ADVICE APPRECIATED

[Martin C]

Personally I only use Flock on T-shirts. It gives a great appearance and every single customer goes away as pleased as punch. I’m building up a reputation for short run ‘Stag Night’ T’s and the like and have been able to slowly push my prices up because of the exceptional quality. It’s not as easy to weed as conventional vinyl but is quite forgiving if you pull the wrong bit off as it will stick back down again.

If bigger orders come in then you have the option of having flock transfers printed and your customer will have continuity of appearance which cannot be achieved with the plasticised heat press vinyls available.

As for suppliers I use Xpres. Some Flock can go off and become stretchy. It’s not a problem I’ve had from them.

As for Pitfalls, I would avoid doing Jackets at first, there a pain. For Polo’s buy a Teflon Pillow to use when printing the backs otherwise you’ll get the buttons and placket on the front making a harsh impression through the shirt. (Available form most suppliers)

Tips,

Make up a Template following the neck line of a shirt with a cut out where the Breast Logo will go. Great for T-shirts and a good starter when doing Polo’s………you’ll learn where to put the transfers in relation to the placket in time.

Make sure you’ve ample space to spread your work around to enable it to cool quickly if neccessary. (I use the back of chairs, the desk top and hanging rails!)

Good Luck (:)

[John & Dawn Roddick]

Thanks Martin. Who would you recommend as a good supplier for buying our T-shirts from?

[Lorraine Buchan]

Hi Dawn

Personally I never use flock. My reason for this is the flock filaments can be quite loose and cause a kind of flock dust which isn’t too great for the plotter – especially if your business is vinyls too – but each to thier own.

I also use xpress for materials and my favourites are the easy cut material (which can be pantone mached for orders of 20 sheets or more) and ultra cut which has a clear polyester backing that is sticky like the flock so if you pull the wrong thing off you can always stick it back down again. ultra cut can also be layerd so you can do multi colour logos.

I use magic touch for my laser transfer papers the TTC 3.1 for white T-Shirts, TTC 3.1+ for white Polos and sweats and the OBM 5.2 for full colour pictures on dark garments.

Mouse mats and other things from the magic touch. Mouse mats are so easy to do!

Getting your T-shirts….. well all the suppliers do almost the same ranges all at exactly the same price, so theres not really one better than the other. Check with them all and see if any will give you a discount, free carriage, free samples etc… if you don’t ask you wont get and they can only say no! Some names for you:
uk Leisurewear, pencarrie, ralawise, presteige leisurwear, elms & elms.

also if you can try and get some sample packs of the suppliers so you have something to show your customers

[Martin C]

I use Ralawise for most of my clothing supplies. Call Freephone 0800212180 and ask for a catalogue which is over 200 pages thick and has everything from Jackets to T’s, bags to Caps……

I’ve never heard of Flock Dust Lorraine?? I use my Roland for Vinyls too without any problems??

[John & Dawn Roddick]

Do you know whether any of these companies have websites?