How To Print Blankets with Your Heat Press | Videos

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Hey fam! Vince here from Transfer Express. With Fall being just around the corner, many consumers are going to be on the hunt for some cozy blankets.

There is a ton of heat printing opportunity in blankets, from spirit blankets for fans in the stands, to outdoor events like festivals and concerts. So today, we are going to talk through some tips and tricks that you can use when custom decorating blankets with your heat press. So get warmed up, and let’s get cover this together.

The first tip for decorating blankets is to select the right blank. The material makeup of the blanket is very important. Today, many blankets are made out of sweatshirt cotton/polyester fleece fabric making it simple to decorate on your heat press using heat transfers.

Try to find blankets that are 100% cotton, 100% polyester, or a cotton/poly blend. When you start getting into the acrylics and those really heat-sensitive fibers, you can start running into issues where decorating with a heat press may be damaging to your blankets. In general, we always recommend testing substrates that you have not decorated before.

Here at Transfer Express, we offer a variety of blankets that are designed for heat printing, such as this Port Authority BP60 100% polyester fleece blanket, and the Gildan 12900 50/50 Stadium Blanket. You can check out and shop our full selection of blankets at the wholesale apparel section on transferexpress.com. All you need is a free Transfer Express account to get started.

Now that we have our blanks, the next tip will be to pick the proper transfer type. There is only one way you can wear a t-shirt, but this is not the case with blankets. Consumers can sit on blankets, stretch and span them across big groups of people, curling oneself up into a burrito, you get the picture.

So even though blankets may get washed less than clothing, they typically get far more abused, which is why you want to decorate using a tough durable ink transfer that can withstand the more abrasive use. This is why for blankets we recommend using our Goof Proof screen printed transfers. Not only is Goof Proof our most durable transfer, outlasting most garments it’s applied to, but it also is our most versatile transfer, capable of applying with a variety of fabric types and temperatures.

Now that we have our blanks and ink transfer figured out, let’s chat about placement. There are many places on a blanket that you can decorate. Typically you have approximately 50” x 60” of fabric, but of course the size varies depending on brand and style. So your options include decorating the center, corners, top or bottom, etc. The easiest to decorate with a heat press is the top center or bottom center of the blanket, because it loads easily on the heat press and when folded and rolled, and aligns perfectly for a professional presentation.

Designs and sizes on these blankets can vary also. Since we are using our heat press to heat apply the transfers, we want to stick with a size that is manageable on the press. An 11” – 14” design is a perfect size for the heat press and for the size of the blanket. If you are printing smaller designs on the corner of the blanket, try approximately a 5” design give or take.

Again, since it’s a large blanket, there’s no right or wrong way. For our design here, we used our free Easy View® Online Designer to fill a gang sheet with a variety of designs at different sizes that we can use for different placements on our blankets.

Alright so enough talking, lets go back to our Auto Clam and apply our transfers to this blanket.

I hope this video helped you to feel confident in printing blankets. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube for tons of helpful tips and tricks just like this, we are dropping new videos every week. But until next time, I'm Vince – happy pressing!