How to wash a printed tee so the print survives

We get more emails about this than about sizing, which suggests the care label on the average t-shirt is not doing its job. Here is everything that matters, in about four minutes.

The five rules

1. Turn it inside out. The print then rubs against the shirt rather than against the drum and the zips of everything else in the load.
2. Wash cold. 30°C or below. Cold water cleans cotton perfectly well with a decent detergent.
3. Skip the bleach and the brighteners. Bleach attacks fluorescent pigments first, which is why pink and orange go before anything else.
4. Dry low, or hang it. High heat is what embrittles plastisol. A hung shirt will never crack.
5. Iron on the reverse. Direct heat on a print will soften and smear it. If you must press the front, put a cloth between.

Why heat is the problem

Plastisol is a PVC-based ink. It cures at around 160°C and stays flexible as long as it is not repeatedly re-heated. Every hot dryer cycle drives a little more plasticiser out of the film, and a film with less plasticiser is stiffer. Stiff film plus flexing equals cracks.

This is also why a print that has been through fifty cold washes can look perfect while one that has been through ten hot dryer cycles looks a decade old.

If it has already cracked

You cannot reverse it. Cracking is physical loss of the ink film, not a stain.

You can stop it getting worse: move the shirt to cold washes and hang drying immediately, and avoid stretching the printed area when you pull the shirt on. Some people like a cracked print and deliberately accelerate it. That is a legitimate taste and we are not going to argue with it.

What we will not do is tell you a heat press or an iron will fix it. Re-pressing a cracked print flattens the edges and makes the cracks more visible, not less.

Heavyweight cotton specifics

Our tees are 320gsm, which is roughly double a standard promotional shirt. Two things follow from that.

First, they hold water. A heavyweight tee takes noticeably longer to air dry, so give it a full day on a hanger rather than assuming it will be ready in an afternoon.

Second, they resist stretching, which means the print flexes less in normal wear than it would on a thin shirt. Heavy cotton is genuinely better for print longevity, not just for feel.

Full measurements and care symbols are on our size and care guide, and the same rules apply to every printed piece we make including the Second Pass Hood.