Reverse Decorating With CAD Materials (Video Included!)

Take a unique approach to fashion-forward decoration — from the inside out. August 30, 2010
By Josh Ellsworth, Contributing Writer

Reverse Decorating gives a fashion-forward look to sheer or thin garments and can be achieved through screen printing sublimation or heat-applied CAD materials. Garment courtesy of Royal Apparel, New York; decoration by cadcutdirect.com.

Embellishing garments on their reverse sides is a trend that is growing in popularity and is ideal for a variety of market niches. For instance, consider presenting your local cheer squad with a new twist on their practice shirts — their mascot and team name applied on the inside of a sheer garment so the design shows through. Mirroring what the girls are buying at retail, this is a great way to garner that competitive school business by offering something different.

Reverse garment decorating is a fun solution to offer your customers for everything from fundraising walk-a-thon shirts, to a local restaurant’s wait staff uniforms, to name-dropped preprint lines. It can be achieved through traditional screen printing, dye sublimation (if the garment contains polyester) and by using heat-applied CAD materials, a cutter and a heat press. In this article and accompanying video, we’ll cover the basics of the latter form of reverse embellishment.

Simple Steps
For best results, choose a shirt that is either very lightweight, sheer or even a burnout style. These types of shirts will best allow the CAD material to show through. Choose a film that complements the shirt but one that you’ll still be able to see once the process is completed. The finished look will appear muted since the decoration is on the inside of the garment.

The adhesive side of the CAD material is what shows through the front of the shirt. Choose a material that is vibrant, not dull. Test various colors of films and vinyls to see which ones show through the best.

Load the film into the cutter and output the design (in the positive, not the reverse) using your vector graphics program. Next, weed the excess CAD material from your design.

Turn your shirt inside-out and position the side that will include the design over the lower heat platen of your press. Always use a cover sheet to protect the heated top platen. Press the garment according to your press manufacturer’s recommended time and temperature, and remember to cool for the appropriate amount of time before pulling away the excess film.

You’ll find that thicker or full-coverage graphics stand out best when using this process. The type of shirt also affects the outcome. With burnout shirts, which have a mottled pattern, you will find some parts of the design will show through better than others. Experiment to see which combinations work best. Because the film will be against the body, always use a thinner film vs. a thicker one for greater comfort.

Visit impressionsmag.com/reverse, or view the embedded video below as Josh demonstrates this technique.

Josh Ellsworth is the General Manager of Stahls’ CAD-CUT Direct. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Josh at josh@cadcutdirect.com or visit his Web site, joshellsworth.com.



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