How to Bleach a Shirt for Sublimation? Step-by-Step Guide

We all know that bleach products are used to remove sublimation inks. Shirts and other garments can also be sublimated with these beach products. Moreover, people also do not know how to bleach a shirt for sublimation without Sun.

It is equally easy to create beautiful and long-lasting designs with bleach items as with other sublimation products. Therefore, their demand has significantly increased in the past few years.

Get high-quality sublimation designs for shirts that will make you look good and feel confident. We have a wide selection of designs to choose from, so you can find the perfect one for you.

This article is primarily intended to inform you about how to bleach shirts for sublimation. Moreover, we will also guide you to accurately create bleach shirts for sublimation. So, let’s start!

Here are the best steps and T-shirt bleaching techniques we can cover for you to bleach shirts for sublimation. We are sure that after following all of them, you will easily create highly aesthetic designs using bleach products for sublimation on shirts.

1. Prepare your Designs

Before you start your main shirt sublimation process using bleach, you require some accurate designs. These designs are the main source for the bleach products that will be used for sublimation.

You can create your favorite designs for this bleach shirt sublimation process by using certain software programs. These software programs include photoshop, illustrator, and canvas.

After creating your designs, print them out using a good-quality printer. But, remember, these designs must have 0.25 inches of white paper on all of their four sides. Do not include this white paper in your final design.

The design you will print out will be a little dark and faded. Moreover, it can either be vertical or horizontal. This thing depends on your choice. The bright or vibrant color of such designs occurs by using heat-press machines.

2. Protect the back of your shirts

People that are unaware of using bleach shirts for sublimation end up ruining the backs of their shirts. This thing occurs when you have no protection for shirts and the bleach leaves its spots on its back.

To prevent this situation, a cardboard piece is essential. As a result, bleach shirts are ideal for sublimation. You just have to insert this cardboard into your shirts and hold them with something.

How to bleach shirts without getting holes? For this purpose, we advise you to use polyester shirts. This is because these shirts can hold bleach products and make bonds with them unlike other items like cotton. When using bleach shirts for sublimation, you must use at least 50% polyester.

3. Create a Solid Background

Since both your designs and shirts are ready for bleach printing. It is now time to trace and make your cut-out designs on the surface of your shirts. You have to use vibrant colorful paintbrushes to make a solid outline for your designs.

After this use bleach and trace all the edges and mid-part of your designs. Now you will notice that your 0.25-inch borders will help you to easily trace the outline of your creations using bleach.

Now you have to remove your output designs. As the bleach has covered it for you on your sublimation shirts. You have to let this bleach dry for a little bit and get ready for the next important step.

4. Use Different Templates

To bleach a shirt for sublimation, you do not want to print your designs, you can use artificial templates for this process. It is the simplest step to use bleach shirts for sublimation. You just have to cut the cardboard into the shape of your designs and place it at the top of your shirt.

At this point, you must have bleach in a container along with you. Because, for this process, you have to spray bleach again and again on the surface of your shirts for the most accurate and efficient results.

Moreover, people often search How to bleach a shirt with a paint brush? Well, this method of choosing different templates can be your best choice.

5. Use Protection & Remove Cardboard

This sixth step involves the use of particular protective gloves and eye patches. So, that the bleach product can not damage your body parts. Your shirts must now be removed from the cardboard.

Make sure that you do not harm the designs on your shirts. Using less bleach for sublimation is another piece of advice we would like you to follow. So, that it can not saturate your shirts and ruin the sublimation process.

6. Spray Bleach on the Shirts

You can use a certain container or a shower bottle to place the bleach in it. For this process, you have to create multiple bleach spots on the surface of your sublimation shirts. In this way, you can get best sublimation shirts for bleaching and sublimation.

The only way you can create your bleach spots is by spraying this bleach again and again on the shirts. It would help you greatly in making a temporarily shaped design made up of bleach materials.

7. Soak the Bleach Shirt in a Special Mixture

When you have made your temporary designs of bleach materials, it is time to soak the shirts in a special mixture. This mixture is a combination of 1 cup of water and hydrogen peroxide. 

Now, you have to first let the bleach set in your shirts for about 3-5 minutes. After this specific time, you can rinse or wash your bleach shirts and then use them for the sublimation process.

8. Use Warm Water for Cleaning 

Another way for creating perfect bleach shirts for sublimation, you can use warm water to clean them. Remember, this cleaning process is very important. Because it washes all the dirt away from your shirts, especially from the warm water.

Therefore, it is essential to use wash these shirts before sublimation in your washing machines with warm water. You can also set your washing machines to a manual setting for an accurate cleaning process.

9. Use Butcher Paper & Heat Press the Shirts

The butcher paper plays it vital role in protecting the bleach shirts in the sublimation process. You have to place these papers on the top of your shirts before you place them in the heat-pressing machines. Moreover, you can also use best bleach for bleaching shirts.

Meanwhile, you also have to use the heat press machines at a specific pressure, temperature, and most importantly time. Therefore, you have to heat press the bleach sublimation shirts for about 5-10 s at 400 F.

Make sure the temperature and time, you have selected for this process are comparable. Otherwise, your sublimated bleach shirts will get burned. Because your bleach designs will melt and ruin.

Now you can remove the butcher paper and transfer your designs to the surface of your shirts. By following these steps, you can accurately create bleach shirts for sublimation.

FAQs:

Is it better to bleach a shirt before or after sublimation?

My recommendation is to put your sublimation design on a shirt that has already been bleached if you want the design to remain bright. Regardless of how you choose to proceed, the process will work perfectly.

Should I bleach my shirt before sublimation?

The shirt can also be bleached before it is sublimated. As a result, the shirt takes on a whole new look that is extremely fun. As an alternative to sublimation transfers, you can apply heat transfer vinyl using this method.

Can you bleach 100 cotton shirts for sublimation?

Shirts made of 100% cotton will not work. Sublimation sprays can be applied to make the material except for the ink, but the durability of these designs is not very good. Our shirt is a Gildan Soft Style shirt composed of 65% polyester and 35% cotton. These shirts are much softer than traditional polyester shirts.

Final Verdict:

Bleach is an amazing product that can be used to create aesthetic and breathtaking designs. Therefore, people are using it at a great range. But, due to a lack of knowledge about bleach shirts for sublimation;

We have come up with this article, as it is certain to cover all of your problems regarding this amazing bleach shirt for sublimation. By following the steps we have given you, you can easily create bleach-designed shirts for sublimation. Thank you very much for reading our article!

Mark Bryant