Fabric Print Care and Maintenance Tips

Shrinkage

Some shrinkage may occur during production and aftercare; shrinkage might be anywhere from 2% to 11%, depending on the fabric. Natural fabrics have a tendency to shrink more than polyester fabrics. If shrinkage is an important factor in your project, we would recommend testing the fabric first. Either test fabrics that came in our sample pack or order a small production run and test it before making something out of our fabric. However, printed fabric will never be precisely the same size due to shrinkage and the nature of the fabric.

Washing

Natural fabrics

For best results, we recommend washing all natural fabrics printed by Digital Fabrics gently by hand in cool water up to 30 degrees with a very gentle detergent that must contain no phosphates. We recommend Earth Choice Wool & Delicates Wash.

Do not scrub or rub fabrics, as the pigment becomes fragile when wet and has a tendency to come off.

Some fabrics can be washed on a gentle or delicate machine cycle with phosphate-free detergent in cool water. We recommend conducting a wash test of fabric samples to determine the colourfastness that suits your project best before committing to a full print run, as each fabric responds to washing differently.

Some fading as a result of cleaning is normal for digital printing on natural fabrics. Fading can be especially visible in dark, deep colours. Fading can be minimised through the use of cool hand wash and phosphate-free detergent.

If you are using a washing machine, please be aware that fabric might fade along the fabric creases easily due to the strong tumbling action during washing.

Polyester fabrics

Polyester fabrics are easier to care for and can be washed in cool or warm water using a gentle or standard machine cycle. Colour fade may slowly occur, but it’s not as prompt and obvious as with natural fabrics.

To minimise creasing of polyester fabric, wash fabric in a washing machine that is at least 20% underloaded.

Drying

Digitally printed natural fabrics should be hung to dry. Polyester can be tumble dried using a low-temperature setting or hung to dry. If you are working with fine fabrics, please hang them to dry.

Ironing

We recommend ironing fabrics on the standard settings of your iron on the unprinted side. Test a small section of your fabric first before ironing.

A bit of steam may be used to remove wrinkles.

To reduce wrinkles on polyester fabric, you can gently sprinkle the dry fabric with water, then air dry.

Polyester must be ironed lightly touching on a synthetic setting only. Higher iron temperatures may result in colour burn and melting of the fabric.