desktop, because that is the easiest thing to do. But once your image is in there, the next thing that I like to do is pull the rulers to the size of what I need the image to be.
You can use this method on cotton t-shirts and it works on whatever color you want, but you have to be very careful with colors other than black shirts so that you don’t get the ink onto the fabric. If you don’t, It will be fine it will wash right out.
The Siser rainbow white glitter vinyl is my favorite for sublimation on cotton however and to use when I press. But, you can use their white glitter to sublimate on, or the Cricut glitter also works very well. I haven’t tried any other glitters, because again Siser Rainbow White is my favorite.
How long does sublimation last on shirts?
The most beautiful thing about sublimation. When you use sublimation as your printing method it will always last the life of the garment.
What does this mean exactly? It means that as long as you have a wearable shirt your design will be there. Your shirt can be completely tattered, torn, and ripped to shreds but that design will not wash out.
If you have some design skills, sublimation is also a great way to get very colorful designs and also unique designs. Because you are using a program to print as opposed to vinyl where you have to layer the image the possibilities are truly limitless.
I have a ton of sublimation designs in Shop by Pink to help you get started. Check them out and let me know what you think.
I love using this method to sublimate cotton. There are actually a few ways or methods to sublimate on cotton using glitter HTV.
Here are a few other Sublimation Projects to try out.
- Sublimation On Glitter HTV | How to Sublimate On Glitter When it’s Cut into a shape.
- How To Do Sublimation Over Glitter With Cricut Print Then Cut
- Sublimation On A Skinny Tumbler With Cricut Mug Press
How To Sublimate On Glitter HTV
In this video, I walk you through How To Sublimate On Glitter HTV. I use sister HTV in this video tutorial and teach you to step by step how to achieve amazing results!
Materials
- Glitter heat transfer vinyl
- Sublimation Ink
- Full-color cotton shirt (black is my favorite)
Tools
- Sublimation printer
- Photoshop (great deals)
Instructions
- Upload the image to Cricut Design Space.
- You can leave it as a print and cut the image or save just the shape of the image.
- Resize the image to fit your shirt. If you can print the size you need from Design Space then you can skip to step 9.
- Take note of the dimensions you resized to, they will come in handy later.
- If you saved it as a print then cut the image, switch the line type to cut, and cut out the vinyl.
- Switch over to photoshop, or the program you are going to use to print.
- Make the canvas size the same size as the sublimation paper you have to print with.
- Now resize the image to about 1/4 inch larger than the size you noted from Cricut Design Space.
- Mirror and print the image.
- Once you have your glitter vinyl cut out and your image printed you are going to grab your colored cotton shirt.
- Press on the vinyl first, you don't need the full amount of time. Just long enough for it to stick down to the shirt.
- Remove the transfer backing and allow it to cool for a couple of seconds.
- Now lay your print face down on top of the glitter.
- I like to secure mine with tape so I can make sure it doesn't move.
- Press with the EasyPress at 385 for 45 seconds.
- Carefully removes the paper while hot.
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