Keeping a Print Looking New After the Wash

A print on fabric lasts for years if it is treated patiently, and fades in weeks if it is treated like a towel. The first wash: wait twenty-four hours after the piece arrives before washing it, so the ink settles fully into the fibres. Wash it inside out - it is friction against the drum, not the water, that fades a print. Heat is the real enemy. Wash at 30°C or lower and keep the piece out of a hot dryer; hot air tightens cotton fibres and cracks the ink layer. Drying in the shade beats direct sun, which pulls colour out of the fabric and the print together. Harsh detergents and bleach eat ink as readily as they eat a stain. A normal detergent in a moderate dose is enough, and a printed piece should not be left soaking for hours. When ironing: turn the piece inside out and iron the reverse, or lay a cotton cloth between the iron and the print. An iron straight onto ink glazes it and leaves a mark that does not come out. Sublimation-printed mugs are dishwasher safe. Heat-reveal mugs are not: one hot cycle is enough to ruin the thermal coating, so wash those by hand.