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How to Use Sublimation Cotton Spray

If you've ever wanted to add sublimation designs to cotton fabric, I will teach you the best products to use and how to turn your favorite cotton tee into a sublimated shirt.
Course craft
Keyword sublimation
Prep Time 5 minutes
Active Time 15 minutes
Author Angie Holden

Equipment

  • Sublimation Printer
  • Heat Press
  • Heat Resistant Gloves
  • Tape Dispenser

What You Will Need

  • BELLA+CANVAS Shirts
  • GO Fuze Spray
  • GO Fuze Starter Kit
  • Sublimation Ink
  • Sublimation Paper
  • Lint Roller
  • Heat Resistant Tape
  • Sublimation Print

Instructions

How to Use GO Fuze Solution

  • To begin we want to place the board inside the shirt. I did pre-press my shirt to remove any wrinkles from the area where I'm going to put the solution.
  • With the board inside the shirt, we want to elevate one end of the board a little bit. I placed my tape dispenser under one end so the board is up at an angle. This makes it easier to spray the solution onto the shirt since spray bottles don't like to spray straight down.

How to Apply GO Fuze Spray to Cotton

  • We don't want to waste the GO Fuze spray by using it on portions of the shirt that we aren't applying sublimation.
  • To do this I like to use whatever design I plan to apply to the shirt. Take your print and lay it out on the surface right where you want the design. I am using tape to mark the corners so I have a rough idea of where I need to apply the solution. You can use the same pieces of tape over and over again.

How Much Solution Do I Apply?

  • You don't want to apply too much or not enough of the solution. For a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, we will do 10 pumps. That's 10 full pumps of the spray bottle they provide.
  • If you were doing a 16x20 area that would be 20 pumps. If you were doing a smaller area you would have to dial in the correct amount for yourself.
  • You want to spray inside the area you have marked and you want to make sure you shake it each time. Set your spray nozzle to the mist setting, not the stream setting.
  • I really want to stress that you want to make sure you spray over the whole area you want to sublimate onto. If you miss the area and then sublimate onto that portion you would have the same result as if you had sublimated onto untreated 100% cotton.
  • I like to do my 10 pumps left to right, top to bottom, and then a couple of extra pumps right into the middle of the area because my design will be mostly in the middle of my marked area.
  • Note - you do not add anything to the GO Fuze solution, you just take it from the large bottle and put some into the spray bottle and remember to shake it up really well.

How to Press GO Fuze Into Cotton Fabric

  • Once the whole area has been sprayed use the roller that came with the starter kit and start rolling over the surface.
  • We want to have the board inside because it gives us a firm surface that we can press against to get the solution into the fabric.
  • I am using pressure as I roll over the area. If the solution goes outside the tape marks that's totally fine, you just want to make sure the area inside the tape marks is all covered.
  • Roll over the whole area both up and down and side to side pressing down as you roll.
  • The roller will help make sure everything is evenly applied over the entire surface and as you're pushing down you're pushing the solution down into the fibers of the shirt.

How to Apply Sublimation on Cotton Fabric

  • Now that we have our cotton shirt prepped with the GO Fuze solution we can remove the tape markers (you can reuse the tape until it loses its stickiness).
  • I have my heat press heating up to 365 degrees. GO Fuze calls for 335 to 365 degrees, depending on your setup.
  • Once my heat press is up to temperature I close it for about 30 seconds to preheat the base. Once the 30 seconds is up I am going to open it.
  • This process requires medium to heavy pressure. I found that the Auto Press doesn't do as well as my regular heat press and I don't know that you can apply enough consistent pressure using the EasyPress.
  • First, we need to dry the solution. I am going to thread the shirt onto the heat press so just the front of the shirt is on the heat press. You do want to add protective paper between the shirt and the heat plate and another sheet of protective paper on top of the shirt. Then add the piece of polyester that came with the GO Fuze kit on top of the paper.
  • Now we're going to close the heat press, without the sublimation print on the shirt. This is to dry the solution for about 15 seconds. During this step you will likely see some steam, that is the moisture we want to leave the shirt.
  • Next, we are going to open the heat press, and remove the polyester, and the paper. The fabric may still be a little moist at this point so I am going to let it cool for about 10 seconds or so and let that moisture evaporate. This step will make sure we don't get any ghosting with our sublimation print.
  • First, we're going to dry the solution, and that'll be about 15 seconds. Next, we're going to add the sublimation print and sublimate, and that'll be 70 seconds. So my heat press is heating up, so let's head there and finish the shirt.

Sublimating Designs onto Cotton

  • At this point, the process is similar to a regular sublimation project.
  • Lint roll the surface to make sure there's no lint on the shirt itself. Keep the protective paper under the shirt and then add the sublimation print, sublimation ink side down located into place with heat-resistant tape.
  • Add the protective paper on top of the sublimation print and then add the polyester cloth on top of the protective paper.
  • Close the heat press and press with medium to heavy pressure at 365 degrees for 70 seconds.

Removing Sublimation Print from Cotton Shirt

  • This product is a cold peel product. When the time is up open the heat press and you can remove the polyester and protective paper but you want to wait to remove the sublimation print until everything is cool.
  • I removed the shirt from the press and set it aside. You could actually press another shirt while this one cools.
  • Once it is completely cool we can peel back the design. Any press marks that you might see will go away as soon as you wash the shirt since it is 100% cotton.