production (sb1)

Using the printing facilities at university, i dropped off my designs to be digitally printed on to paper which i can then heat transfer on to fabric for the ties, however before picking the fabric up i created the patters which will act as a template for the ties.

I went to a charity shop and bought 3 ties to act as a template for each tie, using a seam picker i picked the stitches from each of the ties in order to get to the fabric pattern in which the tie fabric has been sewn around.

 After removing the pattern from each of the ties i measured the end points, marked them with a ruler and cut the end off straight, in order to give the ties a squared off finish to miic the style of ties so often seen during the 80s.

At this stage i am still waiting for the fabric to be printed however i feel more comfortable with the construction of the ties after taking 3 ties apart, as i now feel i have more of an understanding of how to construct the ties when it comes to actually making them.

Before printing my designs on to fabric i arranged to have an induction in to using the heat press.
I collected the disperse paper with my tie designs from the print room and began to cut each strip ready to be laid on the fabric. I was worried about the colours of the ties at first, due to the fact that the disperse prints were a lot lighter than the digital files; however i then remembered that during my induction i was informed that the colour gets a lot more vibrant once heat has been applied. 0

 I then cut the designs in to strips ready to be applied to the fabric. I chose a synthetic cotton which was quite thick and had a ilky quality, similar to how ties usually feel.

 I then used masking tape to stick the designs (design faced down) on to the fabric, due to the fabric being so long they had to be stuck down as there was the risk of the fabric moving during the heat pressing process.

 The heat press had to be used 3 times, pressing the fabric in sections rather than a whole, due to the 50 x 50 size of the press, compared to the half meter length of the ties. This did lead to there being some misprinting and overlapping of the design due to the way the design slightly moved around the fabric when moving it along the heat press. However i was told that a new machine was arriving in a weeks time, however this will be after the deadline and so i won't be able to use it for my tie printing, it's still useful to know, as i could use it for future projects.










The temperate was set to 190 and the timer set to 30 seconds, i found out that from 30 seconds to 1 minute the colour of the design doesn't really change much and so 30 seconds was felt to be the right time to ensure the design colours are as accurate as possible.

The colour of the design came out perfectly, and was a lot brighter than i had anticipated, and the whole process was a lot simpler than i first imagined.
As mentioned previously, due to the fact the design had to be printed in 3 sections there was some misprinting and overlapping (see image below) however this isn't really that much of an issue as when looking at the fabric it appears that the overlapping part of the design will not really be seen as it appears to be part of the design which will make up the smaller end of the ties, which is placed behind the main section.
I will now being to construct the ties.