Textile flocking is a printing method that lets you personalize all kinds of textiles with the designs of your choice. The consumable used to create a flocked design is called "Heat Transfer Vinyl".
Heat transfer vinyl is popular with textile printing businesses thanks to its ease of use and affordable price. To apply a flocked logo, you'll need to go through several steps such as cutting out the logo, weeding, and pressing the vinyl. We'll go into the details of these steps at point number 6 of this blog article.
Textile personalization continues to draw a growing number of people toward this "business", with a variety of printing techniques available, including embroidery, flocking, screen printing, and so on.
Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that people rush carelessly into a textile printing technique that doesn't suit them. ❌
So in this article we're going to show you everything you can (and everything you can't) do with this lovely printing method that is textile flocking.
1 - On what type of textile can you do textile flocking?
You can do flocking on practically every textile on the market. Flocking is often used for printing sports jerseys, workwear such as work trousers, and thick cotton t-shirts.
But it can also be used for everyday textiles! For example for your kids' backpacks, for pencil cases, cushions, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks... 🧦👕
The textiles that aren't compatible with flocking are those with low heat resistance. The flocking technique requires printing at a temperature of around 150 degrees for 15 to 20 seconds to ensure the heat transfer vinyl adheres well to the fabric.
2 - Where can you find a printer for textile flocking? 🤔
These days, plenty of textile personalization companies are popping up, and they're easy to find online, like KustomLab or Festi print.
However, these printers won't accept small personalization quantities, they generally only work with a minimum of 10 pieces.
If you want to have at most one or two pieces personalized, I'd advise you to go through the makers and creators on Instagram who'll be delighted to work on your project!
3 - Can you do textile flocking yourself?
It's entirely possible to flock textiles yourself. On the other hand, if you want to get started professionally, you'll need to invest a certain budget in the machines and accessories to begin textile flocking.💰
One of the advantages of flocking lies in its low startup investment cost. This makes it one of the least expensive techniques on the textile printing market, by far. Here's the equipment you need to get started:
a - A cutting machine:
The price of good-quality cutting machines starts at 300€. If you're thinking of getting into textile personalization, we recommend choosing the Silhouette Cameo, a safe bet.
b - Heat transfer vinyl:
As we mentioned, heat transfer vinyl is the consumable used to create flocking on textiles.
Heat transfer vinyl is the central element of flocking, making it possible to create designs to personalize your t-shirts with logos in your image.
Our company Paper Transfer has supplied heat transfer vinyl since 2019, and each month we help several hundred individuals, creators, and businesses personalize textiles with flocking.
You can take a look at our heat transfer vinyl shop right here ⬅️.
c - The iron or the heat press
Lastly, you'll need a heat press to apply the design you've made onto a textile. Indeed, the heat transfer vinyl can only soak into the textile when pressed at high temperature (around 150 degrees).
TIP AND TRICK: The heat press isn't essential when you're starting out with textile flocking, you can use an iron that will do the job perfectly and will let you save a bit of money.
If you're starting to go professional and sell your personalizations, that's when I'd advise going with a heat press that will be very useful to you. ✅
We're now going to list the strengths and weaknesses of textile flocking to help you decide whether this printing technique is right for you:
4 - Advantages and disadvantages of textile flocking
a - The disadvantages of flocking:
❌ If you sell personalized t-shirts in large quantities (from 50 t-shirts a day), the personalization process risks taking you more time than other types of printing.
❌ Textile flocking isn't recommended for very detailed designs (around 1mm of detail) because the precision of the cut could be compromised.
❌ Color gradients are hard to achieve (to produce color gradients with flocking, you need printable vinyl as well as an expensive machine.)
b - The Advantages, or Why is flocking an excellent textile printing method?
✔️ A multi-faceted print
The range of heat transfer vinyls is extremely varied, making it possible to create original textile prints. For example, you have standard solid vinyl, glitter vinyl, holographic vinyl, velvet vinyl, and even 3D vinyl.
You can also create logos with a color gradient using flocking, but this does require acquiring an eco-solvent ink printer (which are expensive machines) as well as a special vinyl called printable vinyl to print on.
✔️ Heat transfer vinyl holds up well to washing
According to some people, textile flocking supposedly isn't resistant to washing.
This mistaken belief is sometimes based on an inappropriate comparison between flocking and other methods such as sublimation or screen-printed transfers.
In many cases, the flocking application instructions weren't correctly followed, resulting in a poorly flocked textile.
In reality, quality flocking on textile can withstand more than 60 washes at 30 degrees without any alteration of the logo. Since flocking is a flexible material, the risk of your logos tearing is minimal.
✔️ Price matters 🤑
Flocked printing is one of the cheapest printing techniques when you want to set yourself up in textile personalization.
You have to pay for a cutting machine, heat transfer vinyl, and if you have an iron, you don't even need to order a heat press at the start.
That way, you can start flocking personalization with about 400€ in your pocket.
✔️ Fast for small runs ⏩
Textile flocking is a fast printing method when you're flocking small quantities of textile.
✔️ The colors are vivid ✨
Unlike DTG digital printing, which gives a rather dull result on fabric, the colors of flocked personalizations are vivid and colorful.
All these aspects (advantages and disadvantages) should be taken into account when you want to personalize your own clothes. As you've noticed, flocking is an excellent personalization method for getting started in textile customization.
We're now going to wrap up this article by walking you through the steps to create a flocked design and apply it to your garment.
5 - How do you apply flocking?
1️⃣ First, take a roll of heat transfer vinyl and place it in your cutting machine. You should already have created a logo and imported it into the machine's software. We won't detail the entire process here, but you can check out our article "How to do textile flocking like a pro?" which explains the steps in depth.
2️⃣ Once the machine is ready, it will start cutting the heat transfer vinyl by replicating the design you set up beforehand in the software.
3️⃣ Once the design is cut, it's time for weeding (weeding consists of removing the excess heat transfer vinyl. This might seem abstract to you, but it's a very simple step. Here's a video). Once this process is done, you'll have a real flocked design in your hands that just needs to be pressed onto the textile.
4️⃣ Grab the textile of your choice along with a heat press or an iron. Apply and press the flocking onto the textile at 150 degrees for 20 seconds. And there you have it, your first flocked design!
That brings our blog article to a close. You now know a bit more about what textile flocking is, and I hope you're up to speed on the subject! If you'd like to start textile flocking, don't hesitate to contact me by email at contact@papier-transfert.fr for any question.
You can also visit our heat transfer vinyl shop, which will let you create high-quality flocked designs on your textiles that are very resistant to washing!
