Despite the ongoing popularity of burnout apparel, there seems to be a certain degree of trepidation

among decorators regarding how to decorate it. Burnout apparel is made out of the same blend as a T-shirt: 50% cotton/50% polyester. The only difference is that it’s treated with a chemical that “eats” the cotton.

When the entire shirt is treated, it creates a mottled or splotchy look with randomly scattered see-through streaks. This makes it lightweight and soft — two qualities in great demand by consumers.

Burnout shirts also can be “printed” with a pattern such as flowers or peace signs. You also can do a graphic design — like a name, animal head or logo — on the front chest. It offers a lot of versatility for creating unique new looks.

I’d estimate that about 80% of the burnout shirt jobs I do are for females. The biggest markets have been retail, boutiques, bars, resorts and the music industry. It’s definitely perceived as a fashion item. While it originated with a basic crew-neck style, demand has since resulted in a wider array of silhouettes, such as V-necks, long-sleeve tops, tank tops, dresses and more. The sample used for the step-by-step portion of this newsletter, Next Level Apparel’s Burnout Ombre Deep V (style 6542), is an excellent example of a fashion garment that offers endless decorating options.

As far as decorating on burnouts, the truth is that while the lightweight, web-like qualities of this shirt need to be taken into consideration, it’s not any harder to decorate than a regular T-shirt. I’ve had great success using plastisol and water-based inks, foil and sublimation transfers. You also can use plastisol or digital transfers, as well as embroidery.

SCREEN PRINTING CONSIDERATIONSBoth light and dark burnout shirts can be screen printed. However, because of the light weight of the fabric, it is not

Next Level Apparel’s Burnout Ombre Deep V (style 6542) and Burnout Ombre Razor Tank (style 6532) are made of 30 Singles (125 grams, 3.7 ounces) 65% polyester/35% cotton preshrunk fabric. These fashionable burnout styles are extremely soft, comfortable and stretchy. They are available in seven colors in sizes S-2XL.

Best Practices for Decorating Burnout ShirtsUse these simple embellishing techniques to create unqiue, fashion-forward garments.

By Greg Gaardbo, Contributing Writer

CREATING THE ARTWORKMeghan Bartz, art director, Shockwaves Promotional Apparel, worked with me to create the artwork. Looking at the bright yellow bottom of the shirt, it was hard not to think of lemonade. So we decided to create a lemonade design with a Cracker Barrel restaurant, old-timey kind of feel. We wanted something that was cute, light and summery.

Once the theme was decided, the dimensions of the shirt were measured to create a rectangular box in Adobe Photoshop that would define the design area. By keeping a sample of the shirt handy while designing, it’s also easier to visualize where different parts of the design will fall on the shirt.

The next step is to set up the Photoshop file. I recommend making the file 300 dpi because when you design in high resolution, the resulting artwork always looks better.

Once the design is finished, the layered Photoshop file is saved, flattened and converted to a .tiff format to be printed. A .tiff file prints a lot faster because the printer doesn’t have as many files to process.

Once the sublimation transfer is created, it’s an easy process to lay the shirt on the heat press, slide a Teflon sheet inside, lay the heat transfer print side down on the shirt and heat press it. For added dazzle, we added a few rhinestones in selected places and also heat-sealed them.

STEP-BY-STEP

STEP

2 Next, the first design elements were added. The sign came first and some nails were added to make it look more realistic. Then, some lemons were added and the yellow was adjusted to contrast with the yellow on the bottom of the shirt. You don’t want to take away from the design of the shirt; you want the design and the shirt to work together.

STEP

1 The first step to creating the lemonade design was to measure the shirt and then using those measurements to define the design area in Adobe Photoshop. All photos courtesy of Shockwaves, Des Plaines, Ill.

STEP

3 Next, the straw was added. This was intended to be the biggest design element. The red was chosen because it was bright and would not fade into the background. It also was a nice contrast to the lemons in the design and the yellow of the shirt.

STEP

4 For a little bit of texture and movement, bubbles were added to make it look like a glass of lemonade.

STEP

11 Here, some rhinestones were placed inside some of the bubbles.

STEP

12 Here is the finished shirt.

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STEP

8 The transfer is placed on top of the shirt and is now ready for heat pressing.

STEP

10 The shirt should be pressed at 347ºF using medium pressure for 30 seconds. If the temperature is too high, it will cause problems.

STEP

6 The shirt is positioned on the press. This design will bleed off the bottom and sides of the shirt, but it is not an allover print.

STEP

5 Once the design was finished, it was saved in .tiff format (they print faster) and sent to the Mutoh sublimation printer. This printer can print two transfers at a time.

STEP

7 Put a Teflon-coated cover sheet inside a burnout shirt. Otherwise, the transfer or rhinestone glue will go through all the way to the bottom layer. The shirt likely will stick to itself and be ruined.

STEP

9 When the shirt is ready to be pressed, completely cover it with a Teflon cover sheet. This protects it from scorching or getting damaged from anything that may be on the upper platen.