Name: Elwin
Message: Hopefully nobody has asked this already (I searched, but did not see anything that relates...)

There is a website called zazzle which will print an uploaded design using a dye sublimation process onto a t-shirt. However, they cannot print on darker colors (i.e. black), since there is apparently no good dye-sub "white" dye. I was wondering, what if one got a t-shirt from them, covered the design with wax, and then died the shirt black, would it work? Or would it mess of the existing design somehow or other, particularly with the boiling process to remove the wax?

You can also get almost any local copy shop, such as Kinko's, to print a photograph or graphic design onto a t-shirt.

There is no such thing as a white dye, but there is a process involving applying a white background under the dye transfer. You can print your own dye transfer using opaque transfer paper. (See, for example, <http://printonit.zoovy.com/category/transferpapers.opaque>.) Unfortunately, the results are more fragile in the laundry than commercial results, I believe. The opaque white-background transfer is more fragile in my experience than home-made transfers which are not opaque. The opaque transfer paper has the advantage of working well when printed onto a dark fabric, and you can prepare the transfer on a photocopier or on a computer inkjet printer, depending on which opaque transfer paper you buy.

Protecting the image with wax during dyeing could work, but it's more trouble than other methods, and there is the concern you mention of how well it will survive boiling, and generally some dye does get through the wax, though using pure beeswax instead of a batik wax mixture would help.

Another way to do this would be to apply the dye only where you want it. Thicken the fiber reactive dye with sodium alginate or ProChem's Print Mix SH. Paint the dye on with a brush, using a small brush near the design, and perhaps a larger brush for the rest of the shirt. (Be sure to use Procion MX dye, or other fiber reactive dye, never all-purpose dye!)

Or, you can tie the design off like the center of a bull's eye pattern with a rubber band, and dip only the area outside of the rubber band into a small bucket of dye. The Low Water Immersion technique is easiest for this.


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