Screen printed t-shirts can look great – at first that is. If they’re not looked after properly, screen printed garments can very quickly start to look quite shabby, eventually peeling, fading, and detaching from the base fabric that they’ve been printed on.
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that how you decide to go about caring for your t-shirt can have a big impact on how long it lasts. With that in mind, let’s explore some of the basics when it comes to preserving these beautiful pieces.
Start with a high quality base
It’s important to note that to preserve the quality of a screen printed t-shirt, you need to start with a garment that’s already quite high quality. Cheap screen prints on cheap t-shirts will inevitably start to crack a lot sooner, no matter how well you look after them.
Try to choose a well-made high quality t-shirt, with a high GSM and tight weave. The more material there is for the ink to latch onto, the better it will be able to stick. Then, the screen printing also needs to be done by a high-quality service, such as Screen Textiles.
Wash inside out
One of the best ways of minimising the amount of damage done to the screen print while the t-shirt is in the wash is to simply turn it inside out. This stops the design from brushing against other clothes and the machine itself, while it’s wet, hot and likely more delicate than it normally would be.
Wash on a gentle cycle
You also need to make sure that you’re washing your screen-printed t-shirts on a gentle cycle. Try to stick to washes at around 30 degrees centigrade if possible – the hotter the water, the more stress the screen-printed design will be subject to.
Opt for a slower spin cycle, and make sure that you avoid any harsh detergents or bleach. By washing with similar colours, you’ll also minimise any colour transfers – avoid washing with heavy items, especially if they have big zips or coarse fabric, to further minimise abrasion in the machine.
Be careful how you dry the garment
Washing isn’t the only way that screen printed garments can be damaged – they can also degrade a lot more rapidly if they’re dried in the wrong way. If possible, it’s best to avoid tumble drying altogether, as the heat can damage the print itself and shrink the garment.
Try to air dry it whenever possible – if it must be tumble dried, make sure that you use the lowest heat setting, and accept that it might lead to some premature cracking.
Preserving your screen printed t-shirt isn’t too difficult, so long as you consistently stick to these basic pieces of advice. If the screen print itself is high quality, and it’s on a well made piece of cotton, it should be able to survive a relatively high number of washes before it well and truly starts to degrade.