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Nylon Jacket Printing
written by: Cherie Derrick,
DyeSoup, April 2003
| Nylon is sublimatable.
The main problem with nylon jackets is that
they have a soft flannel
lining that is also sublimatable which causes all sorts of problems. If
you don't put paper between the nylon and the lining you will get your
image printed all the way through, not only on the shell but on the
lining too, which may not sound bad, but believe me, it
is. When you finish and hold the jacket up, the outer shell and the
lining will not line up causing a shadow effect that looks pretty bad.
So, the first step is to be able to put something between the shell
and the lining. To do that I cut a 3" slit next to the side
seam towards the bottom of the jacket (this will be repaired using seam
tape). I'm sure some people who are more talented with a needle
and thread than I, could do a much nicer job by ripping out the seam
3" instead of cutting the lining. Please feel free to do so
at your own risk :-) |

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Then I take 3-4 pieces of rolled up blank white paper and
slip it through the slit and line up the papers under the area you will
be pressing. I do this both for the front pocket area and the back
of the jacket.
Pre-press, pre-press, pre-press... I can't stress enough how
important this is with many materials that shrink. Always
pre-press any material at least 5 seconds and if it is especially prone
to shrinkage (like the satin poly materials) press for at least 10
seconds allow to cool a minute or so and press again for another 10
seconds just to be sure. |
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Using regular Sublijet inks I press nylon at 375 degrees
Fahrenheit for 35-45
seconds . Other inks will most likely need longer (usually another
20-30 seconds) pressing times .
In the image to the right you can see after the jacket was pressed
but before the protective paper was removed from inside the
jacket. |

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After you have finished pressing the images, back and
front if you are doing both, remove the paper by either rolling it up
again (if you can) or I just fold it, tear it up or crumple it up to
remove it.
I then use iron on seam tape to repair the slit in the jacket.
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The above is: Copyright 2003 BitSoup, Inc.,
All rights reserved, and may not be copied or
reproduced without the written permission of the author.
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