Garment-Dyed Blanks Explained

Three ways a shirt gets its color

Piece dyeing is efficient: the mill dyes long rolls of fabric, and the factory cuts and sews them afterwards. Color is even and predictable, but the shirt never sees a dye bath once it is sewn, so it can still shrink at home unless the fabric was preshrunk.

A garment-dyed shirt is cut and sewn from undyed fabric first. The finished shirts then go into a dye machine, are dyed, usually washed or softened, and dried. The heat and tumbling of that process shrink and soften the shirt before you ever see it. Los Angeles Apparel points out a side effect of dyeing after sewing: the stitching and ribbing take the same dye as the body, so the whole piece reads as one color.

What PFD means

PFD stands for "prepared for dye". A PFD fabric or garment has been cleaned and bleached so it takes dye evenly, but has not been treated with optical brighteners or finishes that would block the dye, so it looks off-white rather than bright white. PFD garments meant for dyeing are usually sewn with cotton thread, so the stitching dyes to match, and are cut a little large to allow for the shrink in the dye bath.

Garment-dye factories start from PFD shirts, and some makers sell them as blanks for brands that dye their own. Made Blanks calls its version Ready to Dye: raw, undyed fabric sewn with cotton thread. One practical warning from that range: some of those undyed pieces are not preshrunk, and the maker tells buyers to wash and dry them before wearing or decorating. If you plan to print first and dye afterwards, the dye also tints the print, so treat that combination as a development project with test pieces rather than a standard order.

Why garment-dyed shirts look washed

• The dye meets a finished shirt. Seams, collar and hems are thicker than the body and take dye differently, so they come out slightly darker or lighter. That variation is what makes a new shirt look like an old favorite.
• Pigment dyes sit near the surface. Many garment-dyed colors use pigment dyes, which coat the fibers rather than bonding into them. They start softly faded and keep fading gently with each wash. Reactive and direct dyes penetrate the fiber and stay more saturated. Some makers use both across one color card; Comfort Colors has described its range as a mix of pigment-dyed and direct/reactive-dyed shades, and its current product pages describe pigment dye colors.
• Washes and finishes. Enzyme washes and softeners break in the surface of the cotton so the shirt feels worn from day one. Los Angeles Apparel garment-dyes and enzyme-washes its 1801GD; Blanks by Thirteen dyes its fleece and then sun-fades it by hand for a vintage look.

Pigment-dyed pieces can also lose a little color in the wash at first. Los Angeles Apparel warns that its pigment-dyed hoodies may transfer color when wet and should be washed separately in cold water, which is worth repeating on your own care card.

Lot-to-lot variation

Every garment-dye batch is its own small event. Water, time in the machine, the dye recipe and the fabric all vary slightly, so one batch of a color can come out a shade lighter or warmer than the next, and shirts within a batch can differ a little too. Makers say so plainly: Cotton Heritage notes that shade, color and weathering vary on its garment-dye styles, and Shaka Wear says each of its garment-dyed hoodies will vary in color.

Garment-dyed and piece-dyed versions of a color are not interchangeable either. Los Angeles Apparel marks garment-dyed styles with "GD" in the style number and says they will not match its piece-dyed items, even where the color names line up.

What that means for an order:

• Order a run in one go where you can, so it is more likely to come from one lot.
• Expect a reorder months later to differ slightly. If an exact shade matters, keep a reference shirt and compare.
• For a team order or uniform where shirts are seen side by side, ask your printer to check the cartons for visible lot differences before decorating.
• Photograph the shirts you actually sell, and say on the product page that the color varies slightly from piece to piece. Buyers of washed, vintage-look goods mostly see that as part of the charm, as long as you told them first.

Blank colors and stock risk covers reorders in more detail.

Shrinkage and sizing

Because the dye bath shrinks the shirt before it is sold, most garment-dyed blanks shrink very little in a customer's washer. Comfort Colors says its garment-dyed styles have almost no shrinkage at home, and Los Angeles Apparel calls the 1801GD finish shrink-free. The catch is that the factory must cut the pattern oversize to land on the finished size after dyeing, and that shrink is never perfectly even. Expect a little more measurement spread between two shirts of the same size than you would see on piece-dyed blanks.

Measure several pieces of each size when you build your size chart, and do not assume a garment-dyed Medium matches a piece-dyed Medium from the same maker. The Comfort Colors 1717 is cut as a relaxed fit, shorter in the body than a classic tee; Comfort Colors 1717 vs Gildan 5000 shows the difference, and how to read a size chart covers measuring.

How garment-dyed blanks print

Plastisol

Plastisol prints well on garment-dyed cotton and gives the most consistent result, because an opaque underbase hides small differences in the shirt's shade. On mid and dark colors, budget for that underbase screen.

Water-based and discharge

Water-based ink is translucent, so it picks up the base color: two lots of the same garment-dyed color can make one ink look slightly different. Discharge depends on the dye. Reactive-dyed colors can discharge well and give a soft, vintage print; pigment-dyed colors largely resist it. Discharge also never returns cotton to bright white. It leaves the natural tone of the fiber, which then takes the ink color. Ask your printer which colors in your chosen style discharge, and approve a test print on the actual lot.

DTG

DTG works on garment-dyed 100% cotton. The pretreatment can leave a faint patch around the print on some colors, and bright inks on a dark, washed base need a white underbase just as on any dark shirt. Ask to see a washed test piece in the color you plan to sell.

Embroidery

Embroidery is unaffected by the dye method, and the dense heavyweight fabric of most garment-dyed tees and fleece carries a left-chest logo well. See embroidery for what the method suits.

Garment-dyed blanks to know

• Comfort Colors 1717: 6.1 oz ring-spun cotton, garment-dyed, relaxed fit.
• Los Angeles Apparel 1801GD: 6.5 oz, 18 singles open-end cotton, garment-dyed and enzyme-washed, with a wider body and a high, flat collar. The brand's Los Angeles Apparel page covers its garment-dyed fleece.
• Shaka Wear offers garment-dyed versions of its 7.5 oz Max Heavyweight tee and a 13.5 oz garment-dyed fleece hoodie.
• Cotton Heritage's OU1690 is a 5.5 oz ring-spun garment-dyed tee with an oversized unisex fit.
• Made Blanks sells locally garment-dyed seasonal colors alongside its undyed Ready to Dye pieces.

If no blank offers the color you need, dyeing PFD blanks or moving to cut and sew are the routes to a custom shade.

Useful for: clothing brands, bands, breweries.