T-SHIRT FABRIC GUIDE

It’s no secret that we love a good t-shirt. This wardrobe staple is recognized for both its comfort and ability to express an idea, a logo, or a message through decoration and design. Did you know that different t-shirt fabrics are best suited to different types of projects and wear? Choosing the wrong fabric could mean accidentally botching a craft project, not wearing the best type of fabric for the weather, or realizing too late that the new shirt you just bought online is not as soft as expected.

In this guide, we’ll give you the low-down on the different types of t-shirt materials, the best use cases for each type of t-shirt material, their levels of softness, and even how different types of designs may look on them.

Important T-Shirt Fabric Definitions

Before we dive into more specific t-shirt fabrics and all of the cool techniques you can use to personalize them, let’s set the table with some important t-shirt fabric definitions to help you get familiarized with commonly used terms.

Most Common T-Shirt Fabric Blends

When it comes to t-shirts, there are many different fabrics and fabric blends available. Each one offers its own distinct feel and benefits. Here are some of the most common fabrics and fabric blends you’ll encounter when shopping for t-shirts.

There is no single best fabric for screen printing. Actually, there are a variety of fabrics that work well to create screen printed shirts. Overall, the best t-shirt fabric for screen printing is cotton, although cotton-polyester t-shirt blends and tri-blend t-shirt materials can work just as well within this process, as long as you take the proper precautions. 

The type of ink you use for screen printed t-shirts also plays a role in choosing the best fabric for your project. Water-based inks require a higher percentage of cotton in a poly-cotton or tri-blend t-shirt in order for them to properly adhere to the fabric. Adding a base layer of ink can help mitigate this problem, producing a more vibrant screen print. For darker shirts, Plastisol inks can produce vivid colors without worry of absorption or base layers. This type of ink is made from PVC polymer that sits on top of the fabric, as opposed to absorbing into the fabric the way a water-based ink does. 

Screen printing (sometimes known as “silk screening”) deposits ink onto a shirt in a desired pattern, creating an eye-catching design. Typically, this method of printing works best when using only one or two colors of ink. Screen printing is done by hand, making this a more painstaking process than a machine-based process like direct-to-garment (DTG printing). 

With screen printing, a mesh screen with the reverse image of a design is placed on top of a t-shirt. Ink is then rolled over the top of the screen and seeps through the screen so that it’s deposited in the correct areas to bring the printed design to life. Once the ink is deposited, the shirt is then exposed to a heat process to cure and set the ink. While tri-blend shirts can scorch easily during the curing process, experienced printers will adjust the oven temperature and slow the belt to ensure no scorching occurs. 

Tie-dye t-shirts make a statement. They’re colorful, they’re cool, they’re one-of-a-kind, and are equally at home while grooving to your favorite jam band as they are featured in the social feeds of your favorite influencers. Making your own tie-dye t-shirt also conjures up memories of fun at-home projects or summer camp activities.

Tie-dye, as a process, involves twisting a t-shirt in a specific way and securing it with rubber bands to make a pattern. From there, the twisted tee can be squirted with different colors of fiber-reactive dye, or dip-dyed in a basin for an ombre effect. 

The beauty of tie-dye is that you can use as many – or as few – colors as you like. You can even use bleach to “reverse tie-dye” a darker colored shirt and lighten the portions of the shirt that aren’t adhered with a rubber band. 

The best material for tie-dye is cotton or another natural fabric. Because tie-dye requires a dye or bleach to seep into the threads of a shirt, natural fabrics that readily absorb moisture are your best bet. Overall, cotton t-shirts are the top choice for a tie-dye t-shirt project. Other cotton-based fabrics like denim and canvas can also be easily dyed using this method. Semi-synthetic fabrics like rayon and viscose can also offer you a vibrant tie-dyed t-shirt. 

The fabric that will be most difficult to tie-dye is polyester. Tie-dyeing polyester t-shirts (using the traditional fiber-reactive dye method or the reverse-dye bleaching method) can often yield unpredictable results for a DIY project. Special dyes are needed as polyester does not absorb color as well as cotton or rayon.  

T-shirts with embroidered designs give a tactile feel and a distinctive touch. Whether your shirt features an embroidered logo or a fun, colorful design, this process can (literally) elevate the design elements of your t-shirt.

As a process, embroidery involves using a needle and thread (or embroidery yarn) to weave a raised design onto fabric. Because a t-shirt may need to withstand the poking and stretching required to create a woven design, the best t-shirts for embroidery will be those made from thicker, smoother, and more tightly-woven fabrics like a heavier-weight cotton or a poly-cotton blend.

Fabrics that have less stretch or give to them, such as 100% cotton, are another consideration for embroidered t-shirts. If a fabric is too stretchy, it can warp or distort your design. Embroidered designs require fabric to be tensely pulled in order to weave the design into the fabric. If you embroider a stretchy or ribbed fabric, the woven design may look very different when the fabric springs back to its un-stretched form.

When it comes to embroidered t-shirts, it’s best to avoid thinner, more delicate fabrics like rayon and lighter-weight cotton t-shirts. These fabrics may be prone to tearing as a result of the embroidery needle passing through the fabric repeatedly to stitch your design. Stick to sturdier cottons without a lot of give as your best bet to create a beautifully woven embroidered t-shirt.

For a more colorful design, bring the heat! Heat press, that is. Heat press (or heat transfer) printing involves transferring a vinyl design with adhesive backing onto a shirt, using heat and pressure to adhere the graphic. Unlike screen printing, which typically works best with only one or two colors, heat press designs allow you to add more colors to the mix for a visually striking graphic tee. 

Once again, cotton t-shirts are the best choice for heat transfer graphics. Ringspun cotton and combed cotton with a finer, tighter weave provide an ideal surface for the heat transfer to adhere to.  Shirts made from a cotton-polyester blend or tri-blend can accept heat transfer graphics, but you’ll need to be careful because synthetics like polyester and rayon can scorch under a heat press. Professional printers will know the proper way to adhere heat transfer graphics to a cotton-poly or tri-blend shirt to minimize the risk of burning the fabric in the process. 

While sublimation printing might seem like magic, there’s quite a bit of science behind this method that’s gained popularity in recent years. Similar to heat transfer graphics, sublimation printing involves printing an image onto a special type of paper called (wait for it) sublimation paper. 

However, unlike the heat transfer process, which adheres a decal-like vinyl image to a shirt using a heat press, sublimation printing involves using heat to transform the water-based ink from the sublimation paper into a gas that bonds to the fabric of the shirt itself instead of just resting on top of it. This produces a long-lasting design that won’t crack or peel with repeated wear like some heat transfer graphics. 

Sublimation printing works better on lighter colored fabrics, as it can be difficult to see the transfer on a darker background. While you can print on colored fabrics, it’s important to be mindful that color may fade over time, diminishing the integrity of the design. For this reason, white or light pastel colored fabrics work best for sublimation printing. 

The best fabric for sublimation printing is polyester and poly-cotton t-shirts with at least 40% polyester in their composition. Natural fibers, such as cotton, do not work well with sublimation printing. The sublimation process and dyes used aren’t able to bond with all-cotton fabric. While the image may temporarily transfer, the dyes can quickly wash off of cotton, leaving you with a sad, imageless t-shirt. 

When you want a photorealistic image that captures every nuance of color and shading, direct-to-garment printing (sometimes referred to as “digital printing” or simply “DTG”) can help you replicate that imagery onto a t-shirt. 

Similar to sublimated printing, DTG printing involves embedding the ink directly into your shirt. However, instead of using heat to evaporate the ink into the fabric, colors are deposited directly onto your shirt via a giant printer capable of producing millions of colors to create your image. 

The best fabric to use for direct-to-garment DTG printing are 100% combed or ringspun cotton with a smooth, fine weave. DTG printing can also work on poly-cotton or tri-blend t-shirt materials that are at least 50% cotton. (Please keep in mind that DTG printing on tri-blend shirts will also produce a more weathered, distressed look instead of the more vibrant results you’d get with a 100% cotton tee.) DTG printing can be used on either light or dark t-shirt fabrics to produce striking imagery. The key is making sure you have the right type of fabric that readily accepts DTG ink and adheres to the fabric. 

While DTG printing can look great on darker fabrics, there may be a few extra steps you’ll need to take in order to ensure your image looks sharp. A pre-treatment solution should be applied to the area where you’ll print your image onto the shirt. This pretreatment solution fills in any gaps in the weave to make the fabric smoother and easier to print on – which is especially important when using white ink on a dark colored shirt. This solution also partially cures the ink, allowing it to set. 

Another step you may need to take when using DTG printing on darker fabrics is to print colors on a white base. Once the pre-treatment solution is applied, you can then layer on white ink before adding a final layer of colored ink to create your design. 

What is a mixed media t-shirt project? Simply put, it’s any type of t-shirt that combines two or more design applications onto a single t-shirt. Maybe you want to embroider a direct-to-garment printed t-shirt. Or perhaps you want to use heat press graphics on a tie-dye t-shirt. Mixing-and-matching these approaches results in a mixed media style t-shirt. 

There is no one single best fabric for creating a mixed media t-shirt. Rather, it depends on which techniques you want to apply to your design. In order to create a mixed media shirt that actually looks good, it’s best to take into consideration the unique properties of the material of the shirt you plan to use, as well as the characteristics involved with each process. By seeing where they overlap (and where to proceed with caution), you’ll wind up with a unique mixed media t-shirt design you’ll love. 

With that in mind, if you’d wanted to create an eye-catching sublimated tie-dye t-shirt, you’d start by printing an image on a polyester or poly-cotton tee with at least 40% polyester makeup. From there, you could use bleach over a sublimated design to either create a worn, distressed look or use rubber bands for a more traditional tie-dye look. While this technique can be used after a shirt has been sublimated, you can also bleach a polyester or poly-cotton tee before sublimation printing to create a brighter, more vibrant look.